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Battleship

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We pulled a sea anchor out of the locker mid pacific. At 60+ KG dry weight
First there was paint job envy, then that changed to keel envy now it's bloody sea anchor envy.

 

Envy :-) the grey cover on the port side is a Honda 250 scooter we road around Port Villa effecting repairs after the big blow. The Sunfish Sailing dingy on the starboard side was wrapped around the mast and the scooter was almost hanging over the side :-)

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did the southern ocean AK>Chile on a boat with 4 reefs and it was great, left all 4 rigged fulltime as it got rid of the clutter on deck would have liked an over lap between the 4th reef and using the trysail and like the Wal I am a fan of trisails that work ie pop a reef in them too as well as battens........make the fucker work for a living...., wear and tear sailwise was mainly due to the topping lift left permanently attached and taking out the leech cord cloth which is a price to pay but we quite happily paid it (hours spent hand stitching however) cutter rigged with no rolly polly furlers and a reef in every headsail which worked for me . Did Fiji in a cat with a parachute storm anchor and even though it sat glaring in the corner of the cockpit we didn't set it as I reckon it would have been a right bitch to retrieve, amusing thing about that tour is how much lightning misses you, oh and as usual a coup de etat on arrival........best one I've ever had

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I left the topping lift permanently attached for over 50,000 miles, had a bungee from the m/h to a block on the backstay then to the middle of the topper. That would pull the slack out and keep it off the leech of the main.

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There is nothing nothing nothing good about leaving a topper on the boom.

 

Oh I do like that L4 and 'the Wal' idea of a Trisail that's a real sail.

What a clever idea and why aren't they all like that.

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There is nothing nothing nothing good about leaving a topper on the boom.

 

It's one less chore making reefing easier and faster, and eliminates the possibility of forgetting it and dropping the boom on someone's head.

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There is nothing nothing nothing good about leaving a topper on the boom.

 

It's one less chore making reefing easier and faster, and eliminates the possibility of forgetting it and dropping the boom on someone's head.

 

Whats wrong with a solid vang? :wink:

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Our solid vang broke during the RNI so I jury rigged a purchase instead, we then discovered quite by accident that we didn't need a topping lift while reefing as the Lazy-jacks held the boom up quite well.

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There is nothing nothing nothing good about leaving a topper on the boom.

It's one less chore making reefing easier and faster, and eliminates the possibility of forgetting it and dropping the boom on someone's head.
I put your response into the Nautical Google Translator and it reckons that translates to - I'm lazy and have more money than I have ways to spend it.

 

You don't drop mainsails either when arriving in port or in bad weather without lots of warning. You sail non stop for 10 days with a topper up just to save your self 30 seconds at the end. Hence the lazy.

While at sea all that topper is doing is wearing and damaging when there's no need for any of that to happen. Hence you must have too much money.

 

Sorry BP, I know many leave them there but it is just annoys me even more than pollies do. Yes that much :lol:

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Oh the windage, the flapping around (which is wear and tear to rope and rig) and so on. I'd be totally knuts before getting past Nth Head.

 

The difference between racers and cruisers I suppose. I often have real issues when doing a non racing offshores. On many cruisers boats you could easily think they intentionally make their boats go slower than they should :) :)

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What's wrong with having a long topper, leaving it on the harsend and leading it forward to your T bars when not needed?

 

.... does mean having to go forward to release it so you can reef but if you have to go forward anyway.........

 

Spring vang :thumbup:

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What's wrong with having a long topper, leaving it on the harsend and leading it forward to your T bars when not needed
A perfect solution to improve your boats performance and life span.

 

 

Reeflines - they do want to have some elasticity, they don't want any elasticity?

We are seeing more cruisers lately that say they do need a little, to decrease shock loads on the sail apparently. I can sort of see the thinking but are still staying firmly in the 'No way, lock them solid' camp.

 

The cruisers are offshore, mostly US, so I'm wondering if some supposed guru has written book or posted something somewhere.

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No you don't need elasticity. Once the lines/sail is pulled down, the sail is held down firm at Clew and Tack of Sail anyway. Why or what benefit of having a line that is elastic? because the line would be so short and tight it would negate any elasticity and besides, you are wanting to keep even better shape and control to ensure de-powering of the sail in storm conditions. I found I wanted a low stretch, high strength thus small diameter line over having any large diameter low strength line laced up through the pull down points. Small diameter=less weight=less wear on the sail.

I hate the topper. I really need to get my rigid Vang back on the boat. For a Racer, it's less weight at the top of the mast. Remember that the entire topping line exerts it's effort to the top of the mast. Even though the rigid vang maybe weigh in more, it's entire weight is at the bottom of the mast.

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I think they mean elasticity when reefed wheels.

My clew line was I guess 8 to 10m when reefed so plenty of line for the elasticity to work if you wanted it to.

Like most cruisers the clew line went internal in the boom and then all the way back to a cockpit jammer.

I can't see any real benefit in elasticity though.

Surely the boat will just heel, point up or better yet, go faster in the gusts?

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Yip understood that. When fully reefed down, is when you don't want elasticity. We pay good money for sale cloth to have the least elasticity as possible to maintain shape. Why do we want the reefing line to be elastic. We want a means of reefing down as freely and effortlessly as possible. The least possible friction, so that means low stretch and small daiameter lines. And once reefed down, you want the sail to remain tight and maintain shape with little as possible change in that shape.

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Elasticity means movement, movement means chafe.

Excellent comment Booboo.

 

And if looked at from another angle, we go for Halyards that are high load capable and as little stretch for a reason. Why then mess that up by having the stretch at the other end.

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Agreed guys, no/minimal stretch, and as little friction as possible in the setup.... hence my earlier comment about blocks on the sail rather than cringles... esp if using single line reefing (cruisers only).

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Yeap I'm not seeing anyone thinking different to me on the reeflines.

 

I bet it's another one of these so call 'guru sites' that are either a marketing website in the guise of a information site or some 386yo dude who once sailed with Ctp Cook and is now being held up as a legend, shame they still think Manila rope ids the duck nuts for halyards.

 

Got one of those on at the moment. The gent was good, back in the day, but sadly now a doddering old grumpy bastard who is costing people moonbeams for old school. It's crazy stuff. He's not a NZer by the way... even if we do have a very similar person who needs to read the date on his calendar.

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