Set Up A Loose-Footed Mainsail

Set Up A Loose-Footed Mainsail

Back in the 1970’s, the IOR (International Offshore Rule) for racing was all the rage.  One interesting part of the rule was a heavy penalty for loose-footed mainsails.  That is, not having a bolt rope on the foot of the mainsail which was fed into a slot on the top of the boom.  The rule-makers knew that more efficient sail shapes could be achieved with a loose-footed mainsail and an adjustable clew outhaul.  The mainsail’s shape could be more easily optimized for light, moderate, and strong winds - - - as well as for upwind close hauled sailing, for reaching, and for running.

During those years, many of the manufacturers “went along with” the IOR rule and produced boats with a “boom-footed” mainsail…  even on small sailboats where loose-footed was much easier to rig and sail. 

A loose-footed set up has the tack corner of the mainsail secured to the boom near the gooseneck at the forward end of the boom.  And, only has a clew corner car that slips into the slot on the top of the boom.  The clew’s car can be easily moved forward or aft along the slot by means of an adjustment line.  Moving the car forward creates more draft in the mainsail and more power.  Moving the care forward for reaching and running really works well.  Likewise, moving the car forward for light breezes often develops more lift on most boats.

Moving the car aft flattens the mainsail; allowing the boat to point higher without sacrificing much speed.  Moving the car aft as the wind increases also works well since the sail becomes less powerful as it is flattened.

On Snickerdoodle, I have the control lines all led aft on the cabin top so that it is really easy to change settings.  The adjustable clew outhaul control line is secured to the clew corner of the sail; and is then led through a block and forward to the forward end of the boom.  A cheek-block on the side of the boom redirects the adjustment line to a swivel block and clam cleat mounted near the base of the mast.  The adjustment line is long enough to reach the back of the cabin top where I can easily get to it.

If you are out at the Bitter End Marina at Bayview Idaho and want to see the whole lash-up, stop by and say hi.

Some Easy Ways To Reduce Heel (Tipping the Boat)

Some Easy Ways To Reduce Heel (Tipping the Boat)

For many sailors – especially inexperienced sailors – a sailboat heeling in excess of 15 or so degrees is not only uncomfortable; it’s downright frightening.  So, one of the most important skills for the new sailor to learn is how to reduce the amount of heel that the boat (and crew) is experiencing.

One prevalent problem that many new sailors have is that the boat they have purchased is a previously owned one with old (maybe the original) sails.  These old sails have stretched significantly since they were new - - they’re “blown out”.  This means that there is too much draft or “belly”; and the sail is more powerful than originally designed.  One problem of these “blown out” sails is that they don’t allow the boat to point and sail upwind very efficiently.  A second problem with the “blown out” sails is that instead of driving the boat forward, these sails tend to tip the boat over much farther than newer sails would.  This creates excessive heel which is uncomfortable, inefficient, and frightening.  What follows are several ways that a skipper and crew can reduce the degree of heel.

One of the easiest things a skipper can do in a gust is to steer the boat a bit more upwind (called feathering upwind).  Doing this spills wind out of the sails and decreases the wind’s pressure on the sails.  Of course, the sails often flap and make a lot of noise (called luffing).  Luffing the sails too much weakens the sails even more.  So feathering is a short-term fix; not a long-term solution.

Similarly, the mainsheet could be eased a bit – causing just the mainsail to luff. The luffing mainsail is spilling wind.  So, the boat tends to heel less.  Easing the mainsheet is usually preferred to easing the jib sheet because the boat will tend to stay on course with a luffing main; but tend to round upwind with a luffing jibsail.

As you grow in proficiency, easing the traveler control line so that the traveler car moves to leeward along the traveler track will become preferred over easing the mainsheet because the mainsail’s adjustments don’t change – just the mainsail’s angle to the wind changes.  When the gust dies down, the traveler can be pulled more to the center of the track and the mainsheet won’t need to be changed.

If there is a steady increasing of wind velocity, more direct inputs to the mainsail and jib sail will probably need to happen.  One of these direct inputs might be to change down to a smaller jib sail – even to a storm jib.  Changing to a smaller jib can really calm things down – especially heeling.  If your boat has a furling jib, simply rolling up two or three turns accomplishes about the same thing as changing to a smaller jib.

There are direct inputs for the mainsail that are effective too.  An easy adjustment would be to increase the tension on the Cunningham and the clew outhaul.  Increasing these two adjustment lines will tend to flatten the mainsail and make it less powerful.  The wind is becoming more powerful; so, the sail doesn’t need to be as powerful compared to before.

Similarly, the jib halyard  be tightened to help flatten that sail.

Finally, you might want to reef the mainsail.  On Snickerdoodle I have three reef points.  A flattening reef that nicely flattens the bottom half of the sail…  A first full reef point that decreases the mainsail area by about 20%...  And a second full reef point that decreases the mainsail area by a similar amount.  All of the reef points are set up with single line reefing which makes reefing a 30 second maneuver or so.

All of these “fixes” can and should be practiced on nice days with an approximate 5 to 15 knots of wind blowing.  Accomplishing the “fixes” will be easier than when the wind is gusting to 25+ - - - but you will be able to see and feel the effective differences even with the lighter breeze blowing.

One Mile Per Minute

One Mile Per Minute

The length of any meridian of Longitude is measured as 180 degrees from North Pole to South Pole.  Each degree is a degree of Latitude.  The Equator is zero degrees Latitude.  Spokane is at 47.62 degrees North Latitude - - or ~ 47 degrees, 37 minutes North Latitude.

Each degree of Latitude is divided into 60 minutes.  And each minute is 1,852 meters long; or 6,076 feet (equaling a nautical mile).  So, when you look at a NOAA nautical chart, the Latitude scale along the left and right margins shows nautical miles alternating in black and white colors vertically.  Often each nautical mile is shown divided by lines representing one tenth of a nautical mile.  If you are using part of the chart where the distance scale at the bottom or the top of the chart is not visible, you can always use the Latitude scale along the left or right edge to get an accurate distance measurement.

How far is it across Drayton Harbor from the Red light at the marina entrance to the tank on Tongue Point???  Looks pretty close to 600 yards (1,800 feet or about a tenth of a nautical mile)… 

Charts - - the Nature of the Seabed

The Nature of the Seabed  - - Symbols on Nautical Charts

When observing a nautical chart we often see symbols and letters indicating what kind of seabed could be found at certain locations.  This information is very often helpful when choosing a place to anchor.  The following descriptions are from NOAA Chart #1 - a book that lists all of the symbols used on NOAA charts.

S  =  sand

M  =  mud

Cy; Cl  =  clay

Si  =  silt

St  =  stones

G  =  gravel

P  =  pebbles

Cb =  cobbles

Rk; rky = rocks - rocky

Co  =  coral and coraline algae

Sh = shells

S/M  =  sand over mud

Wd  =  weeds

 There are also "branchy squiggles" for kelp

 And "wavey squiggles" for sand waves

Knowing what kind of bottom there is will help you determine what kind of anchor to use.  

Fluke anchors like the "Danforth" anchor are best suited for sand or sand/mud bottoms.

Hinged plow anchors like the venerable "CQR" are best suited for sand, weeds or rocks

Claw style anchors like the "Bruce or Claw" anchors are best for sand or rocks

Non-hinged plow anchors like the "Delta" are best for sand, rocks, weeds, or mud

Non-hinged scoop anchors like the "Rocna" are best suited for sand, rocks, weeds or mud

Pick your anchor for the bottom you intend to anchor in.  

barnaclebillholcomb@gmail.com

 

Report - Two Seasons With a Torqeedo Outboard

Two Seasons With The Torqeedo

After two full seasons using a 24 VDC Torqeedo electric outboard motor instead of a gasoline fueled outboard, I think that I have a pretty good idea as to the pros and cons.  There are lots of pros and few cons.  Here’s what I have observed……

First of all, I am still very happy with the Torqeedo.  The price difference between the Torqeedo and a Mercury 8hp (the engine the Torqeedo replaced) all things considered is about $700 – with the Torqeedo being more expensive.  My shore power electric bill has gone up about $15 per year.  But, I’m no longer buying marina gasoline at $4+ per gallon… about fifteen gallons each year.  However, I wouldn’t want to mislead anyone.  I’m not counting on paying for the Torqeedo with fuel savings.

Next, the Torqeedo is plenty adequate for ~95% of my needs getting to and from the marina and short excursions under power of fifteen miles or less.  For trips of 8 or 9 miles, I can easily cruise at 4 to 4.5 knots and not use up the full charge.

I do keep the smart charger charging whenever Snickerdoodle is in her slip.  So, I always start out with a full charge in the batteries.

If I really need to get somewhere faster, I can increase speed to ~5 knots for about an hour.  For longer trips though I slow down to between 3.5 and 4 knots to conserve amps.

I love how quiet the Torqeedo is compared to gasoline fueled outboards.  Some of my neighbors have nicknamed Snickerdoodle the “stealth baot.”  And, the light weight of 40 lbs is really nice for raising the motor out of the water… and for taking the motor off the outboard bracket for the boat’s annual winterization.

I only have two concerns regarding the motor.  One is that for a long trip under power – at 3.5 knots the battery charge is pretty well depleted in about 25 nautical miles.  And because of sulfating on the plates in the batteries, the recharge time takes longer than overnight.  Full recharge takes around 20 hours.  This means that if I motor up the lake from Bayview (home base) to Sandpoint (about 30 nm away); I won’t have a full charge the next morning to motor all the way back.  This happened to Kathy and me this past August.  We got about halfway back when the motor quit due to no “juice”……  Fortunately my backup plan to use the two house batteries for backup worked perfectly.  But, I did have to take the house batteries out of their compartment under the starboard settee and move them to the cockpit before connecting them to the Torqeedo.

The other concern that I have is that the motor I bought doesn’t have an easy way to monitor amp usage.  There is a volt meter built into the motor with a nice LED display on the motor’s top… but nothing else.  The new Torqeedo motors have a really nice GPS keyed data screen on the remote throttle.  This display shows amps, amp usage, and distance that can be traveled before draining the battery.  I now use a Klein multi-meter to monitor amp usage… but this is not too convenient AND the Klein doesn’t give any indication as to how far I can go till the battery quits.

All in all, would I buy the Torqeedo again?  Yes.  But, I’d probably spend the extra couple hundred bucks to get the GPS readout on the remote throttle.  I might also consider more critically the 48 VDC motor instead of the 24 VDC.  I’d have to figure out where to put two more 12 volt batteries… but the additional power and speed might be worth it.

Finally, I have had no problems with the motor since it was installed in April 2012 – other than the incident mentioned above on a long trip.  The motor has worked flawlessly with that one exception… And, I can’t really blame the motor since I didn’t know enough about battery use and sulfating prior to the incident.

barnclebillholcomb@gmail.com