Lucia 40: Rigging and Sails

[MKB53]

I guess this is not unique to the Lucia but I find the square top main a real pain to deal with.
2 Issues:

a) Hooking up the head ring to the top batten car prior to hoisting. The FP manual shows a method but my main does not have the loop stitched on.

b) The fact that the main won't free fall and has to be pulled down. I guess because of a combination of the drag of the square top on the top batten car and the friction on the halyard through the deck organiser.

Has anyone got any suggestions with respect to resolving these?
I have seen a method that Lagoon use for hooking up the head ring. Anyone tried this?

[UNCIVILIZED]

Regarding your 2nd question, it sounds like you'd benefit from rigging a downhaul for the sail. Which is something I've suggested to many folks with similar mainsails. The attached links should help you to sort that out. http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...il-170953.html
https://cse.google.com/cse?siteurl=w...aul&gsc.page=1

On your first question. Are you running into issues where you can't connect the halyard directly to the sail's headboard? Or to something else, or both?
If you have a loop, or buy or make one, you might sieze it in place, or lock stitch it to itself in position. To a small degree it's boat specific, but with a pic or three we could probably sort it out. That or a bit more in terms of a problem description.

[MKB53]

Thanks for that

The downhaul makes sense although having to retrieve it at the same time to prevent it foiling could be an issue.

I normally use a dry silicon lube on the cars.

Easy enough to "suck it and see".

With regard to the first question.
The ring at the head needs to be detached from the top batten car so that the sail lies flat in the lazy bag. When hoisting you have to climb to the boom height and pull the head up to the mast to attach to the batten car via a (special) snap shackle. The load induced by the angled square top battens makes this interesting, especially if it is windy.
I know you can get special batten cars (Doyle I think) and Lagoon used a system where a line is rigged from the car through the head ring, back to the car and down to the first horizontal batten. As the sail is hoisted (halyard to head ring) the tension straightens the line and pulls the head out to the batten car.

Looks quite simple but the length of the line would be critical.

[MKB53]

Attached file is a diagram of the Lagoon system.

Interested to hear if anyone has experience of it.

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by MKB53

Attached file is a diagram of the Lagoon system.

Interested to hear if anyone has experience of it.

The Helia 44 has the same sail issues that the Lucia 40 has with the Square Top Main Sail.

I tried the Incidences Sail method, and it just does not work as shown.

It gets you close, but the top of the sail is left out about 12 inches out from the mast.

I am playing with a few other methods right now. I will post it here if I find one that works better.
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[MKB53]

One solution would be to recut it as a standard round roach....��

[skipdaichainer]

Here is a new interesting product :
Uchimata - Entretien et maintenance nautique

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by skipdaichainer

Here is a new interesting product :
Uchimata - Entretien et maintenance nautique

Its in French, how quaint

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by skipdaichainer

Here is a new interesting product :
Uchimata - Entretien et maintenance nautique

Not sure what this will do for you ?
Not going to help bring the Square Top sail upto the mast car.
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[Dod42]

It looks interesting but from what I could see it attaches via a soft shackle. Seems to have sharp edges where the halyard exits the hook. It doesn't seem to do anything different to what is currently fitted. It seems you still have to lift the square top up and attach it.

[skipdaichainer]

With a video in ..... English :
Uchimata - Entretien et maintenance nautique

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by Cotemar

The Helia 44 has the same sail issues that the Lucia 40 has with the Square Top Main Sail.

I tried the Incidences Sail method, and it just does not work as shown.

It gets you close, but the top of the sail is left out about 12 inches out from the mast.

I am playing with a few other methods right now. I will post it here if I find one that works better.
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In a perfect world this is what the Flat Top sail connection should look like.

[SVNeko]

Originally Posted by Cotemar

Not sure what this will do for you ?
Not going to help bring the Square Top sail upto the mast car.
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Why not? That seems to be what it is supposed to do. I wonder if it will really work consistently, though.

[MKB53]

I quite like the idea of the hook on the batten car. Easier to hook up than a shackle but does not reduce friction when you drop the sail.
Perhaps the collective brainpower on the forum can come up with something.
I have just had an idea but would like to think it through before embarrassing myself. Maybe take out a patent!

[Terbonium]

The Karver KMS system was demoed to us by FP last week in La Rochelle. It appears to be the current system they are offering (at least on the Lucia 40). We've optioned it on our boat. They said the only change is to the top car so it sounds like it could easily be retrofitted to existing rigging without modifying the sail.

On our Lucia charter we had a difficult time dropping the main too.