Staysail Stay Tension

[estarzinger]

FWIW . . . our set-up. Has worked well . . . .

[GILow]

Thank you, that's rather neat. I can't quite make out the clutch there, do you know which brand/mechanism it is and can you release it under tension ok?

Matt

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

FWIW . . . our set-up. Has worked well . . . .

Attachment 86730

Interesting, Thanks for posting the Pic. so 3:1 onto a winch again. Same as Insatiable II and many of the sydney hobart boats I looked at last summer.

Interested in how Hawk and Insatiable II's clutches are used. I am guessing that the line is normally made up on the winch as well as the clutch for safety, and the clutch is only relied on for when you need the winch, and just before you tack or gybe? I guess it would make it much quicker to dump the lee runner, just flick the lever and you're done.

A note with Hawks setup that isn't obvious from the photo. The lower blocks must be fixed somehow to prevent twist, otherwise doubles led like this twist and bind. If you are just shackling the blocks to the deck you need to use fiddle blocks (one above the other) or two separate singles to prevent this from happening.

I'm wondering if Hawks runners lead to the staysail or to the hounds to support the jib?

[estarzinger]

The clutch is a spinlock - not sure model XX perhaps. (I am sailing at the moment just going by Atlantic city and grabbing a bit of cell tower. . . I can look it up in a couple days).

The boat has the hardware for both runners (to the headstay hounds) and check stays (to the staysail hounds), but I have only the checks set-up. If I were racing I would probably set up the runners (although they might not be worth the rating penalty).

[JPA Cate]

"A note with Hawks setup that isn't obvious from the photo. The lower blocks must be fixed somehow to prevent twist, otherwise doubles led like this twist and bind. If you are just shackling the blocks to the deck you need to use fiddle blocks (one above the other) or two separate singles to prevent this from happening."

For a while we did have trouble with twist, but Jim figured out how to lead the tail of the runner so that it finally quit, and w/o fiddle blocks. Also, we do use them as Snowpetrel describes.

Ann

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

For a while we did have trouble with twist, but Jim figured out how to lead the tail of the runner so that it finally quit, and w/o fiddle blocks.

Keen to see how they are run. Any photos?

[GILow]

Well, tonight I went for a wander around our yacht club. There must be around 150 yachts, ranging in size from 30' to 60' or more. I was looking for cutter rigged yachts with running backstays to see how they handled the problem.

I found none. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

What the heck? Is this some kind of generational thing or is my boat some kind of freak? Or are all the masthead cutters out there sailing around the world rather than hanging around our yacht club? Suddenly I think I have the strangest boat in the club, whereas here on CF our boat feels almost normal.

Confused.

Matt