Setting Your Jib Cunningham…….

Posted on January 3, 2013 by flyingfifteen

Do you ever do much with your jib cunningham??

Well, for a lot of us it’s all a bit of a fiddle and we leave it alone. But is it all that difficult?? First off, there is a requirement in the rules that you have at least 100mm between the tack and the deck. So you need a sense of where that measurement is.

You are looking to have just enough tension in the cunningham that the wrinkles in the luff just about disappear. Then take that string – loop it three times between the halyard and the tack, then up through the little clamcleat there. Just give it a good tug into the cleat – don’t put a security knot in it for fear of snagging a spinnaker sheet in it. Just leave the clean tail of the string.

The example in the photo was done by a god….

(Double Click to enlarge the photo)

More on those Wobbly Spreader Seats…..!!

Posted on September 12, 2012 by flyingfifteen

Phil Tinsley and I had the mast out of the very beautiful, wood decked, 3342 just recently. The mast was old enough to have those spreader adjusters which were basically half a bottle screw and you have to disconnect the ends to adjust them – compared to the new ones, just ghastly to use.

Here’s the thing though – in comparison to our recent note about replacing wobbly spreaders after two years, this older set of spreaders (25 years maybe?) were still solid as a rock. Everything very firm and accurate – wobbly free in fact.

There’s progress for you…..

FF Fine and Coarse Rig Tension Adjustment…..

Posted on March 9, 2012 by flyingfifteen

Perhaps the thing that intrigued me most about the layout on Geoff Bayliss’ carbon Fifteen, is the approach to rig tension. I realise that if you have ten Fifteens in a row there may be eleven approaches to this technical challenge!!

For those of us who don’t have a standard Phil Evans produced layout, that rig tension comes up to the console on some huge ratio, and the excess line flies away under the floor on shock cord. ….

But anyway, the main point of this is that Geoff does away with all of that. He uses a fine and coarse adjustment system (our Dragon was full of them) – that is to say there are two lines. The coarse adjustment, on a very low ratio (so not much string) gets the halyard hook to roughly the right position. In Geoff’s boat that is the black line on the front corner of the console. Pull it on as hard as you can, and there won’t be much excess line flopping around at all. The hook only moves about 6 inches, after all.

Double click the photo to see it larger…. So how does the fine rig tension adjuster work?? Well, for that last inch or two of hook movement, there is a higher ratio cord. Can you just see in the photo a little swivelling cleat on the back of the console?? Just below the mainsheet?? That’s it right there. That’s the fine rig tensioner. I must chat with Geoff about how effective he finds this – it means less wet string in the boat I reckon, but it is also distributed differently….