Mahe 36: Rig and Sails

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Hi Jean, and others, the thread could be more alive, that is true.
It lives by contributions. These could be social, or regarding technical matters about the boat. Tips about maintenance, improvements, problem points of the Mahe.
Contributions require altruistic behaviour from the participants: to inform the others about technical improvements, maintenance, etcetera, that you have solved yourself. And which could be very useful to others.
I will post a few. Hope that uploading the pictures works.

The first picture is the top eye of our mainsail. This was put in last October. It prevents the top of the main sail very well from being damaged by the runner, as with the original construction. It is a part which the sail maker in France had lying around. The (not visible bush) that connects it to the runner is a bit too thin, requires a washer on each side.

The second picture is an elastic which covers the jammer of the jib halyard. It excellently prevents the jib sheet from getting stuck behind the jammer when tacking. Since it is elastic you can easily lift it above the jammer when you have to release the jammer.
I don't have a good solution yet to prevent the jib sheet to get stuck behind the mast winch, except for laying the sheet on the winch before tacking.

The third picture is of the port forward hatch, where we keep the fenders and mooring lines. I mounted a piece of wood, with 3 double cleats on it and 4 line tidying hooks (2 of which are visible). The cleats are used to hang the fender lines on, so that you can easily take them out.
On the starboard side I have a similar construction for the spinnaker sheets.

The 4th and 5th picture are the lifeline construction I just installed. We are very happy with it. There is a yellow band which runs from steering seat leg, is looped around and knotted to the mast, and is attached at the other end to one support of the bimini. Separate lifelines (one on starboard, one port) are spliced to the yellow band with a nylon part.
A third lifeline is permanently attached to the steering seat leg.
It has big advantages over other solutions I feel:
- No metal hook damaging the boat, windows etcetera
- You hook it on EVERY time you go forward eg for reefing since the fuss is minimal. Even when you have to work on the winches when you are dangerously close to the railing.
- You can on one hand reach the mast for reefing, on the other hand the lifelines are so short that when you go overboard, you will hang only partly in the water (it is said that water-reaching lifelines are dangerous when you drop in the water at high boat speed).
Only disadvantage so far is that you can not reach the forestay, furler, bowsprit and front cleats; but you do not really have to go there in rough weather when you should use lifelines. And you could use a longer standard hook-on lifeline for these cases.

I have got more.... For another time.
Hope to see contributions from others. Kind regards,
Jef and Marin
On our way to the Baltic, until mid October.

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Another try to attach the pictures
Jef

[jean1146]

Hi Jeff&Marin
I really like your idea about not having the Jib sheet get stuck,I need to do it.The top eye of my main is looking terrible on our boat,but I am a little scare about having to remove the main in order to do it,maybe you can give some advices.I have done the same thing with the forward hatches ,one side for the lines the other side for the fenders. Those are little improvements that makes life easier. Graet shots by the way.
Happy sailing
JC.

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Hi Jean,
I would suggest you remove your main sail together with the sail maker who is going to make an improvement on the main sail top eye, he can show you what to do next time, and how much tension to put on the battens. I take about one hour to remove or mount the mainsail, which with the Dutch climate you have to do every winter anyhow.
It involves:
- Detaching halyard from the top eye
- Removing the reefing lines. Make a knot to prevent pulling them in the boom.
- Detach the line that pulls the bottom of the sail backwards along the boom, whatever that is called in English. Make a knot ....
- On the port side: slacken the lazy jacks so that the mainsail can land on the roof.
- Starting from the top: Detach the main sail battens from the travelers with a very good quality 4 mm inner hexagon key and a 10 mm socket wrench. You might have to replace a few of these A4 SS bolts due to damage to the hexagon. Put the detached part of the sail on the roof.
- Detach the front bottom of the sail from the boom
You can now (2 people) lift the mainsail from the boat
- If you want to be able to fold the mainsail you will have to remove the battens. This goes from the front. First you have to slacken a small (around 2.5 or 3 mm) inner hex bolt that secures the large aluminium bolt. This is mounted in the white plastic part under 45 degrees. Then remove the big aluminium bolt with a spanner. Then using a 6 or 8 mm inner hex key remove the batten tensioner, then the batten.
- Now that the mainsail is removed, it is simple to remove the lazy bag for maintenance. (due to the standard construction of the reefing lines, the lazy bag stitches have probably suffered. I changed the standard construction....)

Note that if you mount a larger top eye, you might have to shorten the top of the sail a bit. The top eye I used is higher than the original one, so about 3 cm of the top of the sail was removed, and new straps mounted.
Reason to shorten the sail is for having enough space between the top eye block and the top of the mast.

Hope this helps. Kind regards,
Jef

[jean1146]

Jef. Thanks for the very detailed instructions. It looks like it will be a Job. I really need to do it.
Best regards.
JC.

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Jean,
A few extra remarks I forgot on removing the mainsail:
When you mount the battens in the sail:
- You have to tension the battens a bit. A bit tighter than just touching, there should be a bit of tension on the sail. Folds should not completely go out of the batten pockets, if you do that it is too much tension and your battens will bend the sail in a curve or S curve. (in weak wind)
- When you re-mount the aluminium parts these have to be secured by the 45 degrees inner hexagon bolts. Note that these 45 degrees bolts must touch the flat sides of the aluminium "bolts", in order not to damage the thread.

Tomorrow we hope to sail from the north of the Netherlands to Denmark, across the German Bight. Probably a day plus night plus day trip. In which harbour we will arrive depends on progress and wind direction. Wind is now NNW 5-6, sometimes 7. Tomorrow it should become 4-5. There will still be 2.5 meters of swell; there have been strong northerlies for nearly a week. We will have to sail close-hauled all the way, probably.
Kind regards, good luck,
Jef

[jean1146]

Jef. Thanks for telling me what to do. We will be sailing this week end localy,the winds are light right now and the thunderstorms are starting to be pretty nasty,this is the time of the year and we are entering in the hurricane season......Lightning is always a concern,is your boat protected? ours is not!
Enjoy your trip.
JC.

[RoadRacer]

Can someone post pics of their FP supplied bowsprit? I'm interested in the aft attachment configuration and how it joins the hull.
That option is a bit salty for me at >$5K and there are many CF choices out there for a lot less.
Has anyone done any homework on this? Thanks in advance for the info!

Chuck

[DtM]

Wow, that is some increase in price.

When we bought 2gether (hull 29) the price of the bowsprit, additional winch, blocks and jammer, swivel for the head of the sail, sheets and furling drum was $3137 Australian dollars.

I thought it was a bargain at the time but seems it really was.

[Cotemar]

Chuck,

Here is a picture which shows the bowsprit attachment. Looks like two bolts just infront of the chain locker.

Wow. I just noticed I have 2 more hatches on the 2009 that the below picture does not have. Catatude has hatches over the sinks in the two heads.

Are you getting the D1-20 or the D1-30 engines?

Mark

[Wayward Wind]

Originally Posted by RoadRacer

Can someone post pics of their FP supplied bowsprit? I'm interested in the aft attachment configuration and how it joins the hull.
That option is a bit salty for me at >$5K and there are many CF choices out there for a lot less.
Has anyone done any homework on this? Thanks in advance for the info!

Chuck

Chuck

Hope these are what you are looking for.

Cheers!

JohnC

[RoadRacer]

Thanks for the information and great photos of the bowsprit. Good to know that the "stock" unit wasn't captured in a load-dispersing pocket on the hull. Someone told me that there was significant force in the X direction but it appears that the piece is bolted to the fore beam and hull flange without any other changes. Interesting.....

I did order the boat with the 30-hp engines. Hope they are still sippers as the two I've chartered had 20-hp engines I couldn't beleive how little fuel they used!

Regards,
Chuck

[MKB53]

A few other comments regarding questions posted over the last few weeks.

1: I have solved the jib sheet catching on teh mast winch with a simple elastic - I will post a picture as it is hard to explain.

2: My jib halyard parted on teh eye that it is fed through below the sheeve. I have re rigged it without going through this eye and so far it is OK. I have looked at some furler installation instructions on the Pro-furl website and they have mentioned the need to trap the halyard.

[MKB53]

On the topic of mainsail modifications.

1: I have had the reefing points in the main re-inforced with webbing. I tore one, possibly due to too much force when reefing but the sailmaker seemed to think it it should not have torn and recommended webbing as a standard. If you are having work done on the head fitting you may want to consider this as well.

2: I have seen some suggestions that you should have a 3rd reef (25%) as a fallback for heavy conditions on a cat - any thoughts on this? I am reluctant to go through the effort of removing the main again unless it is warranted.

3: The 2 line reefing system I outline a few months ago has now been used in anger a few times and worked beautifully! No need to leave the cockpit at all. You only need to use the winch on the clew reefing line, the tack line you can take in by hand. Running the reefing lines through the eyes is OK, no need to add any blocks. The only time friction is a bit of a nuisance is when re hoisting and as long as you pull some line through the jammer to get rid of the additional drag it is fine.

I have also fitted a second rope bag at the helm to cope with the additional lines.

[Scott730]

Mike
Could you send pictures of how your running the reef lines thru the Eye? I'm having a hard time visualizing the set up.

Lori
It must be early because I'm having the same trouble with your post, The only channel I have is at the windlass and there is a retaining pin to keep the chain in place. How about a picture of your set up as well.

Scott