Thread: OzRacer sail tweeking

Hi ... I'll go into more detail later.

But generally you want the sail very well secured to the yard.

The boom is another story and you can allow some depth there - it is actually quite good for forward progress to have some in the bottom of the sail. But no more that 1/10 of the length of the foot even when the boom is bending.

As far as stopping the boom from moving forward ... meet the bleater (you can see the goats got to name it) - the blue line is probably the best choice.


It replaces the square lashing.

Discussion here
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/a...ml#post1541755

The sail in your pictures will work quite well. So don't worry too much. It will probably start to look quite different on the water as the wind stretches the fabric and moves the shape the yard puts in into the middle of the sail more.

I'll write more later.

MIK

Found this on Ross Lillistone's blog, what do you think of it?

Super detective work Gyula

It's probably not strong enough for what we are proposing if the downhaul is moved back along the boom to have a vanging effect. But would solve the general problem when the downhaul is in the normal position very nicely.

Another problem with the vang idea is that it will increase the rope on this line so much the boom might not rotate freely enough around the mast. Which is the reason for the blue setup in the image above. It still holds the boom against the mast but not so strongly.

Tests continue!

MIK

Hi, thanks for the replies Mik and Gyula Gyula this looks good and I will try it today.
I went out yesterday arvo but the wind droped off to 3-4 kn so light air practice, got a little wind at the start and the creasing along the yard didn't move, might make another yard to experiment.
Mik I really didn't understand the lee and weather helm concept properly so got on wiki last night, the reason for this lack is my duck up to now has been very neutral but a bit lee depending what tack I am on, after yesterdays mods it is now definitly lee so I will move the sail back another 50mm, yesterday I set it up with the luff 400mm forward, the bleeter I set up was from the tack, around the mast, over the boom, down to the down haul attachment thingy, this worked ok but was constant downhaul and will chafe the boom, so Gyula's bleeter looks better, re the down haul/vang idea, 200mm was to much so I will move it to 100mm as like Mik said it was resricking the movment of the boom when trying to sheet out.
The other thing I had happening more than before changing was (I have my sail on the starboard side) when on a port tack I can point very high, but when on a starboard tack I drop off a lot, taking off almost all down haul helped this but it was still a lot, so I am thinking that I may have the foot a lot to tight and will reduce outhaul.
Sorry about the long post, I have a habit of beening verbose
Mik, I really enjoyed the gizzel in haunts was good and it got me to gis build in queenstown which was really good, I keep getting very tempted to do a gis at christmas as they look beautiful but the duck keeps poping up as the perfect comprimise boat lol, it fits in the back of my work van so no trailers and great for camping, I have finally worked out how to get my sail down and stowed on the side of the boat safley while out on the water so fishing is now a option, the stability is amazing, sail down I can stand up and walk around in it !!! The funniest on was yesterday, for storage I just leave it standing on it's side at the front of the house, three of my son's friends came through while I was playing with setup and none of them had realised I had a boat, they had all thought the thing at the front of the house was a water tank !
Ok have a good day all, thanks for the replies

Howdy,

Keep the bleeter as shown in the drawings. Don't try to make it act as a downhaul too.

As shown it only gives force and control in the horizontal plane. This means the downhaul can be adjusted without resetting the bleeter too..

Two things for speed.

You need some depth in the bottom of the mainsail as we spoke about before.

The mainsheet block should slide on the travellers. But several have found that limiting the angle by tying knots to stop the block. Basically if you draw a line from the downhaul parallel with the centreline. Then 10 degrees each side of that, using the downhaul position as the apex is the place for the traveller knots.

The new thing to play with if the bleeter is working is to move the downhaul further toward the back end of the boom. And you've made a start on that.

Best wishes
MIK

Hi, thanks for the advise, didn't go for a sail today, got snaged before I could get out to take the other half out for a picnic, was good wind all day to.
Just finished reworking the boom, yes the bleeter was doing down haul yesterday, so now I have run it from the boom, round the mast, forward to the tack to a small block and back along the boom to a jammer near the middle so I can adjust easy underway.
I have let the outhaul out one inch.
I changed the traveler so it goes from one side to the other then comes back to a jammer on the transom so I can adjust it, as a bonus I can use it to tie the sail down when parked to fish
I have moved the sail back so the luff is 350mm in front of the mast, I'll see how close I am to weather helm.
So all good for a test sail tomorrow after fathers day big bbq brecky have a good dads day all

Neutral toward slight weather helm is good.

I suspect that the bleeter might require no adjustment once you have it worked out.

Also be ready to tie off the bleeter when you start using the outrageous downhaul necessary for moderate to strong winds.

Easing the outhaul will reduce the leach floppiness too.

MIK

Hi, thanks Mik, I'll find out tomorrow weather providing, out haul helping leach sails are not very intuitive with set up

Hi Mik, ozsmithy from the forum. First the mod's all worked the bleeter worked great and also is good for when reefed, I moved the sail back to 350mm and now have weather helm and the sail is higher, fully cranked up I have heaps of room under it as well. setting the traveler with a jammer is better and great for tying up when the sail is down for fishing easing the outhaul definitely helped and I think I could even go a bit more
Second, I had a great sail out in 12 knot winds and pushed my duck a lot harder than I have before then relaxed for a fish at anchor. (but no fish)
When I got going I had a lot of trouble getting my sail back up, until it is up and tensioned I get lee helm real bad and the wind had got up so I was all over the place Have to learn a better way of doing this lol
Here was where inexperience got the better of me, I should have reefed as the wind was now 17 knots.
So going back up the inside of Broadwater against the tide in 17 knots southerly tacking hard and badly my WRC mast literally exploded and I fell over and snapped the tiller handle off must have looked hilarious for those onshore.
So two questions
what windspeed do you think a change to reefed is appropriate?
What timber do you think is best for a nice new mast?
Thanks, Shaun

Ok, so having a good look at it the failure was mine. I think this is the first part to crack, the 8:1 scarf joint has cleanly separated across 80% of the joint and looks like the epoxy never penetrated the wood or I squeezed it out to tight to quick for there to be enough epoxy and the side joint under the scarf looks like it never connected.

every where else it is the timber that has let go not the joints.

Other wise a great da buity out on the GC, new set up works well, sail now higher so more clearance, very stable and comfortable for fishing but no fish

day out opps
also
and got some hoop pine coming for new mast

Hi Oz Smithy,

Sorry to hear about the Western Red Cedar mast breaking

Cedar is really too light for a mast which is why it's mentioned in the materials list but not for spars - I only suggest using it for other specific parts of the hull.

Where some have gone ahead with cedar I suggest glassing as a method that MIGHT prevent failure. But with cedar you are facing a lighter density (the strength of timbers most closely).

So that's background.

For the new stick... Hoop pine is fine. Or other knot free timber of about the same density - usually a pine. Even radiata is fine but you can never find any without knots. Second hand oregon if you can find it is excellent but rare so usually too expensive.

Any timber of that density, straight grained, no knots (or knots cut out and proper 6 to 1 scarfs) with good gluing properties is fine. Follow the "gluing end grain" appendix in the plan.

Such a spar would be able to make the boat lie down flat in the water before it breaks.

So decision to reef is about how much effort you want to put in or the physical difficulty of controlling the boat.

Great story too. Don't feel too worried about putting it on the forum. It would go well there!

Mik

Hi, good day yesterday through the week I got a clear straight 150 X 50 X 4.2mtr piece off hoop pine at a reasonable price so yesterday I broke it down. A few weeks ago Carbatec had a new 13" spiral head thicknesser on sale and I got one, awesome, much easier than doing it with a planer, after breaking it down I have a 45 X 45 left over so I will make a spare yard as well as my first one was a bit chunky lol. so today is epoxy day and with any luck I will be back on the water next week