| Re: A cats and carbon
[Re: Acat230]
#66901 02/16/06 10:54 AM 02/16/06 10:54 AM |
Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 254 Gower, Wales, UK sailwave
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Posts: 254 Gower, Wales, UK | Hi Bob, Regarding the pictures of your boat, the tramp looks extremely clean. How are you leading the tails of the rotator control and downhaul? In the pictures, it looks like they are led under the trampoline. Mine are kept on the top of the boat which is not as clean.
Again, beautiful boat! 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... | | | Re: Polyester or Epoxy
[Re: Dan_Delave]
#66902 02/16/06 11:03 AM 02/16/06 11:03 AM |
Joined: Jun 2001 Posts: 371 Michigan, USA sparky
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Posts: 371 Michigan, USA | Stepping the mast solo on an A Cat is a snap. At my club unless it is the first time a mast is going up most of the sailors put them up solo anyway. Even if there is someone right there to help. Put the boat on Catwheels about 1/2 the way from the front crossbar to the tip of the bow. This way the boat is sitting on an angle back. Slack the forstays a bit (maybe 2 to 3 inches) but have them attached to the bows. Attach the hinged part from the base of mast to the front crossbar. Stand about the middle of the mast and lift. Walk hand over hand lifting the mast until it settles back on the forstays. Make sure that the boat is pointing in the wind. The mast will stand there by itself with the two forstays as supports. Then go to the shrouds and connect those. When you are done you will have to tighted up the forstays again. 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.
Les Gallagher
| | | Re: A cats and carbon
[Re: sailwave]
#66905 02/16/06 01:30 PM 02/16/06 01:30 PM |
Joined: Feb 2005 Posts: 1,382 Essex, UK Jalani
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Posts: 1,382 Essex, UK | 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?
John Alani ___________ Stealth F16s GBR527 and GBR538 | | | Re: broken parts from a falling mast
[Re: Dan_Delave]
#66906 02/16/06 03:15 PM 02/16/06 03:15 PM |
Joined: Jun 2001 Posts: 371 Michigan, USA sparky
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Posts: 371 Michigan, USA | 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 Gallagher
| | | Re: A cats and carbon
[Re: Jalani]
#66908 02/16/06 04:21 PM 02/16/06 04:21 PM |
Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 254 Gower, Wales, UK sailwave
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Posts: 254 Gower, Wales, UK | 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... | | | Re: broken parts from a falling mast
[Re: bvining]
#66910 02/17/06 12:46 PM 02/17/06 12:46 PM |
Joined: Jun 2001 Posts: 371 Michigan, USA sparky
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Posts: 371 Michigan, USA | 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.
Les Gallagher
| | | Re: broken parts from a falling mast
[Re: bvining]
#66912 02/17/06 01:43 PM 02/17/06 01:43 PM |
Joined: Jun 2001 Posts: 371 Michigan, USA sparky
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Posts: 371 Michigan, USA | How long is a Moth mast? I will measure the undamaged length to see if it would work.
Les Gallagher
| | | Re: broken parts from a falling mast
[Re: bvining]
#66915 02/17/06 02:30 PM 02/17/06 02:30 PM | Anonymous
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Unregistered | 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 | | | Re: A cats and carbon
[Re: fin.]
#66918 02/17/06 09:11 PM 02/17/06 09:11 PM | Anonymous
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Unregistered | Pete:
Did you get the video I sent you on Javelin?
Doug | | |
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