Steve's setup

Posted By: Burt Revell
Date: 10/6/06 1:15p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Reefer Madness ... (Gene Bragalone - #485/5.2)

Gene , This is an old post to the forum and a little hard for me to figure out. Maybe you can. Burt Auto-boom Posted By: Steve, White Bear Lake, MN Date: 11/28/05 3:34p.m. In Response To: How do you work that? (Jenny) Jenny: A picture is worth a thousand words. I would be glad to send you a picture. Let me know. I don't have a digital camera. I use three 1/2" bungees 3' long, each. I bought a 3" triple block (ouchee on the pocket book) and fastened a thumb operated clip on it. The ends are wrapped around a 2" ring and crimp cleated. Each of the bungees runs through each of the three sheaves on the block and the opposite ends are wrapped around another 2" ring and crimp cleated. Kind of looks like one of those exercise things. The block clips on the boom along with the forward block for the main sheet. One of the rings gets attached to my vang. The other ring has a thumb clip fastened to it and gets clipped to a padeye. I have five places that I can clip the opposite end to. A padeye on the centerboard just behind the thwart seat is used for light wind. The vang gives me additional adjustment. The sail acts like a butterfly's wing in the gusts and the average speed increase on a gusty day is astounding. You cannot react anywhere near as fast when using the main sheet. Yes, I usually leave it rove. (However, by lightening up on the vang, these bungees become an assist to the main sheet and reduce fatigue.) When the wind 'freshens', I attach the bungees to an eye that I have mounted just under and aside the end of the thwart seat. This stretches the bungees out and greatly increases their pull which is then further adjusted with the vang to shape the sail. I have also attached loops to each shroud adjuster. When I 'run', I attach the bungees to the loop on the same side as the boom and adjust the vang and now it has become a 'preventer'. Along with my auto tiller (originally a line across the tiller with a clamp on the tiller), the ship will run itself. In lighter winds, I sit facing outward and let my feet splash in the water. When I pass a larger boat on a hot day and see its skipper 'married' to the tiller and isolated from the 'sea' by a cockpit with high gunwales, all my desire for a larger rig vanishes. My son David and I logged over 11 hours sailing on Lake Superior this summer. The winds on a big 'lake' (sea) are very different from those on a small lake or otherwise enclosed area where gusts are the norm. Stev