I was the one claiming the Tornado DOESN'T have a dolphinstriker.

It has a strut between the pole and bridle strop as seen on all Tornado's with the new rig.

Can anybody understand now how much confusion it causes by calling this element a Dolphinstriker or Pelicanstriker ?


Wouter

I am wondering -- has anybody EVER hit a dolphin or a pelican with any part of their boat?

I don't know about hitting a dolphin, but during the H-20 Continentals in September, one of the boats straddled a massive sodden log, maybe two feet in diameter, floating just above the surface like a tropical ice burg and caught it with their dolphin striker. It bent the stainless rod parallel with the tramp. Ouch

Hi Rolf,
If the spinnaker pole is stalilized at a mid length point, the jib tack for example, then the effective length of the pole is half the actual pole length and a smaller and lighter weight tube can be used.
If a strut tube is put in place between the jib tack at the spin pole and the intersection of the forestay bridle wires, two important options open up. One is that the forestay bridle wires can be made longer, a taller bridle, which reduces the toe-in loads on the hulls. Second the jib tack can be set at whatever height above the hull deck is desired. Longer luff sails produce more forward thrust and make the boat go faster.
If a strut, vertically downward, is installed on the underside of the pole immediately under the vertical strut connecting the top of the pole to the forestay bridle, and this strut has a tension wire connecting the lower end of the strut to the ends of the pole, then it is possible to lower the outer/forward end of the spin pole which allows a longer luff spinnaker. Again longer luff sails produce more forward thrust and make the boat go faster. The arrangement I have tried to describe here is a lower spinnaker pole and the pole can be straight under load and longer luff jibs and spinnakers can be used.
I have no idea why the Tornado class did what they did. That is their business.
Bill

Yes Mary!

I was swarmed by a pod of good sized dolphins a few years back on an old hobie 18. They are right along side us, zooming past and darting directly across the bows with only inches to spare. We were moving at about 8 kts. At one point, one of them seemed to enjoy matching our speed while swimming between the hulls just in front of the main beam. What a site! At some point, another one thump against us somewhere along the port hull. An amazing day!

I've also hit a seal on that same boat. We were in a good breeze, boat has moving 15 kts easy. My rookie crew was mumbling something while facing forwards...I could not make out the words over the sound of the wind. Moments later...THUMP! "What was that?!" I asked..."The SEAL!" came the reply...."Didn't you hear my warning you??"

Ahh, that piece of rigging is not about any kind of compression on the Tornado (I'm refering to the Tornado, altough the discussion is a bit broader..).

The small cylinder going from the bridle intersection and down to the pole is to restrict the maximum luff length of the jib with downhaul applied in a measureable way. As per the Tornado class rules.

Lowering the tip of the pole could be handy trough a dolphin striker, but hitting waves would be a consern. Also, most classes has a max luff length of spi's as well (The Tornado also has a rule about minimum height of tip above deck).

I think the names dolphin striker and pelican striker are much more memorable than 'compression strut'

Mary,

Dolphins get hit by dolphin strikers all the time. You might have seen some of the ones that have been hit; they have a hole on top of the highest portion of their body.
GARY

Be careful, Gary, you might start a new mariners' myth.

When I sailed the Hobie 18 I always tried to find the pod of dolphin which had the highest number of the ones that had already been punched by a dolphin striker. Then my chances of hooking-up with one was the greatest.

Once the protruding end of that dolphin stiker would snag in the animal's scar-hole, the boat can really fly. The dolphin's tremendous power allows him to actually lift the boat some and this gets you right into planing mode where he can then scoot you along at tremendous speeds.

I miss the striker on that boat so much! The Mystere that I sail on now, has a flat bottomed striker so I have to actually hook onto their fold between their beak and skull with the trailing edge of the striker's bar. Much more difficult to engage this hook-up and also more difficult to maintain it for any good distance.

Those days of riding the "seahorses" are sorely missed!

GARY

Gary you have been to sea too long...

Gary,

This scar hole thing is a myth, this is actually a hole through which the dolphin "breathes", because of this boats like the mystere are actually faster, the sudden rush of speed you are describing when on a Hobie 18 is due mainly to the initial panic of the dolphin as you block its airway, but this speed cannot be maintained as the dolphin soon passes out.

Hooking the fold does not panic the dolphin quite as much but allows you to ride for longer maintaining a higher overall speed.

I have had trouble tacking and gybing when using the dolphin striker does anyone know how to get them to turn?

dangle a fish from the end of your tiller extension when you want to tack or gybe.

has always worked for me.

Personally, I feel that harnessing the pelicans with my striker is more effective. It might not be as fast as the dolphins, however, the pelicans provide more lift in my bows, and I avoid that nasty habit of dolphins to dive. Pelicans aren't very intelligent either, so they work for peanuts :P

Hmmm. I take a different approach when I sail. I try my best to hook up with mermaids...

Keith, dare I ask what a mermaid striker looks like?

Mary - Some things might be better left to musings and imagination after a few rations of rum!

Not too much of the rations, though. That might have been what got the mariners of old thinking romantically about manatees...

SOMEONE SAY MANATEE!??!

(Here's George, the friendly manatee that visited us in Bahia-Honda)

I'm sure someone can correct me (in the legal sense - there's no hope for the rest), but aren't we NOT allowed to mess with manatees?

You are right. However, in this case, we are not sure this is a manatee. I think it is a rock with a dog head stuck onto it, and Rick thinks it is a watermelon with the back half of a pig sticking out of it. If it is a manatee, it appears to be giving birth to an alien.

it was a manatee.

We were docked in Bahia-Honda state park... we were sittin around, and we heard this loud yell in the direction of one of the cigarette boats that was docked. Alot of people were heading over to the boat after a while, so we checked it out.

The guy with the hose owned the boat, apparently he was hosing the salt off his watercamaro, turned aft and saw the sea-cow propped up on the swim deck staring up at him, licking the fresh water rolling off the stern. He drank fresh water out of the hose for about an hour straight. The park ranger came out and said that its unusual for them to venture that far south from the everglades, and the big guy was probably in desperate need of some fresh water. The whole time a ranger was there, and the manatee seemed to enjoy the crowd... after he had his fill, he went back underwater and left.

Now that we've completely hijakced this thread from the dolphin/pelican striker debate...

I'm glad you said that was a water hose. I was afraid it was the hose end of a beer-bong from the party going on! Maybe that's what the manatee was really looking for.

Manatees seem to migrate much further than anybody ever thought. There is the sometimes mentioned one dubbed Chessie that was first found at the mouth of the Chesapeake. He was tagged, and supposedly theyfound that he was making a yearly trek from Florida up the coast to the Bay and points much further north, only to return to Florida for the winter. Just like the rest of the snowbirds. I'm not sure if they're still tracking him or what.