First of all, I'm still catching my breath from the first sail of the N20 yesterday. In 15-20 with gusts to 25-30, the thing was hauling butt like a raped ape.

However, one thing that we had problems with was that the trampoline, after getting wet, was like a slip-n-slide. During tacks, I wouldn't need to get over, the momentum of the boat slid me across the tramp. It was kind of cool, but then when I needed to honk down on the sheet, my butt would slip right down to the bottom hull, creating a very periless situation.

Short of rubbing it with sand, what can we put on this thing so it has a LITTLE tacky to it?

(FYI, its a brand new tramp)

New tramps do this. It will get better V quickly

Tad, I had treated mine with U.V. protectant, and had the same problem, as well as a peeved beauty of a crew.I rubbed it down with Sex Wax from a local surf shop.

Hey MH 17
I suspect your H 17 has a vinyl trap,...does it?

The mesh tramps are little 'quicker'. Do you have a harness that is mesh on-the-butt- too? If so,....when 'mesh meets mesh', you are positioned for 'lift off'!

I had this happen to me,..went back to the fabric harness (with leather seat}

Once, I cleaned the I-17 to the max,..which included cleaning the tramp with mild soap,....BIG MISTAKE!!!! For, that thing was a'slip-and-slide' for about the next 5 sails,.....I could not rinse out the soap!,....I would be sailing and just be amazed how my tramp would suds up.....never again! [we are talking salt water too]

the I-20,...no comparison,...a true ocean going cat,....enjoy!

regards,

Bruce
St. Croix
USVI

Try a kitchen "cleanser" mild abrasive type product. Always does the trick on NACRA tramps.

actually, not only did I have a harness on, I had a dry suit on too. Double the fun.
I guess we'll just let it age a bit, or I'll just have to perfect my baseball slide

Bon Ami is good, because it won't scratch the decks. But sand works fine on the tramp if you don't have anything else handy.
The first year of the Alter Cup, Performance provided 10 brand new Nacra 5.7's. They were as slippery as greased pigs until the sailors "sanded" the tramps.

Clean the the tramp with de-greaser, dish washing detergent (rinsed well) or bon-ami

I have done that. Brand new boat, 1st race, and 15-20 kts. Downwind I was out of control. Sliding across the tramp, barely staying on the boat.

Later one of my friends commented, "you were great downwind. How does rolling around on the tramp cursing at the top of your lungs make you go so fast"

I've never thought of rubbing my crew down with Sex Wax before...guess I've never had "a peeved beauty of a crew" on board

New tramps always are like that. We scrubbed all (64) new 16 tramps before the last Worlds. We used cleanser. We also soaked the sheets in water and simple green to "de-grease" them too. Made a huge difference and saved alot of potential boat damage!

After I had painted the hulls on my H17, I was slipping all over the place. Actually came close to spraining my knee when I slipped during a beach landing.

So I rubbed the decks down with Sex wax. Yeah well that wasn't to smart either, considering when the wax gets hot enough to melt, its even more slippery than the deck itself! (dark blue hulls)

I'm guessing it'd have a similar result on black tramp.

AJAX simple as that.
Congrats on the new boat.
Todd

Just wanted to inform everyone, that STS is a potentially serious condition that deserves more awareness.

It led to one of our two "indcidents" this weekend when rounding the C mark, I had just snuffed the chute, when Trey starts to round the mark. Well, I'm kneeling in the center of the tramp, and all of a sudden we start heeling over.

Well I go "woosh" off the tramp and try to grab something to stay on the boat.

All for naught, I dive under to keep from getting tangled in the mainsheet.

....

then the boat starts sailing away on its side... fun!

Just as additional warning - I made the mistake of lubing my mainsheet blocks, thinking I was doing the right thing for any little bearings in there. While I was at it, I also sprayed the traveller, and then any other blocks I could find. I made sure the spray went into the blocks & bearings by using the nozzle tube and pointing it into suitable cracks. Swelling with pride after this episode of fettling, I plunged headlong into the wind and chop that is our estuary. Result of all this care and attention: Nightmare.

My lube spray had found its way onto the traveller and main sheets as well as greasing the tramp. I could cleat the main and traveller just long enough to get double-trapped and heave in. Any additional pressure, such as a wave, gust, or an attempt to power up, and bang the traveller let go, dumping us in the drink. We returned to shore and applied sand to the sheets (uuurrrrrgh! but what else could we do in a hurry?). They still slipped out like mad. Then we sent a delegation off to the club house to return with a beer glass full of washing up liquid, which we spread over everything. We sudded up like Santa's beard, and headed out again. Not much better. It took several more attempts, using degreaser (and meths if I remember correctly), and even a rough file edge on the sheets, to finally get some grip back into the system. This represented a total loss of three sailing days before we were safe again. The tramp seemed to get back to normal fairly quickly with degreaser.

My lesson from all this is not to lube anything! If anyone has advise of what should be lubed and when, I'd appreciate it!

Meantime, consider yourself lucky to be sailing anything at the moment - our last three weekends have been blown off (well, it is winter in the North West UK).

Cheers
Simon

Temp was about 45 and the water wasn't much colder.

We probably shouldn't have been sailing, but it looked like to much fun