[C38] C38 racers

[dmills3 at comcast.net]

Hi, it's Dan Miller from the Chesapeake Bay. I wanted to ask some questions of the racers in the group. It's quite long so I hope you don't mind. My boat is #108 and was a very basic boat. I have added the Garhauer traveler and solid boom vang. I have been club racing in the non-spin class with I'm assuming the original Hood roller furling but am trying to rig for spinnaker racing. While the mast was down I cut a slot at the top of the mast for the second internal spinnaker halyard. 
When we go out to race we are bare headed and make up our mind as to which headsail to use when we get to the race course. The original Hood roller furler is shaped areodynamically with a groove at the front and a groove at the back edge. We have been having trouble feeding the luff tape in and getting a timely hoist. We use a pre-feeder but still have to almost hand feed the luff bead into the slot. I recently bought a full hoist C38 #1 headsail. A couple of times last year I removed the roller drum and wrapped the bearings with a plastic bag so I could tack the current roller furling genoa down at the deck like a normal boat. 

If I move into the spinnaker division I will be taking down the headsail when the spinnaker goes up but I know with the current situation of getting a headsail up quickly at the leeward mark I am going to be losing a lot of time. Has anyone been able to modify any of the prefeeders out there to fit it to the original C38 headfoil to make getting a headsail up more easily? Or do most of the racers not even fool with a roller furler setup. If you don't use the Hood roller furler is your original grooved headstay the same shape and design of the roller furler unit with a groove at the front and a groove at the back edge or are your grooves side by side like modern headfoils? 

My next set of questions are about leading halyards, the topping lift and foreguys aft. I will be adding a winch to the port side cabin top with linestoppers. The port side will have jib, spinnaker halyard and the topping lift. Since the starboard cabin top has the winch for the mainsheet, do the racers move that winch inboard a little and add another winch for the second jib and spinnaker halyards? Is your foreguy run just above the forward window and then just to the outside of the handrail as it comes aft? 

What size Lewmar winches do you use for these halyards. My current mainsheet winch is just a single speed #30 winch. Do the racers use a #40 two speed winch for the mainsheet. I am planning to keep the main halyard and winch at the mast but was thinking of removing the jib winch from the mast and using it on the cabin top. 

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks, Dan Miller, Blonde Stranger #108   
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