Optimal headsail track placement.

Sir Cav-2. The 'cheap track' would have to be in 'carbon' though - or it'd weight far to much & we'd have to leave out several rounds of 'sundowners' & that's not a good plan - wherever we might set the sails - unless - tied to the wharf - of course.

I'm a bit like Brett, Corley & Gary - though - I like to be able to get all those funny front-sails - set - just to look good. By the way - what is a canoe headsail or what ever you called it ??? ciao, james PS. bummer that the extended Cross was not all that much quicker than you - when the wind - blew the 'froth of the beer' - shame eh, ha ha ha. jj

 

Ouch James... he was fast enough to have time to heave to to make breakfast..... Seriously we wound up becalmed missing the wind by a hundred feet in more than a few spots. A taller mast would have helped. We did make the anchorage first but he had time to double the distance reaching off here and there. Loaded up with a month of stores we were the 2nd fastest boat that day passing the mono cruisers. Lot of difference though from a 8-1 hull and a 10-1 much longer. We like the Nicol though. we had spinnaker runs on the way home that lasted for most of the day and used our staysail so it could air out. Even 10 pounds of pull helps.
Chesapeake Bay log canoe's are great contraptions, they are long dugouts with the crew sitting on planks to keep them up. In light airs they fly the equivalent of a sunfish sail off the top of the mast to get things higher. I've drawn out a crabclaw equivalent, we'll use tarp to test. Lacking funds for high tech we tend to go for the blast from the past when adding innovations. We did catch a serious monohull sled with spinnaker on our way back (he had a 10 mile head start) as a consolation prize. They looked a bit surprised at our old Hood pretriradial relic.....

 

An interesting thread on Cruisers forum about using dyneema loops as a substitute for jib tracks:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ks-as-an-alternative-to-a-jib-car-146801.html

 

If only we could bring James back from the celestial archives..... some good ideas Corley. I'll try them on my staysail, we've had towable cars and barberhaulers for the jib for years. Since they work great I'll keep them.

 

James was a top bloke, fondly remembered and missed.