Mark and all,
I tie the hook to the mast permanently and use shock cord from the loop forward to the old outhaul cleat. I think this is essential to keep the hook oriented correctly as well as help when the outhaul is released. The loop of the hook also has one of those small Harken blocks on it. Some bending required to put it on. A knot in the system keeps the clew at no more than about 12 inches from max outhaul. No problems so far other than hooking the sail in the first place in heavy air on shore. I sometimes use a temporary line to get control of the clew. As for the tie down, I have never done the bead thing, I just use that slippery spectra line and a lot of McLube... For you obsessive types, it is very easy to splice spectra by weaving one part through the other back and forth a few times and then using shrink tubing on the short stub of weaving. The length of the loop can be set very accurately and will not slip, all without the bulk of a knot.
One more race in wind like last night and I will go insane....
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Todd
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Juranek [mailto:MJuranek@starbucks.com]
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 11:54 AM
To: seattle-laser@sailpix.com
Subject:
While am nearly certain that I could have found multiple other ways to destroy my third to the weather mark rounding last night ( I think I saw Mike do a double take), I had the great unfortunate of having my clew hook dis-engage after my rounding resulting in a good 30 inches of draft heading up wind. I can confirm this is noticeably slow up wind, you do not need to try it for yourselves.
I attributed this failure to one thing for certain, and another possibility.
I tied my clew tie down really tight last night and it would not slide over the draft sticker (Magic Marine sticker that shows inches from the end of the boom) that is on the end of my boom. I will be taking this off this weekend. This was hanging up the tie down and probably causing the hook to twist as I had to put a lot of effort into getting the tie down to tear across the sticker.
Secondly, I tie the clew tie down through the sail and not through the hook. What do most people do? By not tying the hook down, I think this also allows the hook to twist. Seems like tying through the hook is also much smarter, as attaching the clew is a one step process (since the hook is already tied down and I think this could be made permanent) vs. my method where I first tie the sail down then hook the clew.
Mark Juranek
206 318 5362
Starbucks Coffee Company
International Accounting
Received on Fri May 23 12:22:27 2003