Thread: Cool stuff

OK, the challenge is to sail the longest distance in a straight line without hitting land. Well, you have to hit land at some point, which of course would be the end of your challenge.

Apparently, this is the route to take, just under 20,000 miles. Who would have guessed you could sail in a straight line from Pakistan to Russia?

Originally Posted by woodeneye

...to sail the longest distance in a straight line without hitting land.

That IS cool stuff.

I've been reading "A Speck on the Sea: Epic Voyages in the Most Improbable Vessels" by author William H. Long all about transoceanic and circumnavigation voyages throughout history (and prehistory). This route is not one that has caught the attention of sailors through the ages. I guess the lack of Google Earth would have something to do with that.

Straight lines take so much ATTENTION!

Next time you lay down a fillet, just remember that those big AC72s use the same methods. Even on the ACs they don't stick any carbon tape over the fillet.

"It's all about saving weight". Says it all really.

It's more a lesson in not over-engineering really. If it's strong enough, it's good enough.

A tip of the cap to the Kiwis. The come back of the Oracle was amazing and I would have felt better about it if we didn't have to get our sailors from some where else. I was out of town for the whole works. Anyone have some good links so I can catch up?

Originally Posted by Northstar

A tip of the cap to the Kiwis. The come back of the Oracle was amazing and I would have felt better about it if we didn't have to get our sailors from some where else. I was out of town for the whole works. Anyone have some good links so I can catch up?

Do you mean to catch up on AC? I used the free official AC app on my iPhone to watch the finale today. Not sure if they have other versions or the same content on the web though. The coverage was phenomenal with graphics such as wing shadow and water current that really illuminated the action. I'm not an avid sailing buff so I don't know if those features are standard these days, but they certainly blew my socks off.


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All races are on AC's official Youtube channel. As Dave points out the coverage was excellent with loads of graphics showing currents, winds, distances, etc., making it all easy to understand.

Laser Sailing has come up with a couple of new blocks which are very robust and which should last forever. They will simplify rigging for any dinghy.

The solid block’s soft attachment compatibility make them suitable for use in small sailboat rigging applications including vangs, trapezes, cunninghams, and kite bridles where the use of a ball bearing block is not required.

There are 2 sizes suitable for lines from 1.5mm up to 6mm
Made from solid stainless, these blocks are bulletproof and pretty cheap too! Available from Laser parts suppliers.

I haven't tried them yet, but I'm liking them a lot. For $100, you get 12 of these babies, plus some change. That's pretty good value compared to the sheaved variety.

Laser solid block1.jpgLaser block2.jpg

Fine for light loads, but a fair bit of friction and a pretty tight radius, means "bee's eye" uses only. Ever try to put a lot of load on a 6 mm line? Ouch . . . my hands aren't that big and I can't imagine a 1.5 mm line. I've got string bigger than that. I'd also think a thimble with a "tailed" grommet (stropped) would serve as well, for a good bit less.

Originally Posted by PAR

Fine for light loads, but a fair bit of friction and a pretty tight radius, means "bee's eye" uses only. Ever try to put a lot of load on a 6 mm line? Ouch . . . my hands aren't that big and I can't imagine a 1.5 mm line. I've got string bigger than that. I'd also think a thimble with a "tailed" grommet (stropped) would serve as well, for a good bit less.

I haven't seen any specs yet PAR. However, these are for dinghy control line loads which are very light. Even on big skiffs, 4mm line is about as big as they go even for vang primaries, and there is always plenty of purchase to spread the loads. 1.5mm for lightly loaded primary lines is pretty common as friction is nice and low. For example we use 1.5mm for primary outhaul in Lasers. 6mm is dinghy mainsheet territory these days (my Laser mainsheet is 5.6mm) and a lot of sailors don't even wear gloves. I'm not that tough! A bit of friction is OK if it does the job and you can pull the control line to its required setting.

I'm using the slightly more expensive Antal-type rings on the Moth for the vang, Cunningham and outhaul and find they are almost as good as sheaved blocks. The rings are anodised alloy, so that's probably why they are priced a bit higher. With some nice cascades, the loads are low and the tiny extra bit of friction with the use of modern control lines like spectraspeed is hardly even noticed. These days, the smallest you can go on everything is the desired way, as long as it does the job.

These sheaveless blocks would be a bit more convenient to rig up than the rings which do need a permanent splice attachment point, so probably have a bigger range of uses. I probably would splice a loop into the line and simply attach using a hitch rather than a permanent splice onto the block itself.

Certainly for Storer's dinghies, there wouldn't be any load that these little blocks could not handle. Having said that, I'm much more cautious of all fittings nowadays since snapping a 6mm clevis pin that holds my vang to the mast. I've never seen that happen before, but I guess faulty structures must creep into manufacturing quite a bit more than we think.

Don't get me wrong, I could find uses for them, but the stuff I play with any more, needs a fair bit of power and I only have one boat that can get away with a bee hole style of turning block.

Truly cool stuff. At home yesterday it was -31 C with -44 C wind chill. I'm sure some place on earth is worse, but they will have to work at it. Be a while before my goat sails in that.