Help! I am planning this winter's work on our ageing Crusader. Tasks will include
1)new slot gasket- Mylar or sail cloth?
2) replace shroud levers with string. How powerful and any neat ideas as we have bulls eyes through deck not ball bearing fittings...
3)Adjustable jib halyard. Muscle box hasn't worked since we aquired the boat and probably never did.
4) remove bilge battens and as much of the keel as I dare.
Sell boat and write out big fat cheque...
All help and advice appreciated
Regrds John
Further to great advice above, you can also do some other things to help with boat speed. Make sure you have a nice smooth finish on the foils, and also that the rudder hangs dead vertically (put boat upside down - pull centreboard out, line up rudder with board - does it all look straight?) You can also check that the spreaders are acting together in the same way, that the mast sits square, and that you have the right amount of rake (see tuning guide elsewhere on th this site). Also make sure that all the fittings you're leaving on work properly (especially the kicker and outhaul) and that you do use them. Otherwise dispense. And I assume you have a dangly pole.
Good luck
Mike Day
N3496
Thanks for your advice. Very interesting comments especially regarding keel removal. Another question I forgot to ask was fixed/limited swing spreaders. At the moment they are fixed. We have a mighty screw so mast bend is easily controlled. Any suggestions?
On the recomendation of someone (can't remember who) I removed the screw nearest to the mast on each spreader and tied a piece of rope arount the fitting to limit the swing.
You want limited swing to reduce batten poke when the leeward shroud is off. The danger is twofold, if the screw is left particularly long it can snag on stuff (like the sail), and two, they are a bit prone to unscrewing themselves sending your settings all over the place.
But how much should they swing? Roughly speaking? Hadn't thought of having coarse and fine adjustment on shrouds. Sounds similair to dragon genoa sheeting. Is the "fine" adjustment left seperate for each shroud or do they join together so you adjust both sides together? Will all these extra cleats and blocks weigh more than the keel and bilge battens?
http://www.force5marketing.co.uk/private/n12/album0.html
The above shows how to check the foils & rig are square
Actually, now that I think about it, I don't think there was any limit to the swing on mine at all... They were obviously fixed by the tension when the shrouds were on, but were free to swing when the tension was released. Usually the shrouds would be individually adjustable so you can let the leeward one off for downwind sailing seperately from the windward fella. Only ever had one set of purchases on my boats, no coarse or fine, just the 16:1 on each shroud (or the quadrant levers on my Cheshire Cat). In the case of my Baggy (and most 12's with such systems I have seen) the shrouds were led to the centreboard case capping.
For the fine tune, the shrouds are attached together. the weight of the system is about the same as the levers which get removed.
most boats seem to have a 16:1 on each side. I like the fine tune system because when you ease the shrouds down wind, you then don't need to worry about how much tension to use when you pull it back on: put a knot in the rope at the place where both shrouds are of equal lenghts and just pull it to the knot every time.
ping