Monday, July 12, 2010

Traveller

Unpacked the jib track carbon traveller today.  Looked good enough.  Extremely stiff.
 
 Roughly placed, it might be necessary to raise it from deck an inch or so for daggerboard clearance.


I sanded down the main traveller and laminated the first bi directional coat.  I'm making sure to keep it exactly straight during the cure, as several builders have reported that to their surprise it turned out slightly curved.  That is also some of the reason I choose to laminate in several stages as well.

First layer curing, taking care to cure straight

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tor,

The jib traveler seems like a very good idea.
Having a self tacking jib will probably provide a lot of easy sailing pleasure !
Sailing on Menno's boat we have found that with a lot of wind tightening the jib sheet is hard work, even with a 2:1 arrangment.

Will you be able to back the jib ?

I enjoy seeing your good progress on the boat, and wish you a lot of nice sailing once finished.

Greetings from the Netherlands,
Hans

Anonymous said...

http://www.multihulls.net.au/slides.php?de=49082&img=5

Jib Traveller on F82 above. Mixed blessing though; less trim adjustment, less eficient and can't back jib to get out of irons or heave to.

Dave H

Anonymous said...

Hi Tor , don't think you should have curving problems , I think the travellers that had problems were made using polyester or vinyl ester resins which shrink in the curing process . Epoxy does not have this problem . Can't be too careful though . Cheers , Jim Buckland .

Tor Rabe said...

Hi all, I appreciate your comments.

Hans!
I think the self tacking jib will be very welcomed both with family sailing and single- and shorthanded. I will be able to back the jib using barberhaulers, but I'm working on another car control solution as well.

Dave H!
There is always a backside to good things, isn't it? But I am working to find solutions to minimize them. The trimming will be harder of course, as you will have to change clew position on the clewboard to adjust twist. The other trim adjustments will be the same though. I hope the Gran blade jib and my 4m^2+ mast will compensate for some of the loss in efficiency. Then there is the possibility of switching to a hank on genoa in the case where you have crew and performance is the most important. I will install jib tracks as per plan as well as the self tacking track.
I think you should be able to back the jib using barberhaulers, even if you don't have car controls.

Jim!
I was not aware of this. My traveller ended up absolutely straight however, and stiff enough to lift an elephant it seems. Heavy laminating scheme, but flex here will have adverse effect on sail trim I presume.

Also see related comments in the previous post.