Last thing first, Annie, the wind direction indicator.
I did have something like what you describe at the mast top of Johanna. However, I found that the winds around the head of the sail disturbed it when we were running before (and not wanted to gybe). On Frøken Sørensen, and now, on Ingeborg, I use a yard extension stick to make sure the yard will not fall forward of the topping lift, with only three panels set. Then it has been natural to tie the ribbon to that stick. This ribbon lives in quite free wind so it shows the angle between the wind and sail correctly, both when close-hauled and when running before. What I like with the Windex, is the two vanes, which makes it easier to hit the wanted pointing angle each time I tack.
Pointy rigs.
To me they come in two main categories; with stiff masts and with bendy masts, as seen on fractional rigs. When the fractional rigs came back in fashion, in the late seventies, their owners soon learned to exploit the ability to flatten the mainsail by tensioning the aft stay. Many new gadgets came on the market; better cleats, winches, “muscle boxes” etc. which made accurate adjustment possible. I doubt if the FB had its mast and mainsail that much adjusted in its first years, but when seeing what could be done to the modern boats, they soon found that the rig of the FB was as made for advanced trimming, and that with simple means.
One thing I seriously dislike with contemporary Bermudian rigs is all the friction. Unless well maintained or upgraded, the genoa sheet cars get stuck quite soon. In addition, the practice of running halyards inside the mast, plus the fancy one-line reefing mechanism inside the boom, are all real friction traps.
Less than two weeks ago I crewed on a twenty-one year old Najad 330 around the coast from Kristiansand to Tananger. Despite being a high-quality boat in good conditions, there was a lot of friction everywhere in the rig, even in the roller headsail system. The winches were needed on even ‘light’ jobs. If that Najad were mine, the first job would be to fit a new halyard for the mainsail and run it outside the mast. Same with the reefs; I’d fit ordinary slab reefs.
Finally
This little race was against a well-tuned (if not top-notch) FB. Just as when Edward Hooper races against well-tuned Splinters, one should not expect to win. Still, by disregarding sail area limitations with respect to handicap, as I do, it is possible to achieve about the same elapsed time in a race from A to A as those with BR. That is good enough for me.
Cheers, Arne
