Mahe 36: Rig and Sails

[MKB53]

Hi All
I followed a mono flying a parachute once through a set of sandy shoals. Every time they went more than maybe 20 degrees off downwind they seemed to get into trouble. Lucky not to run aground! They took it down after a short while.
But then I would not have flown a spinnaker there either!

The Great Sandy Straits for any Aussies listening in.

[MKB53]

Hi Again

When I sold my Mahe recently I kept my A2 Assymetric spinnaker as it was virtually new and I thought may be some use with the new boat. It is hopelessly to small though so I am looking to sell it. It is a great sail from Quantum Australia, only flown on about 10 occasions. It is an A2 (deep downwind) cruising asymmetric (84.4 sqM) with an ATN dousing sleeve and really kicks you along in lighter winds.

I currently have it with me in the Mediterranean (Balearics) but could bring it back to Aus in November or ship somewhere.

If anyone is interested send me a private message.

Cheers
Martin

[Rufduck]

Where can I find detailed sail plans, i.e.dimensions, for the Mahe?
Thanks.

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by Rufduck

Where can I find detailed sail plans, i.e.dimensions, for the Mahe?
Thanks.

This post has a lot of FP Mahe 36 sail plan info.
.
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1082692
.
If you need more sail info then that you can go to their Incidences web site.

Incidences Sail will make and ship you a new Mahe 36 sail if needed.

[rgary]

So I'm faced with having to take the main off, you have obviously done that, could you take me through the steps - I have already been warned to not mess with the bat cars, and in this section of the forum noted that you also want to avoid removal of the battens. Made it through Hurricane Mathew at our dock in Thunderbolt GA with minimal damage (bimini and lazy bag canvas).


R Gary

[Cotemar]

lazy bag canvas should slide out of the boom without taking the main sail off.

[pguillemin]

Do not worry too much about taking the main off
Nothing drastic
First choice ;You remove everything including sliders off the mast track . You will then need some plastic retainers to hold the plastic ball bearings ( do not worry it is not rocket science and if you loose balls you can always buy more and replace ) The retainer is different depending on the brand of sliders .
Second choice ; You disconnect the batten system from the sliders ; easy ; Most of the time it is a SS small goose neck on the slider side which connect to the batten retainer . So do not lose the small screws
In any case mark the battens carefully and try to keep track of the tension (from the leech retainer )
It is good practice as you will break battes offshore during jibes once in a while so replacing them is current practice .Brian Hancock has a very good blog and Facebook page ; all about sails . and he will answer questions about the rig and quote you about sails . worth a look

[tpkas]

Parachute spinnaker first "flight" went well. Here's a link to the You Tube videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDGoczh79s4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BvnYRbmj0E

The conditions were quite benign. About 6.5kts of apparent wind giving a boat speed of 2.7 kts ... not earth shattering but it was almost hypnotic watching the spinnaker move gently from side to side as the wind varied about 30* of astern.

The hardest part was working out how to retrieve the chute which in the fairly light winds we've tried so far has not been a problem.

The way we set the chute up allows us to collapse the chute very easily. To do this there is a line connecting the top and bottom parachute cord bundles. IE half the parachute cords go to the top and half go to the bottom. The top cord bundle is attached to the spinnaker halyard and the bottom bundle to a line that goes to the foredeck. We also installed a line that connects the top and bottom bundles and stops the chute from opening too wide when flying thereby reducing the strain on the panel in between. A line is also connected from the deck to where the spinnaker halyard joins the top parachute cord bundle which remains loose when flying the parachute. By taking some tension on the deck to halyard line and easing the tension on the deck to bottom cord bundle line the bottom of the parachute floats up and collapses the chute. You keep the parachute out of the water by adjusting the spinnaker halyard up or down (in our case we have to raise the halyard), then go forward, grab some of the spinnaker and pull onto the deck.

We'll get braver and I'll try to keep the forum updated with regard to experience in stronger winds.

Regards,

Brian

[Mowzer]

We are Mahe #110, 7 years old, sailing in the Caribbean. This morning we were just getting ready to raise sail and the pin holding the boom to the mast in the gooseneck sheared off and dropped the boom onto the cabin top. Thankfully it was not too windy so we were able to secure it quickly onto the cabin top and motor back to anchor.

Quick reminder to everyone to check for wear at the gooseneck.

Question - can anyone point me to a diagram of the various parts and also the part numbers? I know the part numbers for the boom and mast but not any of the parts on the gooseneck.

Luckily we are in Le Marin, Martinique (mecca of French boats in the Caribbean). If we get the needed info in the chandlery I will post here for posterity.

[Cotemar]

Mowzer,

Mahe 36

Mast is a Z Spars – Z701
Boom is a Z Spar – Z480

This attached information should give you everything you need and a bit more.
.
.

[Mowzer]

Thank you so much Cotemar for the diagrams - I have filed them for reference.

We managed to lift the boom (with the sail still on) using the halyard and have refit the pin into the fitting.

Interestingly, there was a little threaded set screw in the mast fitting that appeared to hold the pin in place. However, the threads in the mast fitting have worn smooth and because of the shape of the fitting that then attaches to the boom, you cannot access the head of the set screw. How it was put in there in the first place is beyond me. There is a hole about half-way down that we believe should have a cotter pin, and most likely this is our point of failure, the cotter pin is no longer there so the larger (12mm) pin fell downwards (luckily into the sail bag).

We have installed a new cotter pin and will watch it carefully for wear.

[Mowzer]

Originally Posted by Mowzer

Thank you so much Cotemar for the diagrams - I have filed them for reference.

We managed to lift the boom (with the sail still on) using the halyard and have refit the pin into the fitting.

Interestingly, there was a little threaded set screw in the mast fitting that appeared to hold the pin in place. However, the threads in the mast fitting have worn smooth and because of the shape of the fitting that then attaches to the boom, you cannot access the head of the set screw. How it was put in there in the first place is beyond me. There is a hole about half-way down that we believe should have a cotter pin, and most likely this is our point of failure, the cotter pin is no longer there so the larger (12mm) pin fell downwards (luckily into the sail bag).

We have installed a new cotter pin and will watch it carefully for wear.

Amendment to my earlier note about a cotter pin falling out - it was a split pin that fell out. All for a 12 cent split pin, our boom fell off the mast!

[Jonno732]

Hey Guys n Gals,

Does anyone have handy the ISP dimension for the Mahe?
That is, the height above deck of the screecher halyard block.

All the sail plans I've seen have the I (height of Genoa halyard) but not the ISP. Not on the boat at the moment, but from what I remember and from the pics in this thread, it is about 200 -300mm higher....

Any info would be great.

Cheers

Jonno

[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by tpkas

Parachute spinnaker first "flight" went well. Here's a link to the You Tube videos.

The conditions were quite benign. About 6.5kts of apparent wind giving a boat speed of 2.7 kts ... not earth shattering but it was almost hypnotic watching the spinnaker move gently from side to side as the wind varied about 30* of astern.

The hardest part was working out how to retrieve the chute which in the fairly light winds we've tried so far has not been a problem.

The way we set the chute up allows us to collapse the chute very easily. To do this there is a line connecting the top and bottom parachute cord bundles. IE half the parachute cords go to the top and half go to the bottom. The top cord bundle is attached to the spinnaker halyard and the bottom bundle to a line that goes to the foredeck. We also installed a line that connects the top and bottom bundles and stops the chute from opening too wide when flying thereby reducing the strain on the panel in between. A line is also connected from the deck to where the spinnaker halyard joins the top parachute cord bundle which remains loose when flying the parachute. By taking some tension on the deck to halyard line and easing the tension on the deck to bottom cord bundle line the bottom of the parachute floats up and collapses the chute. You keep the parachute out of the water by adjusting the spinnaker halyard up or down (in our case we have to raise the halyard), then go forward, grab some of the spinnaker and pull onto the deck.

We'll get braver and I'll try to keep the forum updated with regard to experience in stronger winds.

Regards,

Brian

As a parasail captain I can tell you you're approaching it correctly. Don't be tempted to take it out in higher winds until you are very comfortable(edit: slowly increase speed to take it out in). I would also recommend a way to douse it instantly when it's under tension from a squall. That means dropping it in the water.

[Rufduck]

I have an 80 sq meter traction kite which is rigged directly to the deck rather than to a mast. To douse, it has a 4th line to the center of the kite which when flying is slack. It is attached to the mast 10-15 feet up via a running block to a halyard. To douse, just haul on the line and release the 3 control lines and the kite streams or "squids" and you just pull it in. This kite needs a minimum of 7 knots of wind on the kite to functionally fly. It meant that you needed a minimum of 15 knots of breeze and preferably 20+ for the lite slick Corsair tris but we could lift all 3 bows clear of the water in 5-7 foot seas. Will be fun to rig and try it on One World.
Oh, dumping into the water was a normal (?) occurrence but easy enough to relaunch. The control lines were 250 feet long triple tapered spectra with the last 100 feet 1/4".
The three control lines allow for elevation, track port and track starboard and it could reach at close to 110 true.
The downside is that it is not self tending in any way, at least not for me. It needed to be constantly flown.

Cheers, Martyn