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Jib track positioning


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I have just setup a Jib car/track and new routing for the Jib sheets on my Noelex 22 I'm after any advice on weather i have done the right thing or not. I tested it out and it seems to work ok I'm just after any advice from more experienced sailors..

 

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You'll need to have a play with where the car wants to be for each head sail but that install look plenty fine enough to get you and your beast to a nice bay to sink a few beers in.

 

Once you have sussed the best car position for each sail you could make a small mark right next to the track so you know what setting to use next time. But don't rush to do that permanent like until your happy you have it right.  You could put some masking tape along side and mark that while you play around.

 

You may also find some headsails like a low wind setting and a heavy weather setting i.e maybe a hole forward in the lite, a hole back in a blow.

 

How much adjusting you'll want to do may depend on how you see your personal 'I can live with that' to 'I'll need to put my beer down to tweak that' life balance playing out :)

 

 

 

Of all the miles I've done in all the different boats in all the assorted countries a couple of boats do stand out more than all the rest. We were doing a Blockovic or similar in a 1/2 tonner and flat running down the side of Waiheke heading for Happy Jacks, Goat or the Cow, one of them off Coromandel. Big bag up and rocketing along OK when the exclamation was heard 'Farrrrkkkkk look whats coming KITE DOWN NOW!!!'. Looked back to see a solid black wall coming at us from behind and popping kites all over the show.

 

WAAAAAAA!!! sh*t too slow and we got slammed, laid down with the masthead near in the water, kite 3/4 up holding us down but in not too bad a way. The call was made to hang for 30 seconds but find a knife, the halyards days were looking very limited.

 

I was standing on the mast hanging on ready to slash when I looked over towards land to see this yacht with full main and kite still up skipping from wave top to wave top touching the water what looked like every 50mts. It was screaming along seriously fast and I was sailing 18's at the time and this yacht was going hell fast. In the cockpit was 2 guys with very pale complexions and eyes the size of dinner plates, they were doing a great version of Mere cats. They all very quickly disappeared onto the ick.

 

A few minutes later we got up and were off again. About 2 miles later we saw a boat having a few issues so we aimed towards it. As we got closer we saw it was the speeding yacht and the 2 guys had the sails down and were bailing hard out. We pulled up alongside to see if they need help. To say they were buzzing harder than a Meth freak is an understatement, their voices were so high pitched as they were shouting 'Did ya see that, did ya. We must have been doing 40 Knots'. They were OK so we carried on.

 

They got caught with the kite up (pays to glance over your shoulder now and again) and were too scared to move once the boat took off so they hung in and hoped for the best. But they spun out big time and 1/2 filled the boat with water.

 

They weren't doing 40 knots but we reckon they probably were flirting with 20, they were absolutely flying, literally some of the time. It's a site I'll never forget, the pace of the boat, the look on the 2 crews faces followed by them fizzing with an Adrenalin rush to beat most rushes and so freaking happy it was a little spooky. To this day I'm still a little jealous I didn't get that ride.

 

That boat was a Nolex 22.

 

Oh wow what a great story!!! I'm actually in stitches laughing you really painted the picture well there and thanks for the feedback!

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Our noelex 22 (marten build) had two tracks, one at the very edge of the cabin, and one about 150mm further inboard. We used the inboard track up to around 25kt, bringing it back a click as the breeze got near the top, then went to the outer track above that. Boat was far easier to handle once we got to the outer track, but as soon as the breeze dropped below that, we would lose pointing ability with the wide angle.

 

Sobstad main, Royden jib.

 

In terms of stories, we came into parua bay in 40+kts, main and kite, with only a well reefed N25 nearby. According to them, we came off a wave and were a good half a metre clear of the water between centreboard and rudder. All I know is we passed them like they were aground.

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