Singlehanded boat setup

I'm getting close to ordering a replacement for my '05 Blade. I'm curious whether there are any new tricks other singlehanded sailors are using in the way their boats are set up to make life easier. e.g. any differences in spinnaker halyard/snuffer/tackline management compared with 2-up sailing? Rotator, downhaul, rudder, daggerboard management?

I rigged my Viper with a seperate tack/halyard line. The cleat is mounted on the mast, and pulling the halyard on the tramp releases both the tack and the halyard at once. You kinda gotta see it to understand it, or at least I don't feel like typing a book to describe it.

Another thing is my halyard runs mostly under the tramp, there is hardly anything above.

Don't get too trigger happy until you see my boat and take it for a spin.

Karl, what do you do when you get a tangle under the tramp? sounds like an internal down-haul, fine until something goes wrong...

Had a few hockles, nothing too serious though, and I think they were to blame from some things being run in a stupid manner, and have since been straightened out.

The tack line has a shockcord spliced into the end of it to keep tension on it at all times, the halyard runs through a pair of rings that are on shockcords that eat up the slack in the halyard. One of the rings is for keeping tension on the righting line, the other is the end of the shockcord for the tack line. Its complicated as hell to setup, (took me damn near an entire day), but pretty simple once you get the picture.

Something handy is to run the main sail halyard through 2 holes in the mast at about 1m from the bottom. There the halyard comes out of the mast and a couple of centimeters later goes back in. This enables you to stand at the front beam to rig the sail and still be able to pull downwards at the halyard. Saves time as you don't have to walk back and forth all the time.

Also the daggerboard pull up system installed on the Falcon and Blade is handy (I dont know if your boat had it already).

A seperate tack line is convenient indeed as it gives you time to steer in between the hoist. Same for dousing.

Improvement between the Blade and Falcon is the tramp allowing you to run things below it from the side (I don't know the Viper/Stealth tramp setup). In that way you can run lines to the side stay and then bungee them below the tramp. Clean!

Gill

On my boat the halyard goes down inside the mast track, and exit from it under the boom gooseneck. That's a perfect place to push down on it when standing in front of the beam. I never walk back and forth with this arrangement.


I don't understand this one? One line is definitely simpler, pull one side the spi goes up, uncleat and pull the other side to get it in. Two lines give you twice the chance of a foul, and an additional cleat. I prefer the one line system solo. Duo is another story, separate lines allow the crew to pop the spi faster as it is already partially out before the turn.

Pepin,

I find the seperate tack also interesting for single handlers. Especially when dousing in a race at the gate a seperate tack is handy. If you douse the head only the spin cannot get caught below the hull anymore if you have to steer up suddenly.

Ofcourse it takes more time..., but so does a spin below the hull. Ask Mark :-)

Its faster to have a seperate tack/halyard. You can pull the tack before the offset/windward mark that way. With the combo system you're pulling a bunch more line.

-The way mine is set up the tack line is cleated with a Spinlock underneath the tramp and mounted on the backside of the front beam. I drilled a hole through the top edge and tied off a piece of tiny line. The other end of the tiny line goes under the tramp and comes out through a grommet where it is tied off to a ring.
-The spinnaker halyard comes down the mast, through a cleat, then down to the front beam where it runs through a eyestrap, then through the ring that is connected to the spinlock. The halyard then goes through a grommet and underneath the tramp where it goes through the two rings attached to bungees, one of which is the tail end of the tackline. Then it comes up through the tramp, then through a block, then through a hole in the tramp, and onto the spinnaker patches. Behind the block, and forward of the grommet where the halyard comes topside is where you grab it for dousing.

When dousing you just pull the halyard from the tramp, it releases the both the tack and the halyard at the same time, or you could grab it at the cleat to leave the tack cleated. All the benifits of the simple dousing combo line, but you can set the tack seperatly.

The bulk of my halyard is just cover/no core as well, with a section of dyneema above the cleat to the head. Its a copy of how Robbie Daniel's boat is setup, he made the halyard/tack line for me as well.

Don't forget that the doubling block can cause issues as well, whether its mounted on the mast, or the spinnaker pole.

Not sure I followed all that, but what I see on p12 of the Viper Tuning Guide seems essentially similar to what I think I'm seeing on Gill's boat -



If I'm not mistaken, I think the red handle on the tramp is attached to the small line connected to the spinlock on the rear of the main beam that you mention - which I think is the same as what the Infusion has.

The separate tack line seems reasonable to me.

They're showing a cam cleat like the infusion uses, I think that may be a better setup as the Spinlocks are unreliable at best.

Mine is only slightly different from whats in the guide. I think that's how all of the new boats are coming. Mines just an old 09'.....

I want to see you do that singlehanded in a contested fleet.

Wouter

Wouter, you can do it from the wire. You just have your tack line fed to the outside of the front beam and then set parallel to the starboard hull with a bunjee take up. Trust me
I used this system at the UK 2007 Nationals. However, I found it a bit to unreliable especially when you happen to trip the tack whilst gybing!! It's also a bit scary if you get a bit carried away with your new toy and pull the tack out a bit to soon and the spi starts to fill backwards whilst creeping out of the chute prior to the mark rounding. Therefore, I think the double line system suits the two up's better and due to the simplicity of the single line system it benefits the singlehander.
Scooby enjoys tinkering with various elaborate systems I wonder what his preference is?

AHPC seems to have settled on having a single line halyard/tack system with the head-to-head block up the mast rather than on the spin pole. What are the advantages of the location on the mast?

We had a whole discussion a while back about the merits of the various possible single line systems.

Its the only way you can run a internal tack line, with a combo line.

Karl, with your system, have you ever accidently -tripped- the halyard [and tack line] loose with your feet, during a gybe?

Whatever system you use is mostly a matter of what you are used to.

I sailed always with a single sytem solo and the split system 2-up. After I got used to the split system solo, I much prefer it now.

There are 2 different lines to to pull, but there is less line. The biggest advantage is that you can do the hoiste and the dowse in stages, greatly improving your ability to keep control of the boat when things get bussy.

Ditto, I've tried it both ways and I prefer two lines both solo and two up. As Gilo said, it keeps the spin from going under the bow if you've got to stop snuffing to steer!

Single line for me. Just pull and it goes up; juys pull and it comes down....

I do however have some clever stuff on the mast rotation adjustment....

Pull a line on the boom and the rotation is let "fully off". As the kite goes into the bag; it's re-set to the same place it was when it was let "fully off".

Pics?

Upwind mode: spanner pointing at tyhe shroud (roughly)



Note:
Pink rope is lead out the shrouds to allow fine tune from the wire.

Orange rope is cleated, thus holding the other end of the fine tune pink close to the tramp.
Pink rope with red "blob" on it is slack (this now runs up to a turning blick on the boom and then back aft so it can be pulled from the bacl of the boat.



Pull the "blob" and the orange rope incleats from the plate and allows the mast to swing free (not shown) but you can see the slack

When you pull the spi downhaul (red rope to the left) the system automatically re-tensions as the orange rope re-cleats and the rotation goes back to the same place....

Disclaimer- I haven't sailed it singlehanded yet. (except a 1/2 mile up the beach, doesn't count, I know)

BUT, I may be stick boy, but I'm not exactly short, and Dan's no small fry either, so with both of swinging our limbs about we didn't have any issues. Like I said, the halyard goes through a strap on the front beam that keeps it pretty tight to the tramp, and its really only exposed maybe ~18" behind the front beam before it dives back under the tramp, so there isn't much to get caught on.

Boy, thats a nice clean system you have there Scooby!

*double face palm*

Karl, have you had any chance to sail solo yet? I'm curious... having the cleat on the mast and only 18" of line on the tramp, does that mean that you need to move yourself a fair distance forward from the helm both to raise and snuff the chute? With my current system, imperfect though it is in many ways, at least I have the hoist/retrieval line fairly easily accessible from the helming position.

Finally got to sail the boat singlehanded.

You don't really have to move that far forward, (I've also got a pretty long reach). No more so than I had to on the FXone with the cleat on the front beam. I hoise/retrieve from my knees, and I'm about in the middle (front to back), and just off of center (side to side). With out the 2:1 on the tack, it does take more effort, but nothing severe, it does take some strength though. Hoisting is pretty much effortless though, and the spinnaker goes up very quickly.

Even though there isn't much exposed on the tramp, there is plenty of slack underneath, that slack is taken up by rings, and bungees. So its not like its tight to the tramp, and tkaes effort to get a grip on it.

Thanks. Does the spin go up quickly because of the separate tack line instead of a single line system? Did you have the latter on the FXone?

I had a combo line on the FXone. I think the halyard is easier just because the tack is already out. Kinda gets the spinnaker on deck and ready. Plus you aren't pulling any extra line as its just 1:1 going up.

I don't think I did a single hoist on this boat before swapping it over.

I'll have to take a look at you setup at Ripley. Where did you sail your boat uni?

Omaha, doing more coaching with Robbie. I only made it on the water, two of the four days though. Just too damn windy/cold for my tastes. So you didn't miss much on the water time.

I don't know if it was said already in this posting:
Take a shockcord with a hook, tie it at the center of the rear cross beam and hook it somewhere where you can easily reach it. If you want to heave to, take the hook and put it on one tiller. Now you can heave to and use your both hands all the time. I got this tip from Mary, it is one of the best one ever posted here.

Cheers,

Klaus

Nice. Thanks for the tip.

Awesome tip! Used this today when I capsized really close to and upwind of a jetty. Made getting the boat sorted out after righting real easy.