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Cross Sheeting   Total Page Hits: 2268

Post Type: Technical/Project

Boat Part: Not Specified

Date Modified: 06/05/2016 4:10 PM

Details

Beautiful sailing day here in San Diego: low 70s, sunny, very nice wind,12-15 mph steady, with stronger gusts here and there. I rarely see Montgomery Boats out on the water here in San Diego; today, there were two M-17s out.

Big swells, heading out of Mission Bay channel to sea: 4-6 feet, with confused waves near the breakwaters. I had to hold on as Bella was tossed up and down, left and right. Lots of boats heading in and out (the wind was too much for some), with the holiday weekend here.

Back in Mission Bay, with the steady, strong wind, I clocked the fastest times I've ever seen with Bella: per my handheld Magellan GPS, mounted on the bridgedeck, I touched 5.9 mph on flat water, and saw 6.2 mph on a very modest swell. I had nice stretches where the GPS ran between 5.4-5.7 mph.

With my son at a baseball game with a school friend, and my wife home helping our daughter study for finals next week, I was singlehanding. To make it easier to trim the jib sheets, I cross sheeted the jib sheets: one jib sheet ran from the jib clew through a single block (spring-mountedupright) on my port handrail, to a swiveling cam cleat on the starboard side; with this, I can trim the jib from windward, with the wind coming over the starboard side of the boat. The other jib sheet ran from the jib clew through an upright block on my starboard handrail, to a swiveling cam cleat on the port side; with this, I can trim the jib from windward, with the wind coming over the port side of the boat.

I also relocated my jib cam cleats from the cabinhouse to the coamings. With the jib sheets on the coamings, I can trim the jib sheet myself, instead of having my wife or son do it, or me reaching across them to do it. This way, they have a relaxing sail, leaning up against the bulkhead. And, I'm more relaxed, because I can do things myself, instead relying upon 'crew.' I got the idea for placing the jib cam cleats on the coaming from the layout of the M-17.

Lastly, I removed my traveler/mainsheet, and went to a 'barney post' (four inches of glued sections of teak, secured with four #10 machine screws 6" long) arrangement. With the mainsheet on the deck of the cockpit, folks sitting forward can stretch out across the cockpit, and not worry about getting entangled in the mainsheet. Also, the bridgedeck is clear, now, providing a comfortable seat if one wants to sit facing forward with one's feet in the cabin. Again, I got the idea for placing the mainsheet on the cockpit deck from the M-17.

Upper right is the revised rig in action, with Jana (wife) as 'active crew.' No work for her; she gets to relax, and I convey perfect orders to myself!

Photos and Story by John and Jana Gonzales

Photos

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