The adventure continues with a new to me Sunday Cat

[bruce]

I do like the single cleat, back by the helm. It doubles as a topping lift as well, of course. After I raise the mast I tighten the lazy jacks until the boom hovers about an inch over the gallows, and tighten it down to the gallows with the sheet. When I raise the sail the lazy jacks go slack, and don't rub on the sail, so no adjustment is necessary. The only disadvantage I see is the long tail. I store it on the boom with a bungee cradle, that works pretty well.

I've seen two-line systems, with cleats on both sides of the boom. Not sure of the advantage.

Mine originally had a horn cleat, which I'd rather avoid on the boom. I prefer a faster acting cleat, with less snag potential. I went to a cheek block and a lance cleat. I did work on decreasing friction where the line passes under the boom. Two fairleads made up out 3/4" StarBoard, and 2" Teflon tape. Runs better, but not a huge improvement.

[bruce]

Rather than dealing with a long tail on the lazy jacks, I recall a friend used a gathering line on his PC, that he learned of when he was a Florida Bay Mud Hen owner.

He installed a horn cleat on the front of the mast stub to store the line, but as you'll see that isn't really necessary. The line would come into to play just before the forestay was released and the mast folded down. Before dropping the mast, the gathering line, made fast to the cleat, would be passed outside of the shrouds, peak halyard, and lazy jacks and brought back to the cleat. The mast would be dropped, and all the lines mentioned would lie in a heap wherever they wanted. He would haul on the gathering line and bring the tangle of lines forward to the stub, straightening as they went, parallel to the boom. He then brought the line around the top of the mast stub, and back along the boom, tying a series of running half hitches to neaten the sail and spar bundle. He finished with a clove or rolling hitch. He started with 30' of line, and trimmed it shorter when he saw how much he really needed.

I use a Star Brite Sail Lash Centipede to bundle my sail, which I like, so I would forgo the running half hitches. Minimally, all I'd use would be the line, made up to something on the mast stub, around the standing lines, and back to the mast stub. After you've straightened the lines in the bundle, you don't really need to cleat it off, its work is done. To raise the mast, the line needs to loose, of course.

I can see some potential for snags in the bundle, but this could be very effective, and very easy to try with any old bit of line lying around. I'd love to hear feedback on how it works for others.

[Reighnman]

Great info Bruce! On a more rudimental note, I'm confused with halyard setup.  The peak and throat halyard are currently run on the starboard side of the coach roof with cam cleats and cleats. There's a cleat and fairlead on the port side with an unused block on the mast.  What is the standard setup for the Sunday Cat? From the video by Compac I see the port cleat in use.

[bruce]

It was intended for the boom downhaul, 2:1 with a block on the gooseneck. I know several have repurposed it. The luff is easily tensioned with the throat halyard and a simpler downhaul made up to a horn cleat mounted in the track in the mast stub.

I don't have a good photo to share, hopefully someone has one to post.

[Jim in TC]

On our Sun on the port side there are two rope clutches. One is used as a boom downhaul, the other attached to the reef tack ring to pull the luff down and secure from the cockpit (when reefing). There have been enough mods by the PO that I have no clue whether these were original, but  these have made sense to me and remain.

[mikehennessy]

My Sunday Cat is 2 seasons old and has one boom downhaul on the port side.  Starboard is throat and peak halyards.  All OEM.

@Bruce - your lazy jacks are interesting.  I used much thinner line since there isn't much pressure on the rig and have the bitter end tied off to the mid-boom attachment point after going through a cleat.  I'll have to try bringing it forward to store.  I generally just tuck the LJ lines into the sail ties before I put the sail cover on. 

Regards,
Mike

[bruce]

Hey Mike,

No argument from me on either point. There's no great load on the lazy jacks, even if being used as a topping lift. To me, it's about handling the line, and how skinny do you want to go.

Bringing the line forward works well, of course. Here I would argue that, as the primary trimmer, I want the action to be back at the helm. There is a second point that is specific to my role as a PC sailor. The boat is so light that any shift in crew weight is significant. If my 200 lbs. go forward to the mast, for any reason, it's a big deal. I have several friends who have downsized from bigger boats. They like the PC, but readily admit it's not the easiest to single hand, due to the live ballast issue. I won't pretend to speak for SC sailors on this.

[Reighnman]

Had my first sail on Saturday and I must say I was overly impressed. It was blowing solid 15 with gust up to 20knts and waves were 1-2ft. I tried starting with a reef but couldn't get good shape to the sail so I let it out and away we flew.  We hit 6.1 but that was tide assisted. When I lowered the centerboard you immediately felt her dig in and she wanted to go into the wind. Decided to raise it back up since we were just beam reaching back and forth but it's really nice to have when needed. Can't say enough good things about it so far, it was great being back on the bay sailing and able to dip my hand in the water. I loved the 25 but there's something about being right down on the water in a smaller boat. I did miss the ease of starting with a key vs. reaching off the back with a pull cord though. All in all I can see why the Suncat and Sunday cat are a wanted vessel.