Stainless Steel jib Sheet Track Bending
Thanks for the input. I think if I put any additional track down on the rail I'll be going the route of using the extruded aluminum product from Schaefer. Although, if I don't end up adding more to the toe rail and will be only putting down straight sections of track I'll use the stainless steel material which will match my existing track and the cars will all be interchangeable then.
The thought of adding additional track came about last fall after sailing the newly purchased boat a couple times and finding I could not get enough tension along the leech of the 110% genoa to keep the top from luffing when sailing close to the wind. At this point I am thinking I may be able to get close to the proper angle for the jib sheet by installing a barber haul off the foot of the aft life line stanchion. At the very least I should be able to get closer to proper trim and would like to spend some time sailing the boat before I dive into too many changes.
regards,
Mark
5 Attachment(s)
Adjustable Floating Jib Leads
I just installed a floating jib lead set up and it is working really well. I looked at all of the posts on track placement They were very useful - mostly in convincing me that I didn't want to go through all the effort to install a toe rail t track and inboard tracks. After recoring the entire deck I wanted to come up with a solution that required drilling as few holes in the boat as possible. I've used a similar set up on a Santa Cruz 52 and a class 40 and figured that it might work on the Gail Grace too. I'm flying a 155% headsail on the furler. The first time I pulled it out I realized that the locking foot block I installed on the deck near the back of the cockpit was not going to work. I had to turn it somewhere further forward so I put a snatch block on a stanchion base and the lead was almost perfect but I had no adjustment. I have since replaced the snatch blocks with a couple of Lewmar 80mm blocks that work nicely. Below are pictures of the floating lead as installed. It consists of a short length of Dyneema spliced around a friction ring, The tail of the line is spliced with a loop and an adjustable splice. On the top of the friction ring there is a piece of bungee attached to the upper lifeline to keep it from banging around when it is not under load. I can flip it inside the lifeline and use an inhauler to the cabin top winch to trim smaller jibs inboard.
Attachment 9907
Jib sheet lead thru adjustable lead, back to turning block and to winch
Attachment 9908
Turning block to winch
Attachment 9911
Adjustable lead set at low position
Attachment 9910
Adjustable lead set to high position (around 13" of difference)
Attachment 9909
Adjustable splice