Some observations after a few sails

[mikehennessy]

Good Chemistry (2019 Sunday Cat) has been sailed 4 times with conditions between 4 and 11 mph on a protected (fluky) lake in southern New Jersey.

Changes to factory settings:
Added Lazy Jacks which greatly improved both dousing and putting a reef in.  Will keep this.

Added a soft shackle in tack cringle to make it easier to attach to boom reef hook.  This is better than just trying to insert the cringle onto the hook but need a better solution.  I'll add a tack jiffy reef system with control located mid-boom.  The leach jiffy reef, lazy jack and tack jiffy reef will all be located mid boom within 18 inches of one another.

The boat had negligible weather helm.  Tried sailing with board totally down and at various angles.  Observed no issues or benefits on having the board partially up.  There were times where water seeped up from centerboard halyard fitting.  It stopped randomly so not sure of the cause.

Added a 55 lb thrust trolling motor to get off and return to dock.  This works exceptionally well and was much more cost effective versus a Torqeedo ($250 vs $2500).  Will keep this option.

Still have tiller vibration/cavitation.  Sailed today with the set pin in to eliminate that as a variable.  Centerboard height made no difference on vibration.  It only occurred when boat was accelerating to a specific speed then stopped after 30 seconds or so.  Happened on all points of sail.  I have a tiller extention (my racing habits) and it is quite annoying.  One of the old salts I race with suggested that grinding the trailing edge to a more acute angle will help release the stresses on that edge and ease water release.

Trimming the main sheet from behind me from two locations took some adjustments.  I need to hold the tiller in front hand and main sheet in aft hand which is opposite every other boat I have sailed.  Practice makes perfect.

Bottom Line:  I am enjoying the boat very much and have almost completely adapted from a sloop.

Would love to get on the water with other Cat sailors if anyone is interested.

Regards,
Mike

[bruce]

Thanks for the update, Mike. You're sorting things out quickly, your experience shows.

Hopefully you can hook up with another SC, there's got to be several within an hour or two.

My 2 cents on shaping the aft edge of the rudder is it might help, but I wouldn't expect much. Maybe less annoying. But it's still just a metal sheet, you'd probably really appreciate a foiled rudder eventually. Sooner if the rudder continues to be problem. DIY, or spring for a Rudder Craft blade with the money you saved on the motor!

Typically the CB is down heading upwind, where it provides lateral resistance and lift, and up heading downwind, where reducing wetted surface and tripping during a gybe are more important. My favorite book to recommend to sloop sailors is Bill Welch's, The Competitive Cat.

[bruce]

Mike,

I was thinking about your getting use to the end-boom sheeting, and how I'd feel about it. I do like the sheet in front of me. I was curious what other SC sailors have done, and if any converted to mid-boom sheeting, either permanently or optionally when sailing with minimal crew in the cockpit. Some good discussions if you search for "mid-boom sheeting", do it from the Suncat forum and it will restrict hits to SCs. I get 12, unfortunately not much about Sunday Cats.

Has anyone rigged mid-boom sheeting to the cockpit sole on a Sunday Cat or Daysailer?

[Jim in TC]

Not sure exactly what year they shifted the Sun from mid to aft-boom sheets. Our 2006 came with mid. I can see how our bimini would be a problem with aft sheeting, and I, too, prefer the sheet in front of me. For what it is worth, a new (in, I think, 2017) Sun Cat nearby has mid-boom sheets that were ordered that way from the factory as an option. I sailed near a 2016 Sunday Cat yesterday and if I had read this post beforehand I would have looked more closely at how the sheet lines were set up...it seems that with the larger cockpit, mid-boom sheets might be problematic. We do have some problems with passengers needing to move around to avoid the sheet, but really only when on a run (and special care is needed if a jibe is planned).

[mikehennessy]

Bruce,

The biggest difference with end-boom sheeting is having to essentially sheet at both the winward and leeward sides simultaneously to keep the lengths of the mainsheets similar.  If one does not pay attention to this one gets an one length significantly longer than the other. 

With the factory set-up angle of the block, it is easier to sheet from the winward side.  Leaning across the boat to cleat the leeward side may be a hazard is big wind conditions.  The line also can get caught in or engage the tiller brake (happened my first sail)/

I have found that I tend to leave the main sheet in the cleat more and change boat direction and sail trim by adjusting the rudder. On a sloop I generally keep the rudder constant and trip and ease the main for small direction changes.  This is obviously much faster sailing than steering with the brake in the back of the boat.

Regards,
Mike 

[bruce]

Thanks for the feedback. We have had 5 in our PC, and I briefly investigated rigging end-boom sheeting for times when we had a lot of crew, retaining the mid-boom sheeting as our primary set up. I know one PC sailor who had done it, but he didn't get back to me when I inquired about his experience with it.  No real problem except the expense, and I've done plenty of mods for the fun of it, but I didn't pursue the idea. I know I'd have issues with the sheet hanging up on things I've installed at the stern. These days, we rarely have more than 3 crew, so I'm even less motivated.

I do watch the luff telltales closely, and in shifty winds trim the sail frequently rather than use a lot of rudder. The PC is very sensitive to weight shifts, if I start moving around the rudder position is incidental.

[Roland of Macatawa]

Bruce, Mike, Others:

I do not intend to modify my SunDayCat to have mid-boom sheeting to the cockpit sole.
Prefer the open cockpit for guests.

Yet, I agree with Mike that the end-of-boom sheeting to the transom is awkward.
I am more frustrated with the doubled-ended sheet than with the transom location itself.
Sometimes I just let the sheet migrate to one side and then use that side only.
eg. Like the Precision P-165's port-side-of-transom block/cleat location.

If I make any change, I'll change to some sort of single-ended sheet arrangement.
But it's a low priority for now. Haven't thought through the details much.

Some have added a traveler across the transom and sheeted to it.
That of course adds more traveler control line(s) at an already congested transom.

I kinda like the simplicity of the Marshall CatBoat bar travelers.
Unlike a sloop rig, a catboat rarely needs to sheet the boom tightly to the boat's centerline.
The Marshall traveler allows sheeting part way to the transom's edge, downwards more so than inwards.

Regards, Roland

[bruce]

I understand wanting to keep the cockpit open.

I sailed Marshall Sandpiper hull #1, with Geoff Marshall, when I was looking for a boat in 2010. Their end-boom sheeting is typically led forward along the boom and cleats on the CB trunk, as it was on the Sandpiper I sailed, or on the sole just aft of the CB trunk. Sanderlings are rigged similarly, although in the photos I do notice a few with inboard auxiliaries where the cleat is on the aft coaming.
https://www.marshallcat.com

The bar traveler is a nice detail, in that it gets the tackle off to the leeward side, but it doesn't function as an adjustable traveler would on a sloop. If you restricted the tackle to the center of the bar, I expect the bar would bend under load.

[mikehennessy]

After a few sails I added lazy jacks and a jiffy reef system for the tack.  These two plus the original leech system are all within reach on the boom.

For the Lazy Jacks, I tied the port and starboard lines to the peak halyard connection on the mast. Used 1/8 inch line and adjusted after each sail until the lengths of all lines worked well.

For the jiffy reef, I used 3/16 inch line from a clam cleat, around a micro turning block, through the tack cringle and down to a padeye.

Procedure to reef:
1). tighten lazyjack
2). loosen peak haylard.
3). loosen throat halyard
4). tighten tack reef
5). tighten leech reef
6). tighten throat halyard
7). tighten peak halyard
. loosen lazy jack.

Total time is about a minute.  Will be faster with a few practices.

There are reef lines in the cringles but they didn't seem to be needed so sometimes they are tied and sometimes not.

I also installed a soft shackle in the tack cringle as a belts and suspenders.  If the system fails, I can still slide the soft shackle over the reef hook on the boom.

[bruce]

Thanks Mike, looks good. Photos are always fun to see.

I shouldn't ask, but what is the bail for just forward of the lazy jack cleat, on your nice new boat? Not the dreaded mid-boom sheeting!

FWIW, Tuesday a former-PC-owner friend of mine and I are getting our annual sloop fix, renting a J22 at Sail Newport (RI). He'd owned several sloops, the last a Catalina 27. Off the wind, it's surprising how familiar the J22 feels; on the wind, firmed up heeled over, is a whole different experience.

[DanM]

My 2011 SunCat came with end-boom sheeting but the boom has the bail for mid-boom sheeting on it, too. I assume they had older masts in stock when they changed the arrangement, or something like that.

[Roland of Macatawa]

Bruce:

Recall the posts from Dwyer which you made of the various Com-Pac spars?
The one for the boom of the SunCat variants shows bails for both the mid-boom and end-boom sheeting.
Apparently, Com-Pac purchases the boom assembly from Dwyer such that it can be used either way.

Regards, Roland

[bruce]

Yah, I saw that. Problem is, given the well-forward location of the mid-boom bail in the drawing, I suspect it's for the cabin version, to line up with the bridge deck. Mike's bail on his Sunday Cat looks to be further aft, since there's no bridge deck to target. Dwyer only gave me one set of drawings for the SC line.

I decided that I wouldn't introduce this confusion, but I agree, it looks like Com-Pac continues to provide fittings for both options. They could easily tell Dwyer to not include the forward bail, or update their drawing. It wouldn't be hard to add it later on. But Mike found a new use for it!

No sir, that's not orphaned hardware, that's an option!

I have more holes where things used to be than I'd care to admit.

[mikehennessy]

It was there when I purchased the boat.  I did (briefly) tie the bitter end of the peak halyard mid-boom through the hardware to use as a gybe line in light winds.  A common sloop endeavor.  Big mistake with finger skin removal as the sail gybed and my hand was on the gybe line.  Took it off immediately.  Lesson learned.

Bruce:
Your sloop cruise sounds fun.  I have enjoyed breaking my Sunday cat in with my 79 year old dad who just retired. 

[bruce]

Retired at 79, he 's earned some time off!

Bill Welch uses of a gybe line, the bitter end of the throat halyard, that his wife handles so she can assist his efforts at the helm. He likes that it can provide a downward force, so the boom doesn't lift. They're sailing a 15' Marshall Sandpiper, with 166 sq. ft. of sail. Gybing a PC is a delight, I just grab the fall as it passes by, and keep firm control of the tiller so she doesn't round up. I'll let others describe how they gybe their SC.

I do use a boom vang, which is not often found on a catboat. I find it most useful in keeping the boom from lifting, bouncing in chop or gybing, and not so much for sail trim.

Here's a good time to mention that the CB should be up, to mitigate the tendency to pivot, or trip, on the CB and round up. Better to let the boat slip sideways and dissipate the force.