My pre-bend. For this photo the day had desent wind. I want to say 10+kts. When I left the beach ramp and hoisted the spinaker it noticed the pole bending upwards quite a bit. So I returned and added maybe another inch or two to the bend.

There is man fondling your boat?!?!?!?!

On the Spitfire, I just have 2 bowlines looped over the end of the pole. This makes sure that I have a constant spinnaker luff length, which is important. (Grab the luff with a fist and be able to turn your wrist 90 degrees).
Also I think that your mid bridle should be tighter to keep the jib centred.

Tom Shannon has a neat solution as well.

He has just made two small loops that go through the little holes in the bow tips. He then uses small climbers clips to hook his bridle wires to these loops. The bridle wires then stay on the pole all the time. This too has the advantage of always having the same luff length set for your spi.

You can also do this trick with sister clips.

Wouter

I doubt sister clips would be up to the forces involved.

I put two small jamb cleats at the pole end to allow me to have simple lines with permanent knots at the bow.

bump.

I'm gonna give this a try. Also, I keep sitting/stepping on the spin sheets. Will try a similar approach with them.

Thanks Wouter.

i would be worried about getting caught up in the rear tensioning line when tacking etc. Seems like I routinely almost get strangled by the outhaul on the boom or at least snag it and pull it out of the cleat. But then again, I am a tall bastard. I don't live at the back of the boat but I go there to help with the tacks (or that is my story at least). But the set up does seem like it would be nice to face front wheen snuffing... which isn't that hard to do anyway even with the snuffer line going to the back of the tramp like it does on my boat.

Wouter's diagram doesn't show hiking straps. On my boat there are some grommets placed about midway along the straps. I'd like to make use of these and not have the black line run to the rear of the tramp.

I'm using a grommet to put the bungee through as well. Most of the black line is under my trampoline. So there is nothing to snag on, except for the mainsheet and traveller line.

My out is all internal in the boom with a cam cleat on the boom near the mast. So that is out of the way as well.

Wouter

Wouter, how do you clear your jib track with the spin. tack line? Seems it would interfere the way you have it pictured, unless you have it out on the beam far enough to avoid the jib track.

I think you are talking about the halyard that runs forward to the tack line, rather than the tack line itself, yes?. On my boat the spinlock is located on the main beam and yes it is outboard of the jib track. When I took the photo I posted last week I also took this one in which you can just see the spinlock out beyond the self-tacker support.

Yesterday I made a whole lot of pictures of my boat so you guys can SEE what I mean.

I will be posting them in the F16 galleries shortly. When done I will make a new post announcing where you all can look.

Wouter

Thanks for your picture Mark. I am doing the same thing, minus the spin-lock. I do not like the Spin-lock brand cleat because if you accidently kneel on the line passing through it, it will lock. I had one on my Inter 20 and it ruined many a take-down. Then it broke and wouldn't hold the halyard up. I find a simple cam-cleet, like on your beam in that picture is much easier, and pretty fail-safe after you release it, it's not going to re-cleet itself as the spinlock will do.

Now, why are you using the spinlock at all, as you the way I see your rig, you are running the halyard down through that block on the beam, out to the tack line back to back block, then back through the cam-cleat? Or was that cam cleat left over from the old tack line setup? Or is for the jib car adjustment?

Timbo,

Welcome to the world of the uni-sailor. That clam cleat (as well as a similar one on the port beam) are for the jib assembly. One for the position of the traveller car, the other for the jib halyard.

tback is correct - the cam cleat is unrelated to the spinnaker halyard.

Incidentally I would love a little more detail on the jib setup, since I've only sailed my boat 2-up once - 2 years ago, and I'm not sure I remember all the details of how that works. And there's a good chance I'll be sailing with crew the weekend after next.

I use one cam cleat to secure the (unused) jib halyard, but I'm clueless about the jib car position. How does that work?

Tim: I think the spinlock failure may have to do with halyard tension. My halyard is a little too short. When locked with spin up, the halyard is raised off the tramp a small amount. If you kneel on it, or kick it, it will unlock. Recently, I sailed on TT's boat and it had more slack in the halyard i.e. it rested on the tramp with a couple of inches to spare. When I kicked or knelt on it, the spinlock worked fine.

It will stay locked fine, but when you want to drop your spin, if you stop the halyard going out, by sitting on it or if it get wrapped around your foot or something, the spin lock will lock down again when the halyard is tensioned, at least that's what mine always did. And later, when it wouldn't hold the spin up, I found the casting was cracked under the axel that it rotates on, so everything looked fine until you put a load on it, then it would slowly open up and allow the halyard to slip down. Either way, I like the simplicity of the Harken cam-cleats when it comes to spin halyards. They have been pretty much idiot proof in my experience.

Mark,

You want to know how to rig the lines for the jib ... or the details of where your jib traveller should be during sailing.

The former - thanks.