Rigging and Boatspeed

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   OK, now let's talk about the fun stuff...SAILING!  On the Demo F18HT, Pete had put a 10 to 1 mainsheet on, and I thought it worked great!  What will the new boats come with?   Also, when will the snuffer system be finalized and will it be mid pole, front beam or what?  I know WF said for the Spring Fever regatta it will be strictly off the tramp, too bad as I think the Inter 20's will have an advantage at the take down.  I ripped my spinnaker by pulling it down into the tramp bag, it caught on a sharp edge on the bottom of the mast.  If you have good crew, it shouldn't be a problem unless it is really blowing.  My crew (son) doesn't have long enough arms to do a good, quick job of getting it down and in the bag so I have to start the takedown alot earlier than I would like.   Also, a retrieve line would help to get it on the tramp, even if no snuffer system is in use.  Has anyone thought about just getting a cheap long tube made of nylon, kind of like a wind sock made up, and using it with a retrieve line off the tramp?  You could tie the bag to the front and rear beam and pull most of the chute in, then stuff the rest in by hand.  You could still run the continuous halyard system ala Inter 20.  Any Ideas out there?  Tim

[W.F. Oliver III]

Tim,

As always, it is refreshing to see our positive discussions.  With regard to the snuffers at Spring Fever, there will be several different types of snuffers being tried.  We simply do not know what will be the final edition!  Randy is experimenting with a system like you described, I'm going to try a E-O snuffer or a mid mounted snuffer, Chris is temporarily rigging his I-20 snuffer on the boat.  There is development work going on toward a midmounted snuffer for less $ than the ones currently available.  Perhaps, Jamie Diamond can fill you in on this?  I think that Brian and Jamie will be tramp launching or using a on tramp tube, depending on what we can put together by the regatta.  Contact me tommorrow and we can try to put something temporary together for Tom and yourself until things shake out.
Our goal is to have this system ironed out by the second circuit regatta in Delaware.

Your boat will come stock with a system consisting of a triple hexratchet cat block on the bottom, a single 40mm carbo/a double 40mm carbo in the middle and a 57mm carbo triple on the top.  I beleive that this makes for a 9:1 system. This should be more than sufficent and require less line to play. The 10:1 blocks that you saw being tested are from an old 6.0 Nacra Worrell 1000 set-up.

I think that the class will learn a lot of valuable rigging and tuning tips during and before the Spring Fever.  It will be great to have everyone working together to get faster as a class!

Sail Fast and Often,

W.F.

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Here is what I'm thinking about for a cheap tramp snuffer, in time for SF regatta.  I'm going to Wal Mart, buy a small rectangular trash can for about $3.00.  I'm going to cut it on a diagonal from about 2" below the rim to about a 2 feet below the rim, so it will lie down on it's side, with the long part on the tramp for support.  I'm going to take that to the local awning maker here in town, pick out some nylon cloth, have her make a sock to fit the trashcan mouth about 8 feet long, with a 2" velcro strip at the big end, open on the small end, crazy glue the other velcro strip around the outside top of the trashcan, run the sock from outside, then inside, through the trashcan aft to the rear beam, (no sharp edges to catch the spin on) tie the front of the trashcan to the front beam and the rear of the sock to the aft beam.  I figure on spending $20 for the sock but I will give you her price after I get it done.  So, for less than $25 (tax, you know!)  I should have something to play with.  Yes, Tom (son crew) will have to jump over the trashcan when tacking/jibing.  If it gets to be a problem, I'll think of something else.  For now, I'll give it a try, not much to lose, but the best part is, no jib sheets to tangle it all up!  

[W.F. Oliver III]

Tim,

Ya' got to like your imagination!  It sounds like it will work for a short term answer.

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  Here is a twist on the above setup I thought about as I was out walking around my 5.5 taking measurments for the trashcan snuffer.  Let me know if you have tried this and if you think it won't work.  I'm thinking of having the sock made with a square or rectangle mouth, with each side having a 6" flap with a 2" velcro strip sewn in.  I thought I could wrap one side around the spinnaker pole, the front flap around the line that goes to the middle of the spinnaker pole, the left side around a line that I would run from the middle of the spin pole support line to the far left corner of the tramp, tied around the beam, and a line across the back from the pole to the same corner of the tramp or knotted to the oter line.  This should form a square mouth halfway out the pole.  Then run the tail of the sock back to mid tramp somewhere, maybe over towards the port shroud to tie it off.  This would completely eliminate a toilet seat type mouth, just nylon wrapped around line on 3 sides and around the pole on the right side.  If it bends or deforms too much during takedowns, I could add the top 3" of the trashcan under the nylon flaps to add support.  Has anyone tried something like this?  Do you see any problems with this before I head to Wal Mart?  I will test it out on my Nacra 5.5 in the backyard first and I will let you know how it goes.  If it works, it will save weight as well as money.  It will get the trashcan off the tramp as well.  I can then use the bottom 2' of the trashcan for it's original purpose, to hold ice and beer.  ;^)  Tim

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   The final product:  OK, I spent two hours at the awning shop with the little old lady, I tried to describe what I wanted, but she had no clue, so I stayed and helped her make the sock.  The only suitable material she had was a rather heavy white dacron that is about the same weight as jib material.  I figured, what the heck, it will last a long time, and if I get some good nylon, I can use the dacron as a pattern.  So we measured and cut and sewed and re measured and re cut and re sewed, and at the end of 2 hours I think I have something that will work.  I bought a bucket (I didn't like the trashcans they had) at Wal Mart, for $1.98, with the right sized mouth and a good strong lip, and cut it off about 3" below the lip.  We sewed velcro to the outside, big end of the dacron sock, and then to the sock again about 8" down from the big end, and put in the bucket hoop, turned the end back over the hoop to velcro to the sock.  The sock is tapered from about a 15" opening to a 8" opening at the back.  Instead of sewing the sock all the way down we used a 1" wide velcro stip to hold it together the long way.  At the small end, we sewed a 6" strap like a handle, across the exit hole, to have something to tie the sock end to the beam with.   Basicly, it looks like a white wind sock.  You can buy already made wind socks out of nylon (18" diameter opening X 8 feet long)  from www.sportys.com (a pilot supply house)for $44.95 plus shipping and if I had known she didn't have the light weight nylon, or what the dacron and all that velcro would cost, I would have done that!  She said "pay me what you think it's worth" and since she is 85 and very nice, took 2 hours, put down what she was doing and did it imeadiatly, I offered her $100.  She was thrilled.  Way more than I wanted to spend but she is nice and has done some good repair work for me before, really cheap!  Now, I don't know what Murray's gets for an Inter snuffer sock, (I have to drive 90 miles to Sarasota to a sail maker but I'm sure that would be cheaper), and If I had just looked in the Sporty's catalog yesterday I would have known that I could get the same thing for $45...but live and learn.  I will be rigging it on Friday and trying it out.  

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  OK, It's finished!  I tried it out yesterday and it worked great.  I am not going to poke holes in it yet for tiedown strings untill I set it up on the HT.  I tried it in 3 different locations, at the very far end of the pole (least favorable in my mind) mid pole, and front beam.  I'm not sure which of the last two will work best.  If you mount it on the beam, you have the sock on the tramp with you, good if you need to untangle the spinnaker or something but bad as it will be in your way while tacking and might cause more trouble by tangling up the mainsheet/traveler.  The mid pole works well too, and you still would have about 4' of sock on the tramp, but untill I see how the HT pole is supported at mid point, I won't know for sure.  One recomendation, I made my sock with about a 15" diameter opening in front, tapered down to a 8" opening in back.  I think the rear opening is too narrow and as you are getting the last 3' of spinnker into the sock on the takedown, it starts to plug the 8" hole at the back and makes it hard to finish the takedown.  I don't have retrival patches on my spinnaker, I just faked it with a golfball on the middle, back side and the halyard wrapped around the ball on the inside of the spinn.  If Randy puts two patches on the new spins, that might eliminate the problem, by making the spinnaker shorter in the sock.  Also, the spin. I use on my 5.5 is about 260 sq.ft.  so the HT's should be smaller, (230?) thus less of a problem.  Either way, it is much easier than trying to get my 9 yr. old son to stuff the 260' spinn in that triangular tramp bag!   Show you at Hartwell.  Tim

[Carbon]

Any info about the first sailing tests of the Jav 2s at Lake Hartwell (boat vs boat)?

How does the new Smyth's and Peter Cogan's mains  perform against the factory's one?
 
What about the different snuffer systems introduced?

How the tuning work is going on? Is it already producing  results i.e.  improvement of boat's performance?

Eager to know on behalf of all European F18HT' s owners.    

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    I'm sure by Tuesday WF, Chris Brown, and Jamie Diamond will have better tuning info...I was there to sell my old Nacra 5.5 and take delivery of my F18HT, had to leave Saturday morning early to get home in time to hide Easter Eggs and help my wife get 4 kids ready for Easter but here is what was going on Friday.  Pete Cogan couldn't make it so his boat and sail were not there.  Randy and WF were both using a Smyth main, which some thought was too full.  The Factory mains looked good to me but maybe need softer battens up top, as it was very flat up there.  Three boats ran the Inter 20 style snuffer, straight off the Inter 20, end of pole hoop.  Two ran mid pole and Randy Smyth/Tomy Gonzales were using a tramp bag to get ready for the Worrell.  I personally like the mid pole snuffer best and my cheapo design, while not pretty, worked great.  The Inter 20 system puts a lot of weight out there at the far end of the boat and is alot of drag going upwind.  The end of my sock was up on the tramp but was no problem at all as there are no jibsheets to tangle with.  WF had the custom "Skunk" type snuffer, mid pole,  with the bag run under the tramp.  On Friday the wind was light, maybe 5-10 at most.  All the spinnaker boats started in same class, F18HT's, Inter 20's and Hobie Tigers.  The F18HT's were easily faster than anything else out there but due to wind shifts etc. didn't all finish  ahead of all other boats.  I had a problem with both my port daggerboard (Factory left some gelcoat slop in the slot so the board would only go halfway down) and loose rig so I returned to the beach to fix it and missed the first race entirely, missed the start of the second but jumped in late just to sail against someone to see how fast it is.  I was very happy with the boat in general but of course there are some teething problems to be sorted out, it came as no surprise that WF/Matt Struble, who has the most time on the boat, was first in both races on Friday.  I'm sure that on Saturday and Sunday the other guys pushed him more as they gained some experience.  I spent all of Saturday stuck in traffic on the drive home (12 hours) so I don't know what the conditions were at the lake, or who finished where.  Hopefully WF or someone will give us an update when they have time.  I love the boat...so does my crew!  Tim

[lightcat]

Can we get some photographs of how the "skunk snuffer" is rigged on the F-18HT or Javelin 2?  I am also interested in any other rigging tricks and would love to see some photos of these.

I looks like the F-18HT class is making its move.  With the more general acceptance of the A-Cats, lightweight boats are the direction for the future.  It is important to keep up the momentum and build the class in the USA.

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   You can see WF's skunk type snuffer in some of the new pictures from Spring Fever.  His sock runs under his tramp.  Something else you can see is how little wind there was most of the time...   Hopefully we will get to sail them in some wind someday...but one of the reasons I bouht one is the general light air here in the USA.  On a heavier boat, with no spinnaker, it is no fun at all.  On the F18HT, you can still have fun in light air which allows you more days to sail when you otherwise wouldn't.  Do you know if anyone has raced the HT type boats in the Round Texel race?  Tim Bohan, Sebring, Fl.

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The Texel handicap doesn't show a F18HT, meaning that such a boat was never measured by Texel committee. It is therefor unlikely that a F18HT raced at Texel or a Texel handicapped race.

F18HT sloop (ventillo) was measured however. It is just the same as a F18HT but some mainsail area was transferred to the jib. Also arriving at a shorter mast.

I replied coz I figured I'm one of the few that could answer this question.

Regards,

Wouter

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 Wouter, thanks, how did the Ventilo with jib do in the Texel race?  Tim (not that I am considering it....)

[Fred_Glaubke]

Tim and Wouter,

A couple of months ago, I did some investigation (lots of phone calls and e-mails to the EU about the F-18HT.  During this, I came across the "F-18HT Sloop" in the Texel ratings sheet and in several results (it did very well).  I actually spoke to the owner, who explained that his boat was not actually an F-18HT.  It seems that the Texel people simply named it "F-18HT sloop" to distinguish it from the F-18.

The F-18HT rules used in both the EU and North America forbide any sails other than the mainsail/mast and spinnaker.  The F-18HT sailors in EU are found mainly in Switzerland, France, Italy, and Spain, so I do not thank that there are many (any) in the Netherlands, nor do I beleive that the designs has been raced in Texel.

Now that the class is growing quickly in the USA and in the EU (because of the Jav 2?), maybe the boat will be competing in Texel?  Two USA teams (Team 1 Sailing and The Smyth Team) are planning to attend a major EU regatta in July (Rimini, Italy), so who knows?  Maybe Texel will be on their schedule next year?

Fred E.Glaubke
F-18HT USA-?