Yes, I'm going to order a Blade for delivery next spring. Sold the H16 last week, but it's staying in my beach space with rights to use it for the remainder of the summer.

So, if I bring the beer, can I invite myself up for a ride on your Blade?

Jamie

Jamie,
If you changed to an internal system it would be advisable to seal the mast above the internal plate that the blocks hang off.
That is easy to do with a couple blocks of foam and some silicon.
Having said that it really it just a precaution as I have never been able to get the mast to go into the water much past the hounds (in a capsize) let alone turtle. It is quite surprising how bouyant they are.
Everyone sailing pleasure boats around with a bubble on the top of their mast could probably just change to this shaped mast section. A good safety measure as well as being very fast.
Regards,
Phill

Cool. Yes we should we get together. I hoping to race with CRAW once I get my boat. I visited them a couple of weeks ago for their regatta at Lake Monona in Madison. A good group of people. The have several F18s and a big group of I20s.

Mark.

Jamie,




You mean :"... When you are getting a Blade ... " !

Will take a few years though as my budget won't allow a new boat soon.





Personally I would try out the standard system for a season and then decide on what to do. You must remember that I have only used the internal system so far and not the system that Blade uses now. I'm trying to get an I-20 crew at my club to convert so that I can get first hand experience with the outward cascaded system. But up till now I haven't. On paper I really do feel that the Blade system looks good. And with a little fine-tuning it should be possible to get it to work without any hangups I believe.

What I like about my internal system right now is :

It is there all the time; I don't have to rig it before sailing. I just put the sail up grap the line that comes out of the mast, run it through its block and tie it off to an eyestrap on the other side of the mast with a looped hitch. This knot is very easy to undo and holds the line very well. Also As I keep my boat on the beach during the 6 months of spring and summer, I like the fact that my internal system is protected from the elements. I also like the non-swiveling cleats on my mast foot. My whole mast looks really clean and tidy and there are no free moving parts on my mast that can bang about in chop or hook themselfs on things. You must note that on this spinnaker boat I really like to get things as simple as possible; like that it sails alot more comfortable and pleasant. It is also great to hear F18 sailors ask why F16's don't have a downhaul and then explain them where to look for one and have it play it.

Of course the external system is easy to reach and repair as well cuts cost because it is so much less time consuming to make. If you don't like the line or blocks that the builders used for example then you can easily replace them. I'm not saying that Vectorwork uses anything but excellent components (I've seen them) but it is a consideration just the same.

My advice would be to give the standard system a try; there could well be to little difference to warrant a change here. When I made my own internal system I only had a choice between a non-cascading external system and a cascading internal system. The cascading nature of the last was really the biggest reason to go for an internal system. Now that Blade has an external cascading system the best choice may be alot less obvious.





That is a good question ! I don't know the answer to that yet. 1:12 really allows me to fine tune the downhaul because the loads are light and the travell control is more accurate. This is not unimportant with pentex sails that are rather sensitive to control because the cloth is so stiff (hardly stretches). However when going with High Quality Dacron sails I think a 1:8 system can actually work very well without having the disadvantages of the 1:12.

1:12 has one noticeable disadvantage. You'll end up with alot of excess line on your trampoline when the DH is fully on. In my case about 3 mtr of it. In the 1:8 case it will only be 2 mtr. Luckily I have been able to devise and implement a very good system that takes all the slack out of the line and pulls it under the trampoline right to the rear of the mainbeam. Here it is also pulled tight so that it doesn't drag in the water. So for me the excess line is not a problem ANYMORE (it used to be) ; but I haven't seen ANY professionally build catamaran with as good working a system as I have. Sorry, but it is true.




Notice the straightness of the grey coloured downhaul line. The tension is actually very small but just enough to pull all the excess out. The tricks to my system is that it uses almost a constant spring force, meaning the pull on the line hardly changes when taking out increasing excess line. Nearly all professional systems suffer from too much tension on the lines when you want the downhaul to be slack and too little when the downhaul is fully on. The system is actually quite simple.



This system has enough travel length to take up my 3 mtr of excess downhaul line.

BTW : Ignore the red line in the first photo, that line has an unrelated function and will be removed shortly. The red line line the drawing is a bungee cord that is prestretched. Apart from the bungee cord there are two small blocks stitched to the underside of the trampoline over which the red bungee cord runs. The blocks in the blue line and that are underneath the trampoline are free moving.

Also the limitation of the 1:8 system can be overcome by cooperation between helm and crew. The biggest drawback of a 1:8 is the amount of luff tension you can achieve by ONLY pulling on the DH alone. However when the helm briefly pulls hard on the mainsheet while the crew pulls on the 1:8 downhaul and the mainsheet is eased off again than any trim settings that a 1:12 can reach will be reached by the 1:8 as well. And in most conditions 1:8 will have enough power to do it without the help of the mainsheet. Hell, even I with 1:12 sometimes use this mainsheet trick as my 50 kg female crew isn't strong enough in the arms (yet) to pull the downhaul through its full range. Also we must note that these 1:12 cascade systems can pull so hard on a luff that they can actually rip it when not enough mainsheet pressure is on at the same time. So a combination of downhaul and mainsheet tension is alway necessary and therefor the mainsheet trick is as good as always available.

One more comment; I found that I only really "needed" 1:12 in rare conditions; meaning that in most sailing conditions that I have encountered I could have easily done the required downhaul with a 1:8 system. That is in all aspects except accuracy. OF course 1;12 always allows a crew to adjust the luff tension more accurately than a 1:8 system. But we are indeed getting into small details here. Details that are only really important when the other 90 % of things of sailing like tacks, starts, hoists etc are going really well. In short, unless you are already a rather good sailor, you won't miss such control for the first few years.

This all leads me to advice that anybody just stay with the standard system for the first season and then consider upgrading or not. It may all turn-out just it isn't really necessary if you value looks and really accurate control less than I do. Also converting the standard system to the internal system is relatively easy to do for an amateur at any later time. It just takes a whole day and avoiding some easy pitfalls. Most of it is spend on making 3 rectangular holes in the bottom of your mast with a saw and a file (rasp ?) and getting the foam blocks in that will seal the mast.






In my mast it can't as I have placed two foam blocks about 1.5 mtr up the mast with a layer of sealant between them. So my mast is water tight from the top to about 1.5 mtr. from the bottom. But you could easily do without this sealing I think, just like Phill wrote. However I wanted to be really careful and installed those blocks. Better safe than sorry right ?

Far more importantly are the holes in the upper halve of the mast. At the hound fitting and diamond wires fittings. For example AHPC uses T-terminals on their diamond wires that hook into a hole right below the hound fitting. Having these require that foam blocks and sealant is placed in the mast at the hound fitting. AHPC does this. If this is not done than you can get into trouble. I for one have dipped my mast deep enough during gusts (with the wind hitting the trampoline) for the water to reach the hound and diamond fittings. The mast is rather light so some water in the mast won't hurt too much; meaning you can still right it with two people but you'll have to be quick about it and not let the boat be on its side for many minutes. And of course in this case you don't want a foam block near the base of your mast as you want the water to run out when the boat is upright again. However, I would personally seal all holes in the upper halve of the mast with great care and choose little diamond wire plates with rivets over the T-terminals.


I hope this answers your questions

Wouter

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Great post Wouter, thanks for taking the time to share those details!

Jerry