Camber spar

SunnyIsleMark
Posts: 60
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2021 8:42 am

Re: Camber spar

Post by SunnyIsleMark »

Lots of good ideas here. Here’s a shot of my setup after the sail is flaked and covered.
It occurs to me that a simple chafe protector commonly used of shrouds (on non-Freedoms of course 😎) might be a simple solution for the headstay issue.
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SunnyIsleMark
Posts: 60
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2021 8:42 am

Re: Camber spar

Post by SunnyIsleMark »

Had my jib raised at the dock today to install a piece of chafe protector on the forestay and manually pushed the jib between port and starboard tacks. It was pretty easy to see why the sheet block should be attached to the extended eye facing down, as it gave the sheet block just enough leverage to rotate the camber spar over to the new tack. Once powered up on the new tack, the “lever arm” was at about a 45 degree angle and the camber was in the correct position. The topping lift is attached to the short section on top and becomes more useful off the wind and in lighter air but doesn’t really do much for the camber rotation.
Out of curiosity, I looked at some photos I had taken while chartering an F30 in the BVI back when they were new. Sure enough, it was rigged with the long arm down and to the sheet block!
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mike cunningham
Posts: 489
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:21 am
Location: Jacqueline, F30 #3, Discovery Bay, California

Re: Camber spar

Post by mike cunningham »

What the heck? Sunnyislemark, it looks like you have it rigged differently in the two pics you posted, the BVI pic has it one way and the previous pic post has it the other. Am I channeling you or are you channeling me? hahahaha. But I think we all agree the BVI pic has it right.

One key thing that may have happened in my case - yep - this is gonna be a story

So when I was doing my first race to Hawaii in 2016 I wound up in rough weather in the dregs of tropical storm Celiea 200 NM from Kauai. I experienced about 45Kts of wind. I had the jib up but did not have a preventer on the camberspar and I experienced a number of very hard camberspar jibes as the wind was blowing from dead astern and I no longer had the energy to fuss with it. I was busy hanging on to my hat. Anyway, about halfway through that thrashing the jib self destructed, the camberspar bent almost in half and I sailed the rest of the way to Hawaii with my storm jib rigged (If I had rigged the earlier I would have saved the camberspar). After that LP passed I had the most beautiful sailing of my life for the last 150 NM. During this sail I had a chance to get forward, pull the spar off and get the storm jib set up. But as I did this I realized not only was the spar bent and the sail blown out, but the doohickey we have been talking about had been torn off the spar and was dangling overboard on the sheet.

When I got home my sailmaker (Pineapple in SF) got the spar bent back to the correct radius and either they or I had the doohickey rewelded to the spar. I can't remember who did it. Now, guess what, I bet we put the doohickey on backwards since no one had a clue which way it was supposed to go. With the long bit pointing the wrong way I would not have the leverage sunny was talking about and that might result in weird things happening. I will go down to the boat today and see if that is what happened. I will report findings.

On a related note. In the 2018 singlehanded transpac I had installed a gun mount, pole and spinnaker. I had purchased the spin and gear from a fellow on this board but the spin was in pretty lousy shape (seller warned me) and, like a fool, I took it to sea. I flew it for about 30 minutes before it blew out in 15 Kts. But, big but...I soon realized the spinnaker pole could be locked orthogonal to the boat and made into a superb preventer for the main and the jib. When I got this set up I felt like I was sailing a windjammer, we were ripping downhill with all sails set and pulling hard 24/7 for a week. Sweet! Same deal on the way home once I got around the high.
Mike Cunningham
Freedom 30 (Mull) Hull #3
Build date...June, 1986 . Freedom Yachts USA, sloop, shoal keel
Gun Mount and pole retrofitted (purchased from a Hoyt Freedom 32)
Yanmar 2gm20F , 1600 hrs fixed two blade prop
e-rud and ocean racing equipment

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mike cunningham
Posts: 489
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:21 am
Location: Jacqueline, F30 #3, Discovery Bay, California

Re: Camber spar

Post by mike cunningham »

duplicate
Last edited by mike cunningham on Tue Oct 25, 2022 12:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Mike Cunningham
Freedom 30 (Mull) Hull #3
Build date...June, 1986 . Freedom Yachts USA, sloop, shoal keel
Gun Mount and pole retrofitted (purchased from a Hoyt Freedom 32)
Yanmar 2gm20F , 1600 hrs fixed two blade prop
e-rud and ocean racing equipment

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mike cunningham
Posts: 489
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:21 am
Location: Jacqueline, F30 #3, Discovery Bay, California

Re: Camber spar

Post by mike cunningham »

With regard to bending the camberspar back into proper shape, Pineapple sails was able to find data regarding the appropriate bend for the camberspar. I don't know where they got it but that info is out in the wild. If you need data on how to construct and configure a new spar, for example, the necessary info is available, at least to sailmakers.
Mike Cunningham
Freedom 30 (Mull) Hull #3
Build date...June, 1986 . Freedom Yachts USA, sloop, shoal keel
Gun Mount and pole retrofitted (purchased from a Hoyt Freedom 32)
Yanmar 2gm20F , 1600 hrs fixed two blade prop
e-rud and ocean racing equipment

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gamayun
Posts: 270
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:14 pm

Re: Camber spar

Post by gamayun »

mike cunningham wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:32 pm
[snip] On a related note. In the 2018 singlehanded transpac I had installed a gun mount, pole and spinnaker. I had purchased the spin and gear from a fellow on this board but the spin was in pretty lousy shape (seller warned me) and, like a fool, I took it to sea. I flew it for about 30 minutes before it blew out in 15 Kts. But, big but...I soon realized the spinnaker pole could be locked orthogonal to the boat and made into a superb preventer for the main and the jib. When I got this set up I felt like I was sailing a windjammer, we were ripping downhill with all sails set and pulling hard 24/7 for a week. Sweet! Same deal on the way home once I got around the high.
I always enjoy your stories, Mike!! But wait....please tell us more about how you set up your orthogonal pole into a preventer. Michael Jefferson (Mouton Noir) just put a ringy-dingy on Kynntana's mast (he'd been bugging me about my downwind sails for YEARS) so now I'm really intrigued about its other uses.

Also, FYI -- Kamie and Sally are retiring from Pineapple Sails. Shutting down the business; it may already be closed. Can you get that camberspar info from them and post on the forum before it's gone forever?

(Oh, post script. I see what you wrote was about the gummount and not a "real" pole. I've never had a gummount for Kynntana :(
Kynntana, Freedom 38

Clemson
Posts: 49
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2021 9:00 am

Re: Camber spar

Post by Clemson »

I always learn a lot about my Freedom on this forum , and love the creative ideas. I just ordered a set of two Spreader Life Line Rollers from Amazon.

tonybuddha
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2022 11:43 am

Re: Camber spar

Post by tonybuddha »

Speaking of camber spars...

How high do you guys have the topping lift set? It doesn't seem like my spar flips around like it's supposed to. Both my telltails are flyiing well, but the sail never really looks right to me.

SunnyIsleMark
Posts: 60
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2021 8:42 am

Re: Camber spar

Post by SunnyIsleMark »

Unless you are in really light air and want to keep the clew suspended, you should keep slack in the topping lift to avoid fighting the sheet when you need to go upwind or when the wind picks up.
As for flipping during a tack, make sure the sheet is attached to the long part of the clew fitting and that the camber spar tension is not too high.
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pelagic
Posts: 22
Joined: Sat Sep 11, 2021 3:19 pm

Re: Camber spar

Post by pelagic »

Just setting up my camber spar for the first time, on the fitting for the forestay, what type of pin/ bolt is used? TIA John

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