Muscle boxes for kicker's

[Tim Noyce]

2303 performed excellently yesterday as always. We also have a skinny noodle needlespar mast. We just have main shrouds on it but I'm thinking it really needs some lowers to keep things aligned. Seems to lose all power as soon as you get someone on the wire. Excellent fun though on a 2 sail reach when you have some breeze.

[Neil C.]

The Needlespar on 2631 is ludicrously soft. I cranked on a good bit of cunno before launching today and the thing started looking like a bow and arrow (without the arrow). By the time the kicker went on the front of the mast was trying to set the back of the foredeck on fire by rubbing on it vigorously with every gust. I'm torn between trying to keep it more straight with the addition of lowers +/- D2's as Tim suggests, or just binning it and starting again with something else. Roland pointed out a while back that these old Needlespars make a good mandrel for a narrow diameter carbon stick, but that might not be quite in the spirit of the classic theme.

[JimC]

On competitive boats back in those days the thin needlespars would have been stabilised by a spigot. This was a species of mast stump, rigidly fitted into the boat, and projecting up 6 inches or so, onto which the main mast telescoped with as little play as was compatible with being able to get the mast on and off. In the absence of one of those you badly need lowers, otherwise, as described, the mast will just bend up when the weight on the wire takes the load off the spreaders. This is also a sign of inadequate rig tension...
If decent rig tension is inadvisable - shroud ought to have, I reckon, at least 20% more tension than the weight of the crew and the more the better - then in theory you could fit check stays to the base of the spreaders, then the leeward one would tend to stop the mast bending up to windward when the load comes off the windward shroud with the crew on the wire. I've never tried this on a boat of that era though. A concern would be that it would be easy to put all the extra load you've not dared to put n the shroud onto the checkstays!

[daryl_wilkinson]

Luckily we don't have to much of a problem with lack of power at the moment as the crews combined weight is only 105kg - 32kg of which is no the wire! We also look like we have a needle spar, which is actually quite deeply pitted from foot to gooseneck. Seriously considering trading up my insurance to fully comp just in case!

[Neil C.]

Jim, I'm sure you're right about the spigot. The Needlespar on 2631 has had a new bottom section about 2 feet long grafted onto the bottom of the main tube at some stage. This extension piece seems to be made of something monumentally heavy, in that the centre of gravity of the whole spar is now only about 30% up from the foot! Although the hull of 2631 was built in 1986, the rig is probably a lot older. Apparently Rob Stephens (who had the boat built by Andy Paterson) had an old Forman 4 or something, and simply transferred most of the gear from his old boat onto the new hull. Certainly the 2 mainsails that came with it have 2549 on them, which I think would put it somewhere in the late 1970's. Daryl - had your lad done any trapezing on other boats before, or did you just get him going straight away on the Cherub?

[Tim Noyce]

My girlfriend had done no sailing whatsoever before I got her out in the cherub. I personally think that the F4c is the ultimate training vessel... enough sail to generate power to trapeze in a reasonable wind, yet stable enough to not go swimming on a regular basis... and sailing off 1115py it is good fun to take a fight to normal run of the mill club sailing boats. Can beat the classic Finns when it is windy... and tussle with the squaddy toppers when its not!

Neil, I was chatting to Rob down at Poole about your boat (think it was a kit from Andy P). He had some excellent stories from the old days in the Cherubs.

[daryl_wilkinson]

Daryl - had your lad done any trapezing on other boats before, or did you just get him going straight away on the Cherub?

Well he went out with me a ben in Loco when he was about 7. Not that there was any wind around. And apart from Minorca in May where he spent the afternoons trapezing with me in a 29er or xx that's it. Oh and about 3 times in the Banshee at B.S.C ( very shifty ), which highlighted that he needed something to learn on a bit more. I would have probabley gone for a 29er if money was no object. But it is, so we have a classic Cherub instead. In hind sight it may have been better to get the old boat first, whilst the banshee was being built, but i didn't really think that through at the time. Funnily enough he says he actually feels happier trap helming, than crewing. As he hasn't really ever crewed so it is all a bit alien to him. There is less for him to think about when you add the trapezeing element I suppose.

[Neil C.]

Neil, I was chatting to Rob down at Poole about your boat (think it was a kit from Andy P). He had some excellent stories from the old days in the Cherubs.

Andy P sent me this photo a while back. He thinks he supplied the boat as a shell with crewdeck, and Rob did the main decking and finished it off.

[Neil C.]

He also sent me this one, but wouldn't own up to who owned the car!