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- Newsgroups: rec.boats
- Path: sparky!uunet!psinntp!dg-rtp!webo!dg-webo!psmith
- From: psmith@dg-webo.rtp.dg.com (Peter Smith)
- Subject: Re: Tuff Luff and other headstay foils
- Sender: usenet@webo.dg.com (Usenet Administration)
- Message-ID: <1992Nov19.223948.9775@webo.dg.com>
- Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 22:39:48 GMT
- References: <1992Nov10.183134.2735@das.harvard.edu> <1992Nov10.221143.13020@klaava.Helsinki.FI> <1992Nov13.185255.4694@ttinews.tti.com>
- Organization: Data General Corp., Westboro, MA
- Lines: 26
-
- In article <1992Nov13.185255.4694@ttinews.tti.com> scott@soldev.tti.com (Scott Taylor) writes:
- >... On a large boat, where a
- >headsail change will take 3-5 minutes with hanks, you could easily lose
- >30-40 boat lengths.
-
- Actually, it's not as bad as that. Back when I was light, agile, and
- fearless, I worked foredeck on 30-40' racers before the Gemini foil
- came out. To set up for a change, you'd hank the new jib on with all
- the new hanks below the lowest hank of the old jib. Then, as the mast
- man feeds you halyard, you pull down the old luff with one hand and pop
- the old hanks with the other. As the last hank goes, you switch the
- halyard to the new jib and up it goes. From the time the old sail
- starts down to the time the new one is up hard would run about 15 sec
- on a 30-footer, 30 sec on a 40-footer.
-
- That said, there was a lot more time spent up on the bow getting the new
- sail hanked on...slow in lumpy conditions. And if you twisted one of
- the hanks (easy to do at night)...lots of screaming and yelling.
-
- Of course, nowadays with bendy rigs and mylar sails, who makes headsail
- changes in 'round the bouy races? Just power up or down by mastbend and
- lead adjustments until the next mark.
- ---
- Peter Smith -- Data General Corp., Westboro, MA
- Peter_Smith@dgc.ceo.dg.com or psmith@dg-webo.webo.dg.com
- #include <std_disclaimer.h>
-