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Getting Ready for SHTP 2021

Another thing to think about is shroud angle. Our masts have spreaders, right? That's because the masts are really tall, to get a higher-aspect sail. That means they have to be built, basically like a truss, with spreaders, to take the loads. To get a sail up a mast that has spreaders, means you need some sort of sail track. You can't just have grommets in the leading edge of the sail, and lash loops around the mast. How do you get those loops past the spreaders? So if possible, you want to raise a mast that doesn't need spreaders, so you can use mast loops or hoops, like an old gaff-rigged boat..

OK, so there are lots of opinions on this next point, and I'm not a rigger, but my reading-around-the-internet suggests that 15 degrees is a pretty good angle for where shrouds intersect the mast. It shouldn't be less than 10 degrees. You can measure your 'base"...from mast base to toerail (eyeball it, if you have a boat with the mast on the cabintop), and do a little trigonometry. if the beam of your boat is 6 feet at the mast base, then the "base" of your shroud triangle is three feet. If your beam is 8 feet, then your shroud base is 4 feet. Keeping in mind that 10-15 degree guideline, how tall can your mast be? I'll spare you the trigonometry, but read what Eric Sponberg has to say here:
https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/aspect-ratio-on-headsail-vs-shroud-angle.39379/

Here's a picture of what I'm talking about. In this picture, we're looking at the boat from directly behind the transom.

shroud angle.jpg
 

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OK, I used an online trigonometry calculator...here: http://www.carbidedepot.com/formulas-trigright.asp

to figure out lengths and angles. Since the Wildcat is more like about a 7 foot beam at the base of the mast, I re-did the calculation for a shroud base of 3.5 feet. With that, I get a mast height of 19.8 feet and a shroud length of 20.15 feet.

Well, the cabin top of the Wildcat is 1.5 feet above the deck, so if I make an 18 foot mast, put those together and I get a stick with a height almost exactly the maximum height I can use and still have acceptable shroud angles.

IF I do that, I get a headstay length of 21.7 feet, using a J of 9.5 feet, which is the J of the S2 7.9. If I make it just a couple of inches longer, I can use that genoa that I got for the Piper, as an emergency headsail. It's very light, probably 4 oz cloth.

So in other words, an 18 foot stick is about the maximum length I can have for a "no spreader" mast, and it's also about the maximum length that I think I can push up by myself. BINGO! Also, it so happens that my v-berth is 6' 6" in length along the hull. So three, 6-foot sections, plus the 1 -foot splines I'd use to join them, will fit nicely in the v-berth, all gorilla-taped together , and the wire bits attached as well. The S2 7.9 boom is 12.25 feet long, and ends a couple of feet in front of the transom. So once the whole thing is assembled and in place to be hoisted, only about 3-4 feet of the e-mast will hang off the back end of the boat.

Cost? 3 sections of 3" 0.065 wall plain old non-anodized aluminum tubing at Alan Steel...$86. (half of what it cost to buy it online, and no shipping)
two, 1 ft. sleeves to join them together $10

Three 1/8th inch (breaking strength 1800 lbs, working 900-1,000 lbs), 20 foot long s.s. 7 x 19 cable, 20 feet long, plus swage sleeves and thimble eyes, including four Ronstan s.s. pad eyes, and some long screws for a couple of the pad eyes...$82.

Riveting tool, and box of 5/32 aluminum rivets - $35

Shackles and blocks.....got 'em already.
 
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More information than anybody ever wanted to read.

Hopefully, it'll never get deployed and I'll get the stuff back to SF somehow after the SHTP, and the sail will get used on the Piper, which is what I bought it for.

The aluminum and s.s. cable will make a dandy, if a bit overkill, mast for the Caravelle Dinghy, for which I have plans from AZsailor.
 
Thanks for the additional comments. It is always nicer to read them directly rather than speculate.

With regard to the contingency mast / sail holder, a mast step of some sort make mast raising easier. The Moore 24 and Mair 28 (with a deck stepped express 27 spar), both had hinged mast steps. If you bought one from Ballenger Spars the budget would be impacted.

The Mair mast went down forward because the daggerboard extended a foot or so through cabin top when the boat was on trailer. When dry sailed, the daggerboard was always going up and down. Thank goodness for multiple part block and tackle and winch for 900 pound daggerboard.

The Moore mast drops rearward.

In both instances, a restrained mast step is a key.

The Lightning had a bottom stepped mast, so even though mast was lighter and shorter, the effort to hold it vertical (especially with any breeze), made the operation dicey.

All my observations are based on a parking lot that doesn't move. Not the case with the Pacific Ocean.

Ants
 
AntsUiga said:
Thanks for the additional comments. It is always nicer to read them directly rather than speculate.

With regard to the contingency mast / sail holder, a mast step of some sort make mast raising easier. The Moore 24 and Mair 28 (with a deck stepped express 27 spar), both had hinged mast steps. If you bought one from Ballenger Spars the budget would be impacted.

The Mair mast went down forward because the daggerboard extended a foot or so through cabin top when the boat was on trailer. When dry sailed, the daggerboard was always going up and down. Thank goodness for multiple part block and tackle and winch for 900 pound daggerboard.

The Moore mast drops rearward.

In both instances, a restrained mast step is a key.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. My plan is to embed a 2.85 inch radius cylindrical hunk of wood in the bottom of the lowermost section, cleverly round off the back of it and drill it to take the bolt that goes through the mast step. Oh...and have an extra bolt, just in case. If the mast step itself is completely destroyed, then I'm gonna have a problem. I could get a simple hinged mast step fabricated, but there are limits, here.

The Lightning had a bottom stepped mast, so even though mast was lighter and shorter, the effort to hold it vertical (especially with any breeze), made the operation dicey.

All my observations are based on a parking lot that doesn't move. Not the case with the Pacific Ocean.

Ants
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Absolutely. If the seas are up, the plan is to retrieve everything possible from the wreckage, lash it down on deck and cut away the rest. Then I close the hatch and go below and wait for things to quiet down a bit. I remember hand-holding and pushing up the Cal 20 mast at the dock. A Cal 20 mast is about 24 feet tall. It was NOT easy.

But all of this is hypothetical. I have the rigging wires made, now. I'm sailing all weekend FINALLY...testing the emergency rudder and testing the backed- heavy-weather-jib-to-tiller-counterbalanced-by-surgical-tubing self steering as advocated by Andrew Evans. I haven't sailed in two and a half months, I've just been working on the boat. Now I test everything and remember how to do it!

I start watching NOAA offshore weather Wednesday or Thursday. It's been very light out there.
 
I cleaned and organized for hours today, but finally got out on the water about 5:45 PM. I successfully deployed and used the emergency rudder. There is video, but i shot it on my iphone and I have no way to edit it, or upload it to anything that anybody else can see. This crap used to be so easy....not any more. I hate Apple.

Maybe tomorrow, with the Android.
 
A lot of today was spent running back and forth to West Marine, who miraculously, actually had what I needed. There were THREE trips because of course, problem #2 doesn't surface until you did the shopping trip for problem #1, and problem #3 doesn't appear until you did the shopping trip for problem #2. So anyway, the second battery is in, the autopilot wiring has been double checked, new 10A fuses are on board and blccch... the port cockpit locker hasp has been replaced. Don't ask. Anyway, I got out for about 2 1/2 hours of sailing, all done with the emergency rudder. Conditions varied from benign beam reaching to moderate close reaching to about 35-40 minutes to windward in 15+ knots with a moderate south bay chop. The Autohelm ST2000 drove it just fine.


E-Rudder_on_Wildcat.JPG

I also tried the "storm jib backed to tiller, counterbalanced by surgical tubing" system as promulgated by Andrew Evans. What I set up today is shown about 42 seconds in...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY1qx3PfUS0&t=213s

He's not the only one who shows this method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C54DCC5EPwM&t=181s

I don't have a storm jib, so I set up the 60% heavy weather jib on it's own wire, and hoisted that right behind the furling drum. This is a fiddly system, it will take time to get it right but even what I had managed to steer the boat in about 10-12 knots and a little bit of chop, on a slightly-higher-than-beam reach for about 20-25 minutes. I'm reasonably confident that if I had to, I could set this up (if it wasn't blowing the tops off the waves) and get it to steer the boat long enough to get a meal, or get a half-hour nap or two.


Everything seems solid.
 
OK, this morning I bought the emergency mast tubing. The stuff comes in 20 foot lengths, so I had the guy at Alan Steel lay a 20 footer out on the floor and block one end with his foot. Then I pushed it up. Easy-Peasy. No problem at all, MUCH easier than pushing up my sheaf standards. So I got 3, 6' 4" sections of the tubing, and two 1' sections for sleeves. That will give me a 19 foot mast, which is plenty tall enough to make a headstay that will accommodate the Piper jib making that shroud angle at the top of the mast only slightly less than 10 deg. .

Have y'all seen the poly-tarp sails that some of the uber-cheap small boat guys make? I made one for the skerry, just to try it out and it actually worked OK. I mean, it's not as nice, and nowhere near as long-lived as a dacron sail, but the lugsail I made was good enough for me to get out sailing and try out the whole lugsail concept thing. Some pretty big sails have been made out of polyester tarps.

http://www.polysail.com/article.htm

Y'all think that polytarp won't work as a sail?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8x9ZdcxPnk

So in the interests of not spending much $$, but having some sort of semi-sturdy triangle of material that I can hoist behind the E-mast, using a spinnaker pole as a boom, I got an 8 x 10 medium weight tarp at OSH last night, a roll of carpet tape, and a roll of duct tape. I have an inexpensive grommet setter at home. This is NOT a proper sail for the boat. I'm not making a North 3-DL here.... I'm making an 8 x 15 triangle, with reinforced corners, and a folded-over luff and leech. It's held together with carpet tape, a once-around-the-edges (and the middle seam) with my sewing machine and then covered the exposed sticky carpet tape with white duct tape. Carpet tape is insanely strong and sticky . It sticks to the poly material incredibly tenaciously.

I forgot that it was double-sided. There's a paper backing that you peel off. If you leave the backing on, the carpet tape won't stick to itself. If you peel it off and then try to stick two layers together...well, let's say that you don't get second chances.

This is crude. However, it's "sail area", it cost me $20 for the tarp and $10 for the carpet tape, and $7 for the duct tape. Hopefully it will never get used.
 
OK, step one...go to hardware store and buy a tarp. THINK ABOUT YOUR GEOMETRY before you buy it. Get a roll of carpet tape, and a roll of duct tape. You can get white tarps, but then why not make something unique and different? Carpet tape is SUPER sticky on both sides. It comes with a paper backing. Lay it down with the backing on, and when you're ready, peel it off. It will stick to the polytarp. In fact, if you tap it down with a rubber mallet and let it sit, you CAN'T pull it back up again. Once you stick a piece of carpet tape to another piece of carpet tape with the backing off, you are committed

ESAIL-layout.JPG

Anyway, lay out your tarp on some clean, more-or-less-flat surface. Get out your tape measure, and some string, and mark your corners and edges.
 
ESAIL-make-triangle.JPG
OK, cut your "hypotenuse"....aka "the leech". That will leave you with a "leftover" triangle, if you have thought carefully about your tarp size. You can also just buy a bigger tarp and not have to use the "back half" triangle. If you buy a bigger tarp, you can use the excess cut-off for corner patches, which you can sew down on your home sewing machine. Believe it or not, a home sewing machine with sailmakers thread will sew through 3 layers of 8 mil polytarp without batting an eye. You have to help pull it through the machine, as the stuff is slippery but aside from that it's a no=brainer. If you do that, then you don't have to set grommets in the corners, you can stitch in some long loops of webbing.

Anyway, I saved a few $$ buy thinking about the geometry of my triangle and buying a smaller tarp.

Now, line everything up and trim your leech so it's at least sort of nice and straight.
 
CUT OFF the pre-grommetted sides and the reinforced corners. I know...I know. Just trust me. They will rip out in minutes. They WILL rip out, so just cut off those edges.

ESAIL-grommets-off.JPG

Now you have your basic triangle laid out on your driveway. You're going to use carpet tape to reinforce the corners and the edges, and then fold over the tarp material to make strong edges. The polytarp is kind of stretchy, so it will curve into some sort of vague foil when it's set up on the mast, but if you want to get fancy and build in some luff round, and put a dart in, at the tack to give it some shape, feel free.

Make corner patches from carpet tape. Just cut a bunch of strips that look about right. Put down the first one. Then strip off the backing. Put down the next one. It'll stick like mad to the first piece. Peel the backing off the second piece and put down the third one, and so on until you have something that looks like a corner reinforcement. Do all three corners.

ESAIL-cornet-patch.JPG
 
DO NOT put carpet tape all the way out to the edges of the "~sail~". Why? Because you're going to fold over the edges, at least once and twice (to make a three-thickness edge) is even better. So keep your carpet tape reinforced corners a couple of inches away from the edges.

Now, if you haven't peeled the backing off the piece of tape which is closest to the edge you can sort of dry-fit a fold, here. Binder clips can help keep 3-4 feet of the folds in place, while you decide if everything looks copasetic, or not.

ESAIL-corner-foldover.JPG

Get your corners looking some sort of neat and then work your way down each edge, folding over the edges and putting down a piece of carpet tape to hold the foldovers in place, every foot or two. When everything looks some sort of straight....and remember, you are making a CRUDE, GET HOME SAIL, not a race-winner, then strip the backing off of the little pieces of carpet tape. Lay on a full-length of carpet tape, and try, if you can, to get one length of tape to cover the whole edge, to lock down that edge.
 
Do NOT...repeat do NOT peel the backing off of the tape you just put down on the edge, if you want to sew all the way around your "~sail~". If you are patient, you can actually run a line of zig-zag pretty much all the way around the sail, right through the carpet tape and the polytarp. My little home sewing machine did it. However, if you pull the backing off and reveal the super-sticky underside, you won't be sewing anything. IN FACT, it's probably fine without sewing, but hey...if you can, why not? You probably can call it good at this point with the carpet tape.

If you did what I did and put two pieces together, you'll need to tape both sides of that seam. Hey, why not sew it with a line of zig-zag, while you're at it? I did.

Me, I turned the "~sail~" over and ran a layer of carpet tape down the OTHER side of the luff and the leech. I didn't pull off the backing paper.

ESAIL-green-side.JPG

I actually did this and THEN I sewed around the edges, and sewed that middle seam in the body of the sail. I had some carpet tape left over, so I laid on a "strap" just above the pre-grommetted edge on the foot of the sail, just for some reinforcement. I left the grommets on the foot because I'll fly this sail loose-footed, so those grommets won't pull out. However, a reinforcing strap along the foot can't be a bad thing, right?
 
Now, go around your "~sail~" and pull off all the backing paper, from the carpet tape. That's going to leave you with a LOT of exposed, extremely sticky tape. It's so sticky that it will rip the color off of the polytarp...not kidding, so for heavens sake don't roll up your sail at this point. You have to cover that sticky stuff. The backing paper will come off after a couple of days, so you can't just leave that on.

Ta-Daaa!...You have a roll of duct tape! Just cover all the exposed carpet tape with duct tape. No more stickiness!

Pound in grommets in the corners .... Pound in a grommet every 2 - 2.5 feet on the leading edge for loops of line to go 'round the mast...or if you're making a headsail, you could maybe even put in some little quick-links, which are WAY less expensive than hanks...

s-l300.jpg

And you are done.

This is EXACTLY what I did last night. Well...I still have to pound in my grommets. My **cough**

"~sail~" ...is about 8' 6" on the foot and 14' 10" on the hoist. My spinnaker poles are 9' 6" so it's a bit short on the foot, but whatever. I'll have about 16 feet of "hoistable" length of mast from where the boom will be, to clear my cockpit cover, up to the top. So this triangle is about a foot short, but that's OK.

Hopefully I'll finish it, put it in a garbage bag and stuff it in the forepeak and it will never come out again. For sure, UV light breaks down polytarps. No question about it, so you're not going to be using a sail like this to go cruising in the Tropics. Also, Duct tape deteriorates. You bet. So this sail won't last ten years, even unused. But if it stays out of the sunlight, It's going to be plenty strong enough to hoist in an emergency next week, or next summer - God Forbid.
 
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YAY, my kitchen timer is here. I like to have a non-digital timer to wake myself up every 25 minutes for a look-see. Old Skool. The old one from 2008 has gone missing, so Joan got one that's supposed to have an 80 dB alarm when it goes off. It's ticking on my desk right now.

I'm stunned. I didn't have the emergency mast/rigging/sails in the original budget and I'm still within 10% of my estimate to do this sail, that I put together 4 1/2 months ago.
I estimated $2890 for Joan. I'm actually at about $3100, and the original estimate didn't include the whole "emergency mast" and rigging stuff, which adds up to about $200.
 
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AlanH said:
YAY, my kitchen timer is here. I like to have a non-digital timer to wake myself up every 25 minutes for a look-see. Old Skool. The old one from 2008 has gone missing, so Joan got one that's supposed to have an 80 dB alarm when it goes off. It's ticking on my desk right now.
QUOTE]

Maybe you should suggest that idea to Alex Thompson?
Click to expand...
 
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