Link between forestay & furler.

[Jaycb]

Although the old Dart manual shows a direct shackle link between the bottom of the forestay and the furler pin, most of you seem to use a cord strop, looped several times, in between the two. This is how mine has been supplied. I assume this is for either:

a) shock absorbing, or
b) ease of adjustment

but my question is, is this really safe? I'd like to be able to leave my Dart rigged over the summer (tied down, of course) but to me this cord seems to be the weakest link in the whole setup. Could you use one of those stainless steel shroud adjusters to make this link? Or what about some kind of "safety chain" back-up that you could fit when the boat is at rest in the boat park, just in case there's a breakage?

What do you think? Am I being over-cautious?

[Brian Phipps]

Hi , yep perefectly safe provided you use good quality line , suggest 1m x 4mm dynema or similar.
Good idea to make sure it is a different colour from the Jib tack tie down.
Brian
Windsport.

[Bob Carter]

Hi Jas,
The advantages of using a bit of line are:
1) It is much easier and safer to raise and lower the mast as you do not have to tension the rig and then get a clevis pin through the holes. You just thread the line through the shackle and tension it at your leisure (as you add extra loops.
2) it gives better adjustment of rig tension.
3) it is easy to change mast rake without any drama.

I use 1 metre of 3mm dyeema or spectra line.

The weakest link (by far) on the forestay is the short wire strop at the top of the forestay (above the top swivel). I usually have another piece of 3mm dyeema or spectra line in parallel with the strop so if the strop breaks the mast does not come down and I can keep sailing. A couple of years ago I submitted a picture to our magazine which showed a broken strop but the line held enabling me to finish the race without misshap.
Cheers
Bob

[George Love]

Hi Jacyb,
If you would like a copy of the picture and the article to which Bob refers, I will gladly e-mail it to you. Send me a note to : newsletter@sprint15.com
so I recieve your e-mail address.
I have lots of similar articles from several back copies in the editor's archive which I could provide to anyone, especially new members who may not have the originals.
Cheers,

[Jaycb]

Bob,
George sent me the article - quite sobering. AND you won the race!
It'd be great to get this sort of stuff on the members area here on the website.
J.

[Martin Searle]

Bob,
<snip>
It'd be great to get this sort of stuff on the members area here on the website.
J.

This is a case of watch this space ... something is in the works. The articles would be posted in the Hints and Tips section though not the members area.

As an aside would anyone be interested in being able to download the magazine at 40+mb a time in PDF format? or would you prefer just the key articles being available? These would be restricted in the Members Area.

Martin Searle

[Martin Searle]

Bob,
George sent me the article - quite sobering. AND you won the race!
<snip>
J.

This happened to me last year and the strop broke but I didn't have the string backup so everything came down in a big heap.

The other ways I have been dismasted in the last 15yrs:

1) I have had the hound shackle pull open thats even louder! That one went on our Open Day last year with a guest on board!
2) I have had the bridle shackle, the one soldered to the wind wand holder pull open.
3) The shrouds normally fail at the point where the steel wire goes around the loop and then is crimped by a bronze crimp, it always fails right below this crimp! (at least 3 or 4 of those). These always fail on a really fast reach.

Last year I set a new record with no less than 2 dismastings, one does try to provide entertainment to ones clubmates! (no 1 and the strop).

I have never had the bit of string fail between forestay and the roller reefer. Even when it was all green and manky it was fine. I salvaged a nice piece of string from a pack I bought to update my laser (it was a new clew tiedown) after deciding I was pushing my luck with the fraying string that I had there!

I also attach my Jib with an old lace from a lifejacket I had that was long enough. As you may have guessed I don't skimp on string

Martin S.

[Jaycb]

Hi Martin,
Thanks for that. I can see myself backing up every connection there is with dynema now...!
I hope your boat didn't suffer too much damage in the dismasting episodes - when I bought my Dart there were cracked "indents" on the top of both front beam tubes which looked like they might have been made by something heavy like a mast landing on them (all repaired now thanks to Steve).
Re. the articles, 40mb is a lot but the people who'll use it will be the ones who really appreciate it, if you see what I mean. A lot of subscription mags now offer free .pdf downloads to magazine subscribers, in addition to the mag itself. I wouldn't want to see the end of the printed mag though - it's such a quality thing and worth the membership fee alone.
Putting the tech tips in an openly available area is really good sense - it shows the accidental browsers what an enthusiastically supported craft the Dart 15 is. I looked at the Dart 16 class site the other day and it's a sad sorry load of pants - hardly anything on there and half the links don't work. This site is in a whole different class (no pun intended).
Long may it stay that way.

[Martin Searle]

Hi Martin,
Thanks for that. I can see myself backing up every connection there is with dynema now...!
<snip>
Re. the articles, 40mb is a lot but the people who'll use it will be the ones who really appreciate it, if you see what I mean. <snip>

Putting the tech tips in an openly available area is really good sense - it shows the accidental browsers what an enthusiastically supported craft the Dart 15 is. I looked at the Dart 16 class site the other day and it's a sad sorry load of pants - hardly anything on there and half the links don't work. This site is in a whole different class (no pun intended).
Long may it stay that way.

The boat didn't suffer any noticeable damage in all my dismasting incidents other than the bit that broke of course. I find that the mast comes down rather floatily since the sail acts like a parachute. Still whince when it clunks the deck or beams etc. Also never felt like it was going to clunk me on the head either. Sorting out the jumble of rigging and sail whilst waiting for the patrol boat to come over and tow you home is fun and trying to take the sail off without having to go swimming is not something I've mastered yet.

I wouldn't go overboard with the string however.

As for the other item:

We wouldn't want to see the printed magazine disappear either since its an essential part of the association.

Really what I would like is to provide a back-issue service to members so that if they have lost theirs or would like to see ones prior to thier date of joining they could (subject to electronic copies being available of course I don't know how far back they go, George Love has the archive). But each would be a 40mb+ download so pretty big. I can split a big PDF into several sections using Adobe Acrobat to make it more managable too download but not as convenient too read or too just extract the main articles in it.

As for the Dart 16 site it does seem to be par for the course for a lot of UK cat sailing websites. I've perused most of them looking for additional ideas but not really found anything.

Thanks really must go to Jonathan Perkins for setting this site up with a standard layout throughout with a set of common php libraries which define the look and feel of the site, these still underly the site. This saved me lots of time when I took it over since I didn't need to convert it.

I've spent most of my time in the last year turning the site from a static page site using PHP into one that uses dynamic database driven php pages published using a content management system that I have written. Also revamping the Clubs page, Buy and sell page and automating the events system and scoring mechanisms.

The ultimate aim being too allow me or others to publish everything using a web-browser with very little hand coding of specific pages, for example : I've brought the time down to publish an event report from 45 minutes (lots of fiddly layout stuff) to about 30 seconds because its now just a copy and paste task, results take a bit longer and is dependant on the number of entrants but once entered they automatically update the series scores as well as providing the results table in the event report without me having to do anything more.

Martin S.