[C38] C38 racers

[Steve Smolinske]

Dan,

 

We have three lewmar winches on the mast they are all 30s, one on port with two line stoppers above for the jib halyards, two on starboard one for the main and one for spinnakers.  One spin halyard is internal the second is external our primary halyard for spinnakers is the internal one.  This set up isn’t ideal and we plan to move the winches and line stoppers to the deck for better ease of jumping the halyard and sail changes. 

 

Our topping lift runs from a lewmar 16 on the starboard side of the coach top near the cockpit inside of our handrail to the line organizers near the salon hatch then to the mastbase and up the mast to the block about 6-10 feet above the steaming light.  I believe your handrails are set further inboard than our boat #312, our foreguy is next to the topping lift and outboard of it, it runs to the organizer then forward through a pad eye located near the aft end of the vee berth hatch then down to the track on the foredeck. 

 

We have a Harken MKIV unit 2 split drum roller furler, we take the drum off when racing and the foil has two tracks.  To help with the sail going up easier have your loft make a track cleaner for you, it’s a foot long piece of luff tape with some fabric sewn around the tape and it has a grommet at each end,  attach a spare line to one and the halyard to the other, liberally spray McLube on the fabric and run it up and down the track several times to lubricate and clean the track, then spray your luff tapes with McLube at the dock (not on the boat it makes the deck really slippery) sails will go up much easier.  

 

When hoisting your spinnaker, hoist it first behind the jib and get it flying then take down your headsail, it will be much more controlled and will allow you deploy without potentially hour glassing.  We pack all our spinnakers with rubber bands so that we don’t have any surprises when we hoist from a poorly packed chute and so that it wont deploy until we sheet it in and break the rubber bands.  

 

If your problems with hoisting the head sail are from the furler design and cant be solved, try hoisting your headsail earlier in front of the spinnaker then taking the chute down after your sailing with the jib, you may loose a little boat speed from the new course but you will save all the hassle and frustration at the mark as you watch the boats behind you pass you as you work to get the head sail hoisted and flying.   

 

Our main sheet winch is a self tailing lewmar 30.  

 

Steve

#312 Peregrine

Seattle

 

 

From: listserve-bounces at catalina38.org [mailto:listserve-bounces at catalina38.org] On Behalf Of dmills3 at comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2012 8:33 PM
To: listserve at catalina38.org
Subject: [C38] C38 racers

 

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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