Mast Deflection

[nies]

Glad the down worked for you, I called Hutchins and got the name of their sail source and ordered the stock sail, they had the pattern, but had to send back as the patterns changed slightly over the years, no hassel, It would take a little research ,but if you want I will look in my records.......nies

[nies]

Rope , according to the "experts" rope gives you a small fraction increase in performance of main sail, .........nies

[skip1930]

All the 'little bits' of performance won't make her sail faster, and bending a spar with internal extruded stiffeners vs. bending a hollow wood spar or high tech carbon fiber for best sail shape goes beyond the typical Com Pac sailors ability to squeeze out every once of performance. Sailing 'this hard' is a lot of work. I'd opt for a really good set of crisp sails.

Just me. skip.

[mattman]

jb, I had sails built this spring by JSI, I was familiar with them from my time in Tampa. They spent a half hour on the phone with me and I described my sailing conditions and typical wind ranges etc.. Then sent them specific measurements from the boat. They use Doyle as a builder. Ended up with a main with full baton on top, slugs, and loose foot in I think 5 oz cloth (which I thought was a little heavy but they set well) leach and foot lines, with tells and 110% jib with leach and foot line and tells (did not do sail numbers) for just under a grand. I would not order stock given for just a few extra bucks you can get some really nice sails built just for your boat, sailing style and conditions. Remember it is a SAILboat. The last place I would try to save money is in sails, ground tackle or pfd's! When money is tight I drink a cheaper beverage!!
Happy Sailing.

[Al]

Hi All,

I made a special trip out to the lake to test my theory. The winds were only about 7-14 with occasional gusts to 20 knots - not as high as I was expecting. However, with a full main, genoa, and no spreaders, the mast bowed about 1 inch at 10 knots and 3.5 inches at 20 knots. From earlier sails, the mast appeared to bow 2 inches at 10-15 and 4 inches at 25 knots (with shortened sails). Additional details: The spreader is about 2 inches longer than the distance from the mast to the spreaderless shroud. The leeward shroud is loose.

Based upon this information (and noting that this test was not very scientific with plenty of room for error), it appears that the spreader is causing the initial 2 inch bend. At higher loads, the spreader appears to go into tension and keep the mast from bowing as much. However, spreaders are not great in tension, especially if they're held to the shrouds with aluminum wire (like mine were).

Could it be that both port and starboard shrouds need to be tight to allow the spreaders to work properly ?

Al

[Al]

Hi All,

I just found a general tuning guide for standing rigging which confirmed my suspicion that the spreader was bending the mast. Their solution was to tighten the lower shrouds to keep the mast straight. Therefore, it would probably be beneficial to add lowers for sailing in high winds, but is it really neccessary ? Has anyone ever heard of a mast breaking on a CP16 ?

Al