2nd time out @ Ft Peck

[deisher6]

What a great weekend, upland bird hunting with our faithful pointer Daisy, and two days of sailing.  I should have retired years ago.

Just returned from two days of sailing on Ft Peck Lake.  Winds were light and variable.  It proved to be a great time to enjoy the lake, spruce up the boat, and check out the sails.  The sails are original.  I had to repair the leech with some sail tape where the cloth had deteriorated, it was exposed from under a sailcover.  Although they are not very stiff their shape looked pretty good at least in light wind.  It looked as if the jib was low  on the forestay so added about 8 inches of rope to the tack.  Think that it improved the slot between the main and jib.

The spreaders from Hutchins arrived just after I left.  Did not notice any problems with the shorter reworked spreaders, did not adjust the stays since they were still pretty snug.  I did notice that the leeward side stay was just a little slack. Do not think that is a bad thing.  Opinions?

Looks as if the first purchase will be a Ida Sailor rudder, then may be sails.

Boat speed was from 0.5-3.4 mph, unfortunately more 1.5 than anything else.

Skip, thanks for the scoop on the engine.  It ran like a champ, starting on the second or third pull.  Thinking about replacing the two position motor mount with a solid one position.

Very interesting (first time) backing up the boat with a slide in camper on.  Fortunately the ramp is very lightly used so there was plenty of time to amuse the old boy from Glendive who had just launched his barrel boat but hung around to watch me.

The boss is seriously thinking about going the next time out. (=;

regards charlie

[kickingbug1]

    before you buy an ida rudder check the site and see what some members have made .  i have an ida rudder on my 16 but i bought it before the price went through the roof. between the rudder and new mainsail my boats performance was greatly improved. a new jib should complete my upgrades.

[Glenn Basore]

Charlie,

Retirement is great and it sounds like you had a most enjoy able day.

Its been years since I have done any bird hunting.

As to the lee ward stay, Mine to seems pretty loose but I was in winds of 15 - 20 mph when I noticed the slack.

I think I asked Gerry once about shroud tension setting and he replied there was nothing for my Eclipse.

I have been wanting to buy a shroud tension gauge but as yet have not found one that I really like (any help from this group would be appreciated)

If you had such a tool, one could at least check for consistency on all shrouds and addjust as needed.

Enjoy your retirement.

Glenn B.

[skip1930]

' shroud tension gage " Save you money.

Tang to spreader equally snug. When sailing the lee side will be looser by a tad.
Of course windward side will remain snug.

Tang to top-o-mast on mast head sloops are snug and the top-o-mast lee side won't loosen as much as the lower shroud at the spreader.

If the standing rigging is too tight port to starboard or bow to stern this wants to shove the bottom of the mast clean through the bottom of the hull, sort of speak.

On my CP-19 I can lay on the Vee birth and sight through the open fwd hatch to look~see up the mast. Yes one can easily see the strain, and how the shrouds work to pull the mast this way or that way. You can see the curve or bend above the spreader or below the spreader. What your looking for is straight, both sides, lower half and upper half.

skip.

[deisher6]

When rigging the boat used a set of calipers to measure the distance between the bolts on the port and starboard turnbuckles.  Assuming the stays were equal in length this should make the mast perpendicular.  The forestay is tight enough that I can muscle it down to put in the clevis pin.  Tried to eyeball the forward rake mentioned in several blogs.  Still have a bit of weather helm even in light winds.

Have sailed on some small one designs where the leeward stay is slightly slack.  Still might try a little more forward rake.

So far just single-handling so no chance to sight up the mast underway.

The rudder head (the part attached to the boat) on my rudder is pretty well corroded and missing the tightening lever.  Have been carrying a box wrench with a bit of line attached to tighten the rudder in place.  There was a C16 Ida foil for sale recently, just the rudder part, had to pass it up.  Need the whole rudder system less the tiller.  Unfortunately Ida doesn't discount much for re-using your tiller.

Have to respect the amount of tension on the mast.  Snapped a wooden Snipe mast into three parts on a close haul early in our marriage, adds to why I do single handling now.  At least for awhile....