Stealth questions

I posted this on the open forum, but you guys are probably a better source for this info:

The new paint's drying, I'm putting her back together(pics to follow), and I've come up with a few questions. The gudgeons are attached to the transoms with plastic spacers, six of them. I think there were two on the top gudgeon and one on the bottom. Can anyone confirm? These obviously change the rake of the rudders, and the horizontal foils.
Reccomendations for carpet or ? for the top and bottom of the daggerboard wells?
And I removed the diamond wires from the mast for painting, and I've replaced them as well, now I need to know what the appropriate tension is. I do have a Loos guage. Anyone know?
Thanks!

Dave

I can confirm 2 spacers on the upper gudgeon and 1 on the lower.
The carpet that I use is a foam backed cord. I strip the foam off the back and stick just the cord carpet bit to the opening.
Can't really advise on diamond tension - I just adjust the diamonds until the prebend matches the luff curve of the main.

Thanks John! What's foam backed cord? I think our terminology is different. I have a Landenberger main, might I benefit from the same technique? Do you have the standard spreaders?

Dave

Dave

http://portableflooring.co.uk/products/carpet.html
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Carpet-Foam-B...dCarpets_Underlay_SM?hash=item2c538c2c0d

Not sure what it's called here.

alternative is the 3M stick on non-slip. Get from surfing shops or maybe Rick has some in his shop.

I have used wet paint sprinkled with coffee sugar crystals. lightly pressed into the paint. Then wash after with warm water after paint has dried. Find its still provides grip without too much abrasion.


opps should have read the question........ was talking about gunwale and deck.

I'm pretty sure you don't want grip inside your board cases....

Carpet is a **** solution, it perishes in the sun (I know there is limited sun in the uk...) but it's much better to use Teflon selfadhesive strips. The boards go up and down under pressure much easier and it won't hold sand like carpet does.

opps should have read the question........ was talking about gunwale and deck.

Thanks guys, that helps! And I'll try the Teflon tape, I think I have some around here somewhere.

Dave

I have the Landy main too and the technique seems to get the pre-bend into the ballpark setting. On the older boat I fitted Tornado adjustable spreaders as I wanted to have a play with settings. On the newer boat I have the standard fixed length and angle spreaders - I'm considering changing them to some I can adjust for angle.

John_P now supplies shorter carbon spreaders with notched positions to allow for different rake angle. I may well retro-fit a set to my newer mast......

Macca

The thing is that Stealth plates are so light they float up if not HELD down!

So are my taipan and nacra boards, but the teflon is for sure the best solution if you want to move the blades while sailing under load

Teflon on my race skis make them slide very good; I must be missing something here. How does it hold plates that float?

Actually Macca, I'm curious too. I have the same problem of boards (and rudders which are also sliding up and down in a cassette on my boat) not staying in position and ridding up as I sail. Until now I've been adding slimmed down carpet in my daggerboard wells (and rudder cassettes) to add more drag so the damn things stay where I put them. And replacing them every season.

So I'm thinking I'm missing something in the picture if you say you put teflon tape, as this is going to lower drag. The only way I can imagine this working is if the teflon compresses the board in place: aka it should be fairly hard to engage the daggerboard? How much clearance is there between the well and the daggerboard? How much of this clearance to you fill with teflon tape? Do you taper the teflon?

To answer the original questions:

- Plastic spacers: I only have one at the top and one at the bottom on each side, but my boat is equipped with the old style 49er rudders, without winglets.

- Slimmed down carpet.

- No idea, I would have to measure mine

I simply set the strips up so they are a snug fit on the board. this has enough pressure to stop them floating or dropping and also allows them to move easily under load.

On the taipan I sometimes put a couple of laps of electrical tape on the top of the board to fine tune the fit.

Teflon tape in my view has a major flaw in this application. To get a relatively flat material surface to " grip " the board to prevent it lifting out whilst underway ( the Stealth boards have a very slight taper over their length )it has to be a close tolerance fit. Now drop your boards down with the inevitiable sand from the shore still attached to the board and the taper then embeds these sand particles into the soft Teflon.

Now many of you have seen these " scoring " vertical marks on the boards and wondered what has caused it, its simply the hard granite "sand" doing what sand paper does best. Its harder than the gelcoat and there is only going to be one winner each time the board is dropped in.

Carpet for what ever reason seems to brush off these sand particles as the board goes down. Lately I have been using a commercial velcro ( Hook and loop )of about 50mm wide and much thicker than normal. Fits nicely, doesn't seem to wear and best of all it comes with an adhesive backing already attached. The loops seem to act just like the carpet and brush off the sand as the board goes down.