Quote:
Originally Posted by SVNeko
You can probably use the extra sail area. Sounds to me like you are extremely undercanvassed if you don't take in a reef until 28-30 kn.
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My Point EXACTLY!
Such relates directly to my reference regarding filling up the holes in one's sail inventory.
It's simple enough to just fit a short sprit, add a structural
furler, & fit a well shaped, full sized
genoa. Ditto on adding a Screecher & or Code 0. All, likely for less $ than a new, racy
mainsail, plus the beefed up
deck & spar
hardware needed to handle it.
Ah, & not to sound harsh. But it might also be prudent to try putting the
boat on a diet. Specifically, off load literally everything onboard. And take note of how much your WL rises. Then, only put back on what's
Truly necessary. And I guarantee you'll notice the difference.
Back to the vang thing. One can just bite the bullet, & have a custom one fabricated, or create a
DIY unit.
Were it me, I might manufactuer one with some curvature pre-built in to the fiberglass/kicker rods. So that it would fit in the "normal" location. This, due to the
cabin house obstructing the movement & mounting of a conventional, straight one. And have the rest of the system be much akin to the Boomkicker, described below.
That, or even have a unit designed & fabricated so that it's lower end terminates at a structural hard point, on top of the
cabin house. With or without the ability of one end of the vang, to articulate as needed: So as to accomoate the changing angles of things, as the boom swings though it's
arc.
Note, that when I say structural hard point. One could be built to be much akin to how the forward ends of the booms on some OPEN 60's are attached.
And for some visuals of what I'm describing regarding vangs with curved rods, there are some approximations of such vangs here
www.boomkicker.com Albeit, you'd need more initial prebend built into the rods.
On the rods for the
kicker, you could have a set of curved, custom, composite rods made up. With their lower ends fitted to the traditional location for a vang's attachment on the
mast.
Their purpose being exactly the same as the springs, or
fiberglass rods in a conventional vang (kicker). Or the gas pressure built into a standard hydraulic vang.
So that with no force acting to compress them, their natural tendency will be to
lift up the boom.
Then, have their attachment to the boom, be to a sliding car, mounted to a track on the boom's underside. To which a hydraulic cylinder is also connected. One which runs between this car & the
mast.
Thus, in normal operation, with no load being applied to the hydraulic cylinder, the composite rods will lift the boom up. And then, when pressuere is applied to things via the cylinder, it pulls on the vang's rods on the boom's underside, further bending them. Resulting in the boom being pulled downwards. Just as a conventional vang would do.
Or a different approach for a custom/DIY vang option is this:
Make up 2 beams/plates. With the lower one affixed to the mast in the standard location, via a gooseneck. And the 2nd beam is affixed to a car on a track, on the boom's underside.
Then, have the 2 beams bolted together with a structural pivot pin, so that they form an "L" where they meet., underneath of the boom. Thus avoiding having them hit the cabin house.
Along with the beams, you'll need to attach a large spring/shock setup. From both sides of the boom, to the more horizontally oriented beam (or the beams connecting pivot pin). And hook up a hydraulic cylinder to this same beam, where it's attached to the car on the boom's underside.
So that when you crank up the hydraulic cylinder, it pulls the upper beam's connection on it's track, towards the mast. Thus compressing the springs in the system. Which will subsequently pull the boom downwards.
Or, you could even mount the hydraulic cylinder with one of it's ends at the connecting hinge pin of the 2 beams. And have it's other end affixed to the mast just below the gooseneck.
So that when activated, the cylinder would again, compress the springs attached to the upper beam, thus pulling the boom downwards.
Also, the springs in the system could be connected instead, to the more vertically oriented beam, in order to achieve the same effect.
- Pretty much, if one spends half an hour studying the various suspension setups on mountain bikes, you'll come up with loads of (proven) ideas.
That, & or, take a look at some of the custom
hardware setups on Dennis Conner's soft sail
catamaran. The one which is the twin to the hard sailed version which sailed circles around the old Kiwi monstrosity back in the late '80's. Said cat has
Lots of neat toys