SunCat - first sail

[NormD]

Finally got the boat out over the weekend after fixing up the previous owner's legacy of broken/bent/missing parts. I took it for granted that a two year old boat couldn't have that much to fix. Wrong assumption!
Anyway, on Sunday, we had shifty and variable North winds from 5 - 15 knots. In my location on the North Shore of Lake Erie, this makes for very pleasant sailing with no wave action.
By Monday, the winds had shifted to the South at 5 - 10, with waves less than 1 meter. Again excellent sailing conditions here.
I found the SunCat sailed surprisingly well. It is well balanced and practically sails itself when properly trimmed. The boat loves to reach! She stood up well to the gusts, and never seemed pressed. I like the fact that in those conditions, my wife and I can move around without too much concern for weight distribution.
I'm a former sloop owner, so I do have a bit of a learning curve on sail trim, but I found a useful article on the Marshall Catboat site. Thanks to this, I'll be adding some more telltales.
Overall, my biggest challenge now, is dropping the sail in higher wind velocities. I think I'm going to install lazy jacks and lube the mast track.
My wife of 35 years likes the boat when sailing, but she's nervous with the sail dropping procedure. I managed to drop the boom on her head (gently) and the gaff boom on my own! We'll work this out with some practice and the above mentioned lazy jacks.

I wish more SunCat and other Com-Pac owners would post here rather than the Trailer Sailor Catboat forum. I for one, intend to.

Happy sailing!

[patch]

mine is an 03 that i bought in Feb 07.it was out of the water and on the trailer.mine had a few problems that have been sorted out.i didn't have $22,000 for a new one.order the book from the catboat association on sailing a cat.love how easy the boat is to put into the water and retrieve.just brought mine to the boat shop to get it fixed after the crash.

[NormD]

Sorry to hear about your crash, patch. I hope your insurance company treats you well!

[patch]

  the guy that center punched me is paying for the repair.we belong to the same yacht club.

[patch]

my suncat is back in the water.working on the boats learning curve.i find that it is easier to raise the sails if a push the boom up the mast use the long pin to hold the boom in place.after raising the sail i remove the long pin and tighten the down haul.this procedure eliminates the boom from hitting the gallows.i also noticed that if the suncat is sailed close hauled the traveler position is important in keeping the boom off the gallows.close hauled sailing is not the strong point of the suncat as we all know.my mistake has been in trying to follow the line set by sloop rigged boats.i now bear off a little and make better speed,may need an extra tack or two.

[cecilg]

I want to make sure I understand. Do you leave the boom above where the long pin is and this is the position that you sail? I have been putting the pin in to keep the boom from going up or down. By doing that the boom hits the gallows which I don't like. With the boom above the hinge, is the hinge strong enough with the force above?
Thanks for any info.
Cecil

[patch]

  i sail alone most times.i losen the main sheet,go forward push the boom above the hinge,insert the long pin,raise the gaff and boom.get the sail up as far as it will go.then go forward and pull the long pin out and set the downhaul.then raise the gaff and set it for wind conditions.all this is done,while heading into the wind.i have an email from compac which i have been trying to post that says the boom at or above the hinge is fine.if you want email me at snowbeast43@yahoo.com and i will send it to you.cant figure how to post it to this forum.

[spaul]

Hey Patch,
You should be able to save your email document as a pdf in Adobe or you could copy and paste the email info into a Word document and post that to the forum. If you have more trouble we'll try to help you.

Steve

[patch]

  i will try to post

[patch]

got my battens,much improved sail shape.still last in the open class races on sunday,but getting better.suncat needs  wind to move,other boats sail with very little wind.i you can see it when racing.narrow sloop rigged boats just drift faster than the gaff rigged, wide suncat.not complaining,just a fact of life.i new this when i bought my suncat.

[patch]

have  raising the sail pretty well under control.every time i go out it gets better.pull the halyards together,after starting the gaff rig 1st.i make sure the gaff does not duck under  one of the side stays,and the gaff blocks arnt twisted around the halyard.pulling both halyards together as the sail gets to the top is important.the boom now is well above the hinge.a sharp pull on the downhaul takes any wrinkles out of the sail.the boom now is just above the hinge.the gaff is adjusted to wind strength.with the gaff adjusted right the boom is well above the gallows.advise that i have through this site has been a lot of help.

[Craig Weis]

Good post Patch, It takes just a little bit more finesse to sail with a gaff rigged boat...but it still fun and speed comes only with, well speedy hulls; which is not a SunCat, and lots of tiller time. It's all good. enjoy the boat. skip.

[Tom G.]

Gentlemen,

I have been sailing my Sun Cat for about 3 seasons.  Sometime last season I lost the "Long Pin" when the plastic keeper broke and I didn't know it.  This is because I never used it.  According to Compac it is only to hold the sail down securely while trailering.  I don't like the idea of going forward when out on the water.  What I do is lift the boom up after I raise the mast, or before I leave the dock.  I find it will stay there pretty much by itself.  Another thing I found is putting the wind at about the 1 o'clock position while raising or lowering the sail.  This keeps the boom and sail etc off the port side.  Lubricating the sail slides is a great idea.  I heartily reccommend McLube SailKote available from West Marine.  It works great and will not discolor your sail. 

Catboats are the cats meow.

Tom G. (Seaweed)

[tmolik]

What's a long pin on the SunCat...I have a sincat and can't see it....ANYBODY??

[capt_nemo]

tmolik,

Sorry, no specific pic available, but take a look at these:


http://cpyoa.geekworkshosting.com/forum/index.php?topic=4160.0

http://cpyoa.geekworkshosting.com/forum/index.php?topic=6347.0

http://cpyoa.geekworkshosting.com/forum/index.php?topic=4729.0

(Got these using "Search" feature at top of screen.)

Hope this helps.

capt_nemo