hi all,
thinking of possible next winter rebuild projects for my 82, straight spreader nacra 5.2
which would most of you think is better for soloing a 2 person 17foot cat

- a self tacking jib, easier tacking/gybing
- a roller furling jib, safer depowering option

our smallish, light wind lake in the mountains means a spin. would be more trouble than it's worth

next Q would be where in the world to get the parts
jib furlers seem pretty easy to find on ebay but haven't seen self tacking jib kits for cats. does capricorn in aust. sell their f18 ones?

(1st winter, hand sewed new stitching into oem tramp, removed and treated corrosion under boom fittings, bottom job and cleaned up hulls and added some graphics)
(2nd winter removed corrosion under beam and mast fittings, sealed in 2foot micro-cell top of mast and redid previous owners foam batten repairs)

at some stage new sails would be nice but shipping would be a nightmare

you could have both, a self tacking jib that furls up, just have to have a non fully battened jib with battens at a angle so they can furl and jib sheets long enough.

Why would you get a self tacking jib if you have no spin? If I were having trouble tacking that 5.2 I would look at my setup as there must be something wrong. My own 5.2 is only a problem if I time my tacks wrong and get pushed back by a big wave off the coast.
I'd go for roller furling first as a quick reefing option in case you get caught in a nasty down burst on that nasty little mountain lake of yours.

oh it tacks fine, just that being a small lake there a lot of tacks to make....plus when coming off the wire the extra time spent on the tramp uncleating the jib leads, pulling it through and recleating on the other side, (plus managing the main and rudders), means that the boat often stalls in the tack and ten has to be driven off to build up speed again

The jib on the 5.2 is overlapping, this means you cannot make it self-tacking without some major recut: it would probably be better to get a new jib.

A roller will also require a new or recut jib. Keep in mind also that you have to remove the jib from the roller everytime you sail or at least have a good cover for it. Do not leave your rolled sail with the boat parked, it's going to unroll, flap around, and self destroy itself.

Frankly, I'd get rid of the jib, reduce the rake, and replace the main with a more modern square top one. Chip from Whirlwind sail can probably ship a new main to you at a reasonable cost as long as you can source battens locally. Compared to the cost of the furler/self tacker and associated parts, it may end up to be cheaper to get a new main...

right pepin i'd forgotten about the large overlapping gib

not sure if it's wise to put a square top on the older straight spreader masts, apparently difficult to depower in higher winds, i mean when was the last time you saw a square top on a hobie 16?

as it's generally a light air lake what about a furling code zero gennaker like the weta trimaran has

should be able use it up tacking upwind and gybing downwind

new weta video here http://www.wetamarine.com/GALLERY.aspx

not related to gennakers but a nice main only gybe at the end of the video

Like that?


Nothing prevent a square top on a H16, but it is not legal for racing. If you crank the downhaul the mast is going to bend, even if it is an old alu stick.

Chip can probably make you a hooter as well, he's done it for H14 before:

These pix remind me of that TV show, Pimp My Ride! Pretty cool looking, how much faster than a stock sail?

Erice,
I have self tacker from an F18 on my 5.2 and love it. I took my overlapping jib and recut it myself. I relize it is not perfect but it is fast and works great. Set and forget.





Carl

Saylor Specialties L.L.C.

www.saylorspecialties.com

with non-swept spreaders there is no prebend so won't cranking on a 16 to 1 downhaul just bend the mast sideways? and instead of that flattening the top of the sail, and depowering it, won't the sail just curve into the wind and not depower???

got to admit i'm way out of my comfort zone here

i had forgotten about those hooters on the 14's

When you pull on the downhaul, the only way the mast can go is to bend lengthwise. It cannot bend sideways as 1: you have spreaders preventing it and 2:the bend is going to develop along the axis you pull as the line you pull is captive inside the mast track.

You won't get the range of tuning you get on a newer mast, you can't induce prebend so inducing the prebend has to be done with the downhaul, helped witht he main sheet to start it maybe. But you'll get enough to depower and let the square invert. However I would not put a 16:1 on that old mast: something is going to break when you crank a 16:1.

I sail with a few selftackers... they look great and don't seem to hurt the boats upwind.. but they take the hit downwind for sure!

I would advice against recutting an overlapping jib to a selftacking jib. The sail will not have a good shape afterwards, and the shape is important if you want windward performance. If you dont need to go to windward with good VMG, no worries. (I recut an overlapping jib to a selftacking myself once, and the result was not good.)

Guys,

The fact that the N5.2 is an overlap jib does not preclude the use of a roller furler for the jib. For example the TheMightyHobie18 has a furler and a overlap jib.

Having sailed on a Tornado w/ a self tacking jib ... I liked it ... as crew I just had the mainsail to worry about.

Pepin ... I really liked those sails on the H16 .... vertical cut ... and squaretop. But here in the USA they would never be allowed ... and we have to have "comptips" also, which are not stiff enough to be used w/ a large squaretop like in the pic. Anything over 6-8 knots the mast tip would flex off and just spill most of the air from the top off the sail. (that also one of the reasons the H16 class will not allow spinnackers in the HCA-NA)

Why don't you N5.2 owners up-grade the spreaders on your masts??? There are some really nice rake-able spreaders availible.

Harry

The two boats in the picture are F14 or H14's. The boats are here in the US. The picture was taken at Spring Fever a couple of years back.

Nobody said it would. All I said was that an overlapping jib will preclude the installation of a self-tacker.

First pic is a H16, second is of two H14. The pics are lifted from the whirlwind web site depicting sails Chip build. According to the picture captions all three boats are US based.

Something I prefer about a roller is that it allows the jib to be stored when the need arises. Being that I have a front tramp it allows activities like using the tramp as a tent site or for fishing from on lite wind days.

I used to sail with a battened jib on a sol cat, going to a roller on my second boat did not affect my turning at all. I prefer a jib, I have noted that a timely deployed jib shape makes for significant thrust coming out of a turn. Also on days when it is 15 - 20 and I need a rest or some safe house keeping time, a jib allows me to loose my main free and the cat will sail close and steady without my hand on the tiller.

Can an una rig do that? Plus, jibs bring a certain design beauty to a boat.

I'm not sure how you get a boat to sail close hauled on jib only: the pressure on the jib is going to turn the boat downwind without any pressure from the main... Unless I misunderstand what you mean?

To stop my unirigs I just release the main, push the tiller all the way and the boat will start to oscillate forward and back, drifting. Less stable than a sloop with the jib sheeted on the wrong side, but still works.

I have a spinnaker for that purpose. It's blue and white, a thing of beauty