Thread: GIS reefing

Hello,

The water doesn't look too roughed-up in the photos on the NL meet thread as we were sailing near the windward shore with a lot of trees/buildings on the windward bank protecting the first bit of water (further out gusts up to 20 knots).

I don't worry at all about the mast breaking in stronger winds, it is more the yard that I sometimes fear for. But most likely those worries are misplaced since it has survived quite a lot of wind in worse conditions (Raid Caledonia, there is a thread on this forum).

I feel that the GIS benifits from timely reefing as you don't have to let the sail out (which is something I personally don't like to do) and you are able to keep the boat flatter resulting in more speed than when you are struggeling to keep the boat right side up 'spilling" wind half the time.

If sailing solo a lot, it might be a good idea to have your sailmaker add a reef between the existing first one and the boom.

Best wishes,

Joost

One more thing:

Other pictures you might have seen are possibly of my GIS (the white boat called GISwerk) participating in Sail Caledonia (a raid accross the highlands in Scotland, UK).

On some pictures the sail is reefed because the conditions demanded it (way too much wind for the full sail area).

In other pictures, at the end of the event, we had to sail the boat reefed due to a crack in the rudder stock (please put in the bolts as specified by the designer!!!).

Again, I personally don't mind reefing the sail as I am of the opinion that this boat goes fastest when you can set the sail in gusts without letting the sail out much whilst keeping the boat reasonbly flat.

Joost

Thanks Joost! Great advice.

What about the mast partner and the step?

Don't anyone here get me wrong: I'm not some nutty yahoo bent on destruction. I reef, and I'll reef again, and I'm happy to reef when I need to/want to that's not the issue...

...EVERY once in a while, there are those days where I just want to get wet and wild and see how much I can push myself and my boat and then get dunked. I want those days to be filled with hooting and hollering rather than cursing when I rip the mast step out of the bottom of the boat.

I trust the construction and the plans of the boat, no doubt about it, I just want to see if anyone had any thoughts. I doesn't look like a wimpy boat, and I haven't heard any stories, but I haven't sailed it either, so I'm getting some advice.

Hello,

I must say that I have never felt that the mastpartner or maststep could be ripped out of the boat. On my boat both maststep and mastpartner are completely standard albeit with some nice big epoxy fillets on the side of them.

There is a lot of reinforcement in this narrow area already (2 bulkheads very closely together, timber cleats on the side of the boat, etc.) and the ply deck together with the sides of the boat and the bottom seems to create a very stiff and strong box like structure.

But MIK is in a far better position to give you any feedback on whether any structural beefing up is required.

Best regards,

Joost

Great! Sounds like I'm probably all set then. All I have to go on is the plans and my imagination, so it's nice to get some "on the ground" info.

Howdy,

The load on the mast step and partner is one of those things where the intuitive understanding is not quite right ... took me a while to understand it (now many years ago).

Basically the thing that loads up the rig is not the wind at all - the wind can blow as much as you like. The real load comes from the stability of the boat. If the wind gets too strong the mast will put enough load on the boat to make it lie on its side.

The only difference between reefed and not reefed is the windspeeds that will make the boat lie down.

The thing that will increase the loads on the mast and the partner and step is more people leaning out on the side of the boat. The Goat mast is stressed for three adults leaning hard - which may have been a bit of overkill.

In a sense the worst case scenario is running where instead of the boat lying down the rig is trying to make it cartwheel, which is potentially a much higher load. But one of the protections is the drop in apparent wind compared to when you were heading upwind a few minutes before.

Best wishes
Michael

It's not called overkill, it's called insurance! Three guys leaning over is way more than me by myself. Looks like we're good to go! Thanks for the lesson and thoughts guys!

I was going to say your 155 pounds is not going to stress any part of the boat or rig, but along comes MIK and he says it much better--and with more authority--than I could ever do.

Well, the mast will be fine until the Netherland GIS Werks Team all get into the one boat.

Some of you may know that we built the first GIS in the Americas. We've had ours out in some pretty stout winds. 20 - 30 mph for the last two years at our Timothy Lake event. Two years ago was the strongest, and the foto below shows how reefed I was. I sailed across the lake and back with this handkerchief sized rig.

Last year was almost as bad, and I sent my old friend Jerry (don't ask how old, he gets cranky whenever I do) out with no reef. I figure he's a beginning sailor... if he can keep it upright in those conditions, anyone can. He did. No rescue necessary <G>



Oops, sorry Mik, can't seem to shrink this one.



For a short video of the same day:

http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t...hyLake2007.flv

It is not too bad David, thanks for trying!

MIK