I highly recommend the Hall Spar, they will make you a custom mast based on your weight, and the amount of fore and aft bend specified by your sailmaker. This along with your sailmakers specs on prebend, spreaders, etc should get a very nice mast/sail combo.

Hi Bob,



She is pretty...! In the photos, the control lines are coming from the cleats through the tramp eyes and then tied together underneath across the boat. I tried variations on this theme including using bungee to take up the slack but they still end up getting trailed in the water at some point (lots of downhaul for example). I think I need to splice bungee to the lines such that the join will go through a block - then it can all be hidden under the tramp by routing to the opposite diagonals a few times. Actually I was going to ask what method you more experienced sailors find best...?

It's a bit weird having such a simple boat after the F18, but it is quick to rig! Piet S always goes for the simple option if there is a choice; for example my outhaul just has a knot in the end of it that feeds into a simple little strop - I never thought it would work, but it does...

The first time I set up my boat by myself, this is exactly the process I used, right up until I was about to put the pin in the last (port) shroud. I was trying to make sure the shroud was not tangled in the trap line when a gust came from a different direction and took the mast forward and dropped it over the top of my starboard hull, destroying the mast.

I thought I would explain this so you might also like to do something to stabilize the mast (trap line to the rear beam or traveler?) once you get the mast up and until you can get both shouds attached.

I was devistated, as I had never sailed the boat! I purchased it after Pete Melvin had won the 2004 North American Championships on it in Traverse City, Michigan in September. This was the first Nacra A2 and I trailered it to Annapolis for Boat of the Year evaluations. Thank God that Tony Ahrens (Racer X Sails) loaned me his mast and sail for those trials, and the boat subsequently was awarded Boat of the Year.

I run a small line around the front of the mast through the tang on the hulls to the shrouds. When the mast is raised I pull them tight and tie them off so I can go around to pin them without the mast accidently coming down. Also it keeps the shrouds from swinging about and getting tangled up as you raise the mast.

Sparky:

Sorry to hear about your accident. For a safety you could tie the shrouds to the cross bar at the hull while lifting. This would keep the lateral forces out of the equation. As the mast goes up those lines will just act to keep the mast in the center. If you would like to take the safety to the next level you could loop a line on a trapeze handle. Run that line back around the rear crossbar, under the boat and back to the front. When the mast is up you pull the line tight and tie it somewhere convenient to where you are (at the front crossbar). This will give you a nice three point stance for the mast. I think this is what Gordon was saying. Then you will have plenty of time to attach shrouds as the mast will go nowhere. I think that this whole plan will take no more than about an extra 2 minutes to implement.

Later,
Dan

Colin,

I route control line tails on the Stealth through eyes or blocks and take up the slack by sewing bungee onto the ends. There is no real downside to this as you just have to think through where/how you can dereave the lines when derigging. The upside is that everything is neat and tidy. The two exceptions on my boat are the trapeze return bungees which are simply knotted to the trapeze lines and the main downhaul which is on VERY small S/S hooks that pass through the mainbeam endcaps.

This is because I found that I have to take off ALL the tension on the purchase to be able to unhook the tack of the main.....

The only thing I still have left to do is create a tunnel under the tramp (in tramp material) to tidy up the underside.

As you've already spotted, taking up the slack on large purchase systems (downhaul etc) requires a lot of bungee!

See you at Mumbles during the F16 Nations Cup?

Thanks Dan! Good ideas! I like the idea of running a line through the trap handles and feeding it around the rear beam and under the boat so I can tension it when I have the mast up. This is similar to what one of our club's sailors did when raising the mast on his N5.5 Uni. He supported the end of the mast on a simple tripod in front of the boat, put the bottom of the mast on the pivot ball and put the pin in. When he raised the mast, he took up the slack in the safety line (these went through the trap handles and kept them out of the way of everything else) to hold the mast in place until attaching the side stays. Then he removed the safety line and attached the trap line to the bungees and he was done! He always did the process single handed. I should have learned!

I don't feel too bad about the mast because insurance took care of getting a new one (less deductable) and I had it before the next sailing season started.

Les,
Did you get to keep the old mast?

Can I have it? Did it break right in the middle?

Bill

Hi John,

Definitely going to try that (sewing) - it'll make a really neat tramp... something I've noticed on other As is routing the downhaul to a block on the shroud before going into the tramp hole; presumably so it's a little closer to hand; it also means you can pull post-block and you know it's going to stay cleated...

> See you at Mumbles during the
> F16 Nations Cup?

I'll be there - if I can't disguise the A as an F16, I'll be in the bar...

Take a look here :

http://www.catsailor.com/forums/sho...page=&view=&sb=5&o=&vc=1

Wouter

Bill,

I still have the mast. You cannot have it (well, maybe, for the right price). I have a friend who used to build DN masts and he looked at it and thought we could make a pretty good back-up mast from it.

It broke closer to the base than the top. It is a Hall spar and is mostly unidirectional carbon in the area, so most of the breaks are multiple splits going vertically, lots of vertical splits. I thought about making trophies out of the tube (I already removed all the hardware and have purchased another Hall spar to build into a spare mast), but after talking to my friend, I may repair the damaged spar, reassemble it for a spare, and sell my undamaged spare Hall spar. I haven't decided yet.

I was thinking it would make a good moth mast.

If you decide to sell it, let me know.

How long is a Moth mast? I will measure the undamaged length to see if it would work.

Moth

Max mast lenght is 6.250m

8m2 max sail area.

Max luff 5.185m

If it was me, I'd fix it and keep it as a spare. if you do decide to cut it up, I'll make you an offer on it - before you chop it into little sections.

I bet the bend charactoristics would be too far off for a DN mast, thats a very unscientific judgement based on how much DN masts seem to bend. Would the A cat mast bend that much without breaking (again)?

Les:

Going to get Ben Hall to make me a spar based on my weight with I order A2. How do you like it?

Doug Snell
Hobie 17
Soon to be A2
www.tcdyc.com check out our site guys

Les,
How about a trade

Bill

Bill:

Did you get the email about Bimare's new 11 meter autoclave?

Pete:

Did you get the video I sent you on Javelin?

Doug

Doug:

I did get the Javelin video; and sent it to every one I know!