ive finaly found what ive been after for ages, a big carbon pole to use as a bowsprit, to fly light airs sails from in under 15 knots
it will overhang the bow by 10ft ish and is built like a tree! so no danger of it snapping
has anyone here done this before ?, i intend to use runners on the foremast of course.
so in 10 knots with two drifters we should fly, perhaps il build a big .5 oz asymetric too if i think its safe, i could gybe it normaly which could be a help, i dont think il race with it as it will kill my rating… mind , i might get a trial certificate just to see what the change would be.
i found a pic on the web of a cat ketch doing this so i cant claim its my idea it wasnt a freedom
Phil,
Here are photos of bowsprits on catketches. The first is F44 ‘Frog Kiss’ with a small blade jib, the next are of a Tanton 37 cat schooner with huge staysails. Keep us posted of how you intend to mount the sprit, I’m very interested to go this route too.
its the tanton that gave me the idea , lovely pics thanks a lot if anyone wants a carbon pole i have access to 2 that would do 28s for less than a grand each
phil
If memory serves me well, the former owner of F44 Frog Kiss, the one with the short bowsprit and jib, said he made 1 knot more speed and could point 1.5 degrees higher.
Our blade staysail certainly gives us better windward performance, despite the baggy state of our mizzen: it’s just too much effort to set it when we are short tacking, and we try to avoid long windward journeys. At least with a bowsprit, one wouldn’t have to hand the sail for every tack.
I e-mailed Tristan Mouligne about ten years ago (back when he was in college a few years ago and singlehanding “Frog Kiss”). I was intrigued by the blade jib. I asked him if he was using running backstays on the mainmast…never got an answer.
I do recall, however, that they later lost the main mast on the return leg of the Bermuda 1-2 in 2007. All that I could discover about that event was that the mast failed above the gooseneck.
Our F40 is set up with running backs on the mizzen. I’m told these were for running mizzen staysails. I’m going to use one of them a as our ham radio antenna.
I have both the running backstays (on the mizzen) and the mizzen staysail they were designed to be used with. The staysail (which is huge) has a wire luff which is tacked to the “spinnaker pole car” which slides on the track mounted on the coach house roof (on centerline between the hatch forward of the galley sink and the breakwater).
I’ve used the staysail a few times. It’s handy on a reach if you are going to be on the same tack for a few hours (or days). I sheet it through a snatch block on the bail at the end of the mizzen boom. Any adjustment to the mizzen thus requires an adjustment to the staysail. The running backs keep the mast from being pulled forward by the tension of the halyard on the wire luff. You also need a preventer on the mainsail (for the most part), since stopping a gybe with the wire luff would have deleterious effects on the main boom, the staysail, and either the track or the mizzen mast. (Remember, I have the same kind of “standard booms” and goosenecks that came on the F44 CK). This whole lash-up makes tacking a not-simple task, since you have a “lazy sheet” to deal with (for the opposite tack). If you’re going to reset the staysail, it takes one crewman forward of the mizzen to gather the sail in and pull it back out of the way of the main boom while someone else eases the halyard (and the sheet) in order to allow him to do so, otherwise you have to drop the whole thing to the deck (while it’s luffing), gather it in, and then haul it back up again, all the while trying not to allow it to become a sea anchor.
You definitely want to attach the sheets to the staysail with a nice soft knot…any metal clip becomes painful when dealing with a flailing sail.
It is interesting sailing the stay. It will keep your attention. Screwing up here is a lesson learned almost immediately.
I was single handing in a race on my f28 ck an for some reason I thought I would put up the stay by myself. (Let me add here no auto pilot). I suppose crossing the start line 2nd and being so far behind at the first weather mark set the mood.
Somehow I managed to get it up, but only with about three trips to the wheel to get back on course. Something about a monkey and the proverial football comes to mind. At this point I was so far behind the motor would not have helped. Well it did actually help as I pulled out of race and proceded back to the squadron. Still waiting for my day. Numbknots
