David wrote:

Scott wrote:

.

David: Thank you for sharing your observations about my rig. I welcome any and all suggestions for improvement from any JRA member. If anyone thinks some part of my boat is ugly, please let me know what I can do to improve! I would like the finish on the tabernacle to look a little nicer, but I don't really know how to improve it.

It is not about ugly but more about helping where I can see the rig is not working the way it should, and it seemed to me that the middle of those upper 3 sheeted battens was being pulled more than the battens above and below, which would suggest that the sheetlets are incorrectly set up, and to me, too short. But you have had only one season of sailing whereas I had 'Footprints' with her junk rig for 12 years so in that time one learns quite a lot about how these sails should work. By the time you have fiddled for a couple of seasons you will have figured things out. But the important thing is that you are enjoying the boat with her new rig.

Your tabernacle is always going to stand out because it is quite a significant structure on such a small boat. Maybe painting it the same colour as the rest of the deck will make it blend in more? 

Hi David,

I suppose ugly was not really the right word for me to use. Anything that is not working correctly looks ugly to me. I thought the extra pull on that batten was some expected part of the 'anti-twist' behavior of the sheets. I am appreciative when you and others point out something that is wrong with my rig.

The parts of the deck and cockpit that I painted last year looked much nicer, out in the sun, than the old gel coat. It was also MUCH easier to clean the bird poo, and whatever else, off the new paint. I am planning to paint the tabernacle, deck and cockpit this winter. We will see if the plans work out.

Thank you for the suggestion Arne.

Yesterday I went out to the boat and tried to rig up something with small blocks for the sheetlets. I think the lower span with two blocks looks OK. Trying to use three blocks for the upper spans did not work so well.

I am still planning to haul the boat for the winter on Sunday, so I will need to wait 7 months or so before I can try again. I will likely try to make a soft euphroe following your write up.

David: Thank you for sharing your observations about my rig. I welcome any and all suggestions for improvement from any JRA member. If anyone thinks some part of my boat is ugly, please let me know what I can do to improve! I would like the finish on the tabernacle to look a little nicer, but I don't really know how to improve it.

David wrote:

Scott wrote:

I posted this video showing the current state of the rig on my S2. I think this is likely the end of rig updates for this season. Unless something breaks I will spend the remainder of the summer sailing and not fussing with the rigging.

I had a look at your video and it seemed that the leech of the sail was not looking very good. I wonder if your sheetlets are long enough, are they set up as per the recommendations in PJR? It may have been the angle the video was shot from but on the top span, which I think connected 3 battens the sheet pull seemed to be coming from the middle of the 3 battens, rather than pulling down equally on all 3.

It is normal for some things to not work out initially and to even break, but the nice thing about the junk rig is that everything is low tech and does not cost much to change/replace. When we fitted the new sail to 'Footprints' there was a lot of modification during the first season, but from then on everything has remained static and 9 years later the rig has required virtually no maintenance, just a bit of line adjustment from time to time. If something breaks or chafes through it is a matter of finding the cause and then making an improvement next time round. And bungee cord which you mentioned in your later email just seems to last no time in the sun.

The really good thing is that you have completed your junk conversion and have been able to get out on the water and enjoy the fruits of all your hard work so congratulations on a successful first season.

I have the sheetlets setup as a copy of the 'New sheetlets, a Mk.2 version of the Johanna-sheeting' in Arne's Fixes, adjustments and improvements on Ingeborg letter. Or, at least, my attempt at copying them.

I have been looking at the three upper sheeted battens all summer trying to decide if they are pulling at the correct angle. I think the leech of my sail sort of looks like the one on Ingeborg.

I plan to replace the cord that connects the to upper three battens with a longer section of rope or cord to see if it works better. I am still trying to decide if I should also make the upper-most sheeted batten a little bit shorter.

The bungee cord I had holding the tiller clearly was not made to be out in the sun all summer. It just sort of disintegrated while I was out on the big lake. Not a critical failure, but it was annoying.

I also had one of the batten parrels come untied from the batten. Again it was not critical and I could still sail with the line hanging loose. I tied a short loop of rope to the batten, the way Arne did recently, to make a more reliable attachment point. I did not stitch it to the pocket like Arne did, but I put a patch of grip tape on the batten before using cord to lash the larger loop to the batten. I plan to do this for all the batten and HK parrels this winter.

It was suggested to me that holding my phone against the boat might show the motion of the boat a little better. Below is a video where I held the phone against the cabin top and deck while sailing in something like 2.5 ft waves. This is near the upper end of what I consider comfortable sailing.

https://youtu.be/pQSaeSy6m-I

I think I am done sailing for the year. I am planning to haul the boat out this week.

Happy Spring to those of you in the Southern Hemisphere!

Arne wrote:

[...]That red and white material is just tape. I put it under the hose clamps to avoid corrosion, and I didn’t bother with removing it when going Dyneema. Thanks to that little white ‘safety string', that lashing will never slip.[...]

Hi Arne,

Thank you for answering my question about the tape. Is there some reason why you used Dyneema? The low stretch and high strength properties do not seem to be critical in this application. I think Dyneema is also relatively slippery rope, meaning it does not hold knots as well as something like polyester.

I would like to use your method to attach the my batten parrels. I am too cheap to buy Dyneema unless it is necessary.