Twin Genoa Cars…….

You probably remember when we had the vogue for twin genoa tracks on each side tank – it was/is prevalent for Ovington Mk IX’s.

The idea was pretty simple – use the inside track on flat water and light breezes and the outside track to open the slot when it blows a bit. We used ours a lot and were very happy with it, I must say.

Then along came adjustable jib cars and we went back to single tracks again. So if the double track system was so good, what are us mortals to make of this?

The most recent new addition to our fleet, in the hands of Andy Clark, is 3911. Take a look at this. Of course, this boat has history. I believe it was the boat that narrowly missed the worlds by one point or something like that in the hands of Barry Parkin – and then subsequently became the steed of Russell Peters.  One of them obviously is a twin track fan!!  (Double click to enlarge the photo)

FF Towing Vehicles….

It’s funny how some articles in the blog attract comments and some don’t…  Can you guess which blogs in 2011 attracted most comments??  The ones about cars….. ha!!

So it was with some interest that I read the article in the January edition of Y&Y (published in December, page 68) headed “Vehicles for Towing”. It’s a good article – look out for it.  They cover all the major issues to look for. It turns out that quoted weight towing limits for cars are for a specific incline, namely 1:16 or 6%.  However, on an incline of 15%, which is 1:6, what happens to the maximum towing weight? In their example, a Saab, it falls from 1600kg to 1000kg – blimey….

Why all the fuss? Well, how steep is your slipway??  At our Club, our friendly convention when the water level is low is that first team out get the car and pull the whole fleet out. Our slipway at low water levels is pretty steep – and we recently reduced a brand new Volvo estate to a clutch smoker resting at the top of the slip….. (I hope it has recovered, Ian!!….) The last part of our slip is probably a lot steeper than 1:6….

The article also mentions that some car models, especially small cars (Ford Ka mentioned) have no type approval for towing….. I didn’t know that.

The weight of an FF Hull, keel, rudder and mast is around 330kg I think. I don’t know the weight of an FF trailer do you? (Ian Preston will know…)  Y&Y suggests an SB3 trailer is 215kg, so lets suppose an FF trailer might be 170kg. Then allow maybe 30kg for kit, as proposed for the SB3. So we might be 530kg all up when we tow… Better keep that number in mind….

 

 

FF Genoa Cars – A Different Way to Set them…

Do you have a Goacher Genoa??  A number of us at Datchet do, and we’ve become surprised in recent times how far back you have to set the jib cars for them.

You know the general theory, I’m sure. You sail upwind and when you luff, the tell tales are all meant to curl together if the cars are in the right place. Well…??!!  How precise is that??!!

The VC came across another method for setting the jib cars for a Goacher G1A genoa. I assume it comes straight from the computer modelling program. The strange thing is that when I challenged Steve on this recently, it seemed like he had moved on.  Anyway – we tried the VC Method, and it seemed to help us quite a lot.

Look at this diagram .

Lay the genoa flat on the ground and mark two dots on the luff. One at 1.05m above the tack, and another 10inches above that. (The VC is of an age where you learned both metric and imperial at school… I get the same problem…)

Now pencil yourself some lines at the clew that join the dots and the centre of the clew. Imagine a line drawn further back into the boat in each case (I use a 3 foot/ 1 metre steel rule for this resting on top of the genoa sheet).

Where the rearmost line crosses the jibcar track is where your normal setting should be. Where the forward line crosses the track is where the lighter wind setting would be.

So this comes with the health warning that Steve Goacher doesn’t do it this way any more – so long as you use pencil that will wash off, give it a try and see what you think…..

FF Tow Cars 2….

We wrote a few days ago about what cars would take the mainsail of an FF (115 inches) without folding over the ends.  In my search to find something a lot more economical than a Range Rover (!) I tried a VW Tiguan belonging to a pal of mine. If you don’t know the Tiguan, it rates very highly in the Which magazine owners survey and is basically the SUV version of the VW Golf platform.  Interesting…

Despite it being a 115 inch sail roll, this VW could just about take it.  You need to cram the front of the sail right up on the dashboard, but it will go.

I’m encouraged by that as the car is just a two litre and will do 37-40mpg. When fuel hits £2 a litre, that’ll help.

So I’ll add this one to the list of eligible FF towcars…..

Composite Craft – Genoa Tracks….

This is the jib car arrangement on Charles’ smart new Composite Craft boat. Note the pretty thin jib sheets – Howard take note!

In keeping with the boat, it’s all in very smart black carbon, and if memory serves me rightly they have positioned the tracks slightly more toward the stern relative to Charles’ earlier boats.

They get extra points for the very neat way the control line disappears through the sheave and out of the way….

“Come On, Ovington!!”….