Finally sailed!

[Mary Mac]

After doing a LOT of work on my boat, I finally sailed her for the first time yesterday. I used the jib that came on the boat.. it was designed for the auto-tacking setup (does anyone have one?) but worked fine with the sheets. I used the 120% genoa today and it worked great. Light winds in the Alameda estuary the last couple of days. There is a ton more work to do, but the fact that I can actually sail on my sailboat now is encouraging.

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[Capn ken]

Congratulations, it’s always fun to cast off your lines and take her for a little spin around the harbor. I had a calf 34 for several years and went up and down the West Coast many times. If you don’t have a boom break I Would take a look at one.

[rcvesselstyn]

Wonderful that the boat is sailing again. We have been following your efforts and are excited you have reached this point. Being out on the water makes all the work worthwhile. It'll be difficult to go to the boat now and work on her instead of taking her out. We don't have a lot of will power and that's' probably why we never finished our Cal 28. We had her 30 years. Kudos on the good work!

[Mary Mac]

Congratulations, it’s always fun to cast off your lines and take her for a little spin around the harbor. I had a calf 34 for several years and went up and down the West Coast many times. If you don’t have a boom break I Would take a look at one.

Thanks, Ken. Is there a boom break setup you prefer? There was something on the boat, but the lines didn't reach the cockpit, so it was unusable. I am trying to decide the best setup.

[Mary Mac]

Wonderful that the boat is sailing again. We have been following your efforts and are excited you have reached this point. Being out on the water makes all the work worthwhile. It'll be difficult to go to the boat now and work on her instead of taking her out. We don't have a lot of will power and that's' probably why we never finished our Cal 28. We had her 30 years. Kudos on the good work!

Thanks!! Yes, being out on the water makes it all worth it.

[rcvesselstyn]

A few thoughts on setting up your running rigging. You should walk the dock with your phone camera and see how other sailors have rigged their boats for your local conditions. Some of the boats will have the same rig that they were originally purchased with, but many will have been modified for racing and cruising. You can usually tell the boats that have been raced because of unused pad eyes and filled holes in the deck. These show attempts to optimize their rig. When we bought our boat it was outfitted with port and starboard preventers that also acted as a boom vang and led to the cockpit.

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This set up didn't work for me. The positive was that during a broad reach or running you could just pull in the lee preventer. The negatives; the lines ran across the deck and cabin top making a obstacle course to access the foredeck, the line would bind on the cabin top and hand rail, every tack would require adjustment of two lines to act as a vang, and the bale on the cam cleat would take a bite out of my shin every time I went forward or returned. Just because a local racer has a particular rig doesn't mean it is the answer. Decisions made during a race might not be the decisions made by a more conservative sailor. In thirty knots of wind and a eight foot swell during a race you might sail a dead run. Which could put your boat and crew at risk but win the race. Under less pressing requirements you would be more likely to tack downwind with a reefed main on a broad reach doing a Dutch turn instead of jibing. Back in the days of canvas sails my father would sail the Trans-pac. There was a requirement that the boats water tanks were full before the race. Big tanks on a 120 foot boat. After the start the owner told one of the crew to pump the main water tank dry. The crewmember misunderstood and was pumping all the fresh water overboard. My Dad luckily caught him before it was all gone, but they still had only beer to drink for the last two days. Perhaps different decisions and requirements when you are racing. Currently we have a more traditional boom vang lead to the cockpit.

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The vang terminates with a snap shackle. During a broad reach or a run in light air and large swells we will use the vang as a preventer. Under sloppy conditions I set the whisker pole on the genoa. On the way to the foredeck I transfer the snap shackle to the lee pad eye; instant preventer. We have run our most used control lines to the cockpit; rolling furling line, main halyard, cunningham/luff reef line, leach reef line, flattening ring/outhaul, and vang/preventer. We can reef the boat in a few seconds without leaving the cockpit. Do not be installing pad eyes and drilling holes before you have thoroughly tested a rig. We always jury rig a new setup and sail it under different conditions before we commit to it. A rig that is perfect for one might not suit the sailing style of another. Smooth sailing!

1936

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[Capn ken]

great photos and good advice ,be patient ,ask questions,check out boat swap meets when possibleand stay safe .

[Mary Mac]

Thanks for the photos and sharing your stories. Yet another reason to keep the beer well stocked!

I thought I had replied to this a few days ago, but it mustn’t have gone through.

A friend helped with some measurements and design and I bought rigging for a vang, preventer and 2 line reef system. We will set it up tomorrow to see how it all works. I really appreciate seeing the photos.

There is a great used boat stuff store at my marina and I dug around there yesterday. I found some shackles for a great price. Really trying not to spend my entire paycheck at the chandlery every time.

[davenrino]

I am interested in all the above for my 2-30. I already have a Pro-Furl and a cabin-top traveler. I am in the process of running the main halyard to the cockpit as well. I still have the old Slab reef system with 2 reefs in the main so I will still have to go fwd for reefing. At least I will be able to dump the main and furl the 110 from the cockpit if it gets too wild.

[rcvesselstyn]

A note about jiffy reefing. On paper the single line reefing looks like an easy answer. However for us the amount of strength to pull in that single line is beyond our power. Even with multiple blocks and the main halyard winch it proved impractical.

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We use a double line reefing system and this has worked for us in many extreme conditions.

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One of the biggest problems for us was as you lower the main to reef, the boom ( which is dancing around like a live wire in 25knots of wind ) lowers into the cockpit. Not good. So our routine is : 1. head into the wind. 2.release the vang and main sheet. 3. pull in the leach reef line all the way, this raises the boom away from the cockpit. 4. release the main halyard to a marked point on the line. 5. pull in the luff reef line to maximum. 6. retighten the main halyard. With practice this is a quick operation and the boat has not lost way, so we can just fall off and continue on our course.

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Smooth sailing!