Well it all seems very quiet out there,hope all the boats and crews are mended after a bit of a battering at Carsington. Well done to Brain and David for another win. How is the report coming along, didn't know if the event photos were posted enywere. Hope all are well - see you at Glossop.
Had the weekend after Carsington off, so muscles and bumps could repair and then off to Southwold for the start of the Sea sailing season.
Quicksilver and Sarissa raced and in the light winds and sloppy sea's the racing was very tight. Sarissa getting a 1st and 2nd and Quicksilver a 2nd and 3rd with a 505 spoiling our party with their big kite in race 2. We stuffed the Laser 4000's on the water which is always nice and we also managed to beat off the two National 12's which is no mean feat with their handicap.
On a couple of occasions Ben or Chris did something on Quicksilver and she took off, sailing though our lee and pulling out four boatlengths on just one leg of the beat. Now whether this was us going slow or them going very fast is unclear but the difference was very worrying. However luckily for us they couldn't find this setting everytime so we made up ground downwind and covered like mad to keep in front.
There are a few more 505's at Southwold this year which is good for us as they provide good competition but it would still be great to see some more Javelins out as we've lost a couple this year, one due to moving house and another to work committments.
Looking forward to Glossop although I'm stopping myself from thinking about it too much as memories of eight and nine come flooding back along with OOD's plotting courses with just about every bouy that Glossop own included. When you sail windward leeward and olympic courses on the sea every week the Glossop list can be a little daunting not to mention running out of space on the back of your hand!
This looks like it has an RWO main traveller, does anyone else have a Javelin with this setup ? I've just been working out how to run the lines for the one on mine.
I had a traveller on 182 years ago, while they work quite well they are no where near as easy to use as a swallowtail end main (which is also much cheaper).
My traveller had cleats either site of the car led to the side tank if that helps.
Cheers Rich, 131 was probably set up as per 182 I've fixed the line to an eye at the end of the rail then through the block on one side of the car. The line then runs out to the fairlead on the tank into the cleat. Then I've left some slack in it and ran it across to the other tank and back through in reverse order. This gives 2:1 and can be released from the opposite side by pulling the loop towards you. and tensioned by pulling the loop throuh the cleat. Is 2:1 enough ? I have two cam cleats and one clam cleat per tank at the thwart. And another cam cleat on the thwart at each end. I've assumed that the clam cleat and it's fairlead are pointing at the block which is under the thwart at the bottom of the centerboard case. After that it's a bit of a mystery as no matter what way you run lines they rub on the centre board cap edges. So it's almost as if this boat was never fettled. Any memories you might have as to how to run the lines on this arrangement would be appreciated. Now where did I put that grindy spinny drilly 12 volty thingamy doodah.....
Oh yes - state of the art in 1886 and given a calibration scale I would have thought it would still be effective today, if a little heavy. Only good for reducing bend, so no pre-bend option but few if any of us use induced pre-bend other than the 50mm at spreader height that most of us put in using the spreaders.
The biggest issue with the traveller is having to adjust it on every tack. A real pain when sailing inland or on small courses. Great on long legs in a blow though. I used to have mine on a continous loop but to be honest it was such a long time ago I can't really remember.
I'd be tempted to leave it in place as it does stiffen the boat a little and use either a strop or split tail mainsheet as Rich suggested.
The other area which will gain performance is the outboard jib sheeting you're using. Great on the reaches and in light very light or very windy days but the rest of the time you will be pointing low and going slower than the inboard sheeted Javelins
I expect this boat will be used mainly for club sailing so being down to weight and ultra competitive isn't a top priority, 62 is still outboard sheeted and they don't seem to be held back by it a great deal. I will try to have a closer look at the traveller systems next time I see the boat (we are helping a friend with the restoration which will hopefully result in another jav at BSC!) Winning may not be everything but coming second is nothing!
quite tempted to put one on 53, if they are still available. It would provide more adjustment than wooden chocks! Winning may not be everything but coming second is nothing!
Not sure how much they will be new, a strut kit is about £80 plus the blocks. If you do buy a strut kit buy the parts seperately don't be tempted to buy the kit as they will happily charge you £20 more for the same bits!!!
Rich, would you be kind enough to drop details of "the kit" here, thanks. The whole rams and chocks thing is brought into sharp focus the first time you chock the mast and then realise the shrouds have gone slack. The forestay/shroud tension and ram are really intertwined. As someone who has yet to sail a javelin ( ok I'm slow at getting her/it on the water ) it is only slowly becoming clear. I now know why using 16:1 on the jib halyard might not be a bad thing. If anyone wants to sketch up their rigging arrangements don't be shy I might be able to make them presentable.
They sell pretty much the same mast ram RWO r4520 at various places it's about £90 Image: http://
www.javelinuk.com/e107_files/public/1211111234_3_FT234_704520.jpg [/html]
After a very quick rethink, I have decided that wooden mast chocks are definately the way forward! Winning may not be everything but coming second is nothing!
A year or so ago I came down to Buckenham to help setup the rig and advise on some tuning. It's far easier to show people what they can do rather than trying to explain on here.
I'd be happy to do the same again if needed and dispell a few myths on the way and hopefully show some cost effective solutions.
Sailing at Buckenham requires a very different set-up than you would use on the sea and different again from what you would need on an inland lake. We use systems that we can change to aaccount for the different types of conditions we're going to face. Setups for waves, flat water, light wind, med and strong winds. When we used to sail on the river we really only used rig setting. Due to our combined weight our rig was bolt upright and with full rig tension we had 40mm of mast bend at spreader height and that was just about it.
The water is always flat so you need flat sails for speed as you don't need the grunt that full sails provide for pushing through waves. With this in mind, if your sails are a little on the old side and a bit baggy a little more mast bend may help flatten the sail a little. You need a good kicker as because you tack A LOT, you need the twist for accelleration after the tack but you need to pull it on again so you can point and keep your crew out on the wire.
By the way if anybody is after some good sails our 2007 Hyde development sails are available and will be going for a song, as we'll be getting a new set soon
