Happy New Year everyone.
Went for a sail coupla days ago and noticed my newly serviced furler had a distinct bend
all along the luff. Is this kosher or should the luff be bar straight.??
I'm thinking now maybe the backstay hasn't been tightened enough, or am I worried about
nothing.
Sure sounds like the backstay IS too loose. A bendy forestay is not going to point as high as a straight / tight one. Loose stays produce shock loads and so it sounds like it should be rectified, in my opinion.
Thanks Brian. As a rule of thumb, if I grab hold of the backstay and give it a shake, how
much movement should I get ??.
In my opinion Sam it should move very little...be pretty stiff. Every boat is different of course but even on my small boat I can swing my body weight with very little deflection. Forestat at say 6 ft above the deck, about.....I just tried it....at six feet, arm out stiff, trying to get max deflection...20 mm.
Bottom line is that the backstay should be tight enough that there is little visible sag in the foil, it should be nearly straight. Im guessing, on your boat, halfway up the foil?? An inch ? Maybe.
What can you do? Experts just serviced the furler and now the backstay is loose.
Know what? Keep tightening the backstay until it is like it was prior to the servicing. Why not? It worked ok then!
If these people are right with their adjustments and your backstay is now at correct tension (by suggestion it was too tight before) then rigging failure would have occured at your last seriously blowy shock load. I would have thought.
Id get it back to the known quantity you previously had. You must have pretty straight foil...just like it was before the Gurus fixed it. Imho.
OK Brian. I have one of those little wheel affairs to tighten or slacken the backstay, so
it's easy enough to adjust it, I'm just a tad worried about tightening TOO much.
I remember one of the Australian Americas Cup challengers folding up around the mast
because it tuned up too tight. I don't want that to happen to me.
Actually Sam, that boat snapped in half because one of the sheet winches died. So the crew in their wisdom ran the sheet past the dead one to another a couple of metres aft. Too much bending load on the tube (the hull.).
Seems like you should go for a sail with the genoa drawing nicely. Then, nip up the backstay until the foil looks proper to you.
Others may guggest that a professional tune the rig but it's just been played with by pro's and isn't right.
Dont forget a bit of "LANOX" on the thread.
On edit. I'd ask the furler repair guy about his opinion re nipping up the backstay.
Righto Brian, got all that. Thanks for the advice mate. I'll play around with it next time out.
Mr Sturdy,
a lot of sag puts strain on the joiners between each section of the extrusion. If you furl the headsail with sag then more strain results.
Basically the furler extrusion likes to reasonably straight.
Sam in light winds a little sag is good as the wind increases you need to add more back stay.
Someone like chris 249 comes along he is very good at explaing tuning.
Light breezes ease off the backstay, this will make the sail fuller and give more power. As the breeze freshens harden up the backstay. There will always be some sag even with a tight backstay. The sailmaker cuts the sail to allow for this. Backstay is too tight when the heads door wont close! Keep a reasonable pressure on the backstay on the mooring too. Enough so that the mast is held fairly rigid. Most of the rigging damage is caused at the mooring.
With your wheel backstay tensioner there is probably a vernier along the thread with an arrow. Put markings on this after you work out what various tensions you need.
Thanks everybody, super input. One thing I forgot to mention. The wind was 20knts+ and
I was on headsail only. When I decided to call it a day I started the engine and rounded up
to furl the sail. There was plenty of flapping and the sail was really hard to furl for the first
half then got a lot easier as the sail reduced. I mean really hard. Would the bendy luff be
responsible for this. I unfurled and refurled the sail back on the mooring and it was a whole
lot easier.
Select to expand quotesamsturdy said..
Thanks everybody, super input. One thing I forgot to mention. The wind was 20knts+ and
I was on headsail only. When I decided to call it a day I started the engine and rounded up
to furl the sail. There was plenty of flapping and the sail was really hard to furl for the first
half then got a lot easier as the sail reduced. I mean really hard. Would the bendy luff be
responsible for this. I unfurled and refurled the sail back on the mooring and it was a whole
lot easier.
Not really. Just make sure you only ever furl by hand, don't use a winch. I have a ratchet block on my furler line which helps. I usually furl my headsail as I sail down wind to my mooring so the mainsail blocks off a fair bit of wind. If I take in just a few turns close hauled it takes a fair bit of pressure.
Select to expand quoteRamona said..
Light breezes ease off the backstay, this will make the sail fuller and give more power. As the breeze freshens harden up the backstay. There will always be some sag even with a tight backstay. The sailmaker cuts the sail to allow for this. Backstay is too tight when the heads door wont close! Keep a reasonable pressure on the backstay on the mooring too. Enough so that the mast is held fairly rigid. Most of the rigging damage is caused at the mooring.
With your wheel backstay tensioner there is probably a vernier along the thread with an arrow. Put markings on this after you work out what various tensions you need.
Totally agree. The original manual came with the Ranger 33, their advice was to tighten the backstay when sailing and slacken it off at rest - but didn't say how much. The toilet door strain gauge works well. the Ranger setup likes fairly slack rigging, almost slack lee shrouds when sailing hard. it must be a slightly bendy hull cos there is enough tension to stop pumping when at anchor, and that test is not a bad indication that the rig is set up OK.
A bit different setting up a fractional rig.
If Sam has badly worn furler forestay bushes the foil gets eccentric and that can make the first few roll hard to put in.
Just to finish this thread off.
I went sailing yesterday and checked out the backstay tension and sure enough it was
not tight, so I tensioned it to a point that I was satisfied with and took her out for the day.
At the end of the day at 25 knt breeze I rounded up and the furling was a whole lot easier.
So I've concluded with your help that, yes, the backstay had not been tensioned and that
its slackness had made furling a lot harder. So many thanks for your input guys.
Much appreciated.
