Business End

Business End

While walking the deck this morning, I realized it was calm enough to risk the iPad forward of the mast. Here’s what’s there…

All the way forward is a Bamar top-down furler. It is easily removed and generally is not kept on the bow. It came out of hibernation durning the last calm spell when the asymmetrical was set. I’ve kept it there as I’m expecting some light weather ahead.

The jib furler is all the way forward, aft of that is the Solent furler and aft of that is a removable forestay. The bagged sail is the storm jib. Normally, there is a staysail hanked on to this stay but for the parts of the cruise below 35S, the storm jib is ready to fly and the staysail is tucked away in a sail locker.

The view up the mast shows how much pre-bend I’ve dialect in. There is a fraction more than the normal 1/2 mast diameter. When Nani and I tuned the rig, it seemed rather sporty and seemed a lot. So far, though, it’s been good as loads have not pulled the mast into column, or heaven forbid, forward past vertical.

The Solent was added for this trip and it’s proven to be a wise choice. It’s a workhorse and is up in all kinds of conditions. The trade-off was the extra windage forward and weight aloft neither of which are desirable and especially so on narrow-beamed boats with long overhangs. So far, the pluses haves got the minuses by a wide margin.

Follow my tracks in real-time:
https://bit.ly/svseaburban