Boom Reef blocks and winches installation design As you remember I made 4 reefs on my new main sail, and 4-th i would likely never use ;) I tried to calculate what could be loads in reef lines on my boat and get really surprised numbers. My sail: Configuration Luff remaining Estimated area Full-sail area Full sail 11.14 m 25.60 m² 100% Reef 1 9.45 m 19.2 m² 75% Reef 2 7.80 m 13.6 m² 53% Reef 3 6.13 m 8.8 m² 34% Reef 4 4.46 m 4.9 m² 19% At fourth reef set, about 4.9 m² of mainsail remains exposed to the wind. At a worst-case wind speed of 60 knots, that sail area produces approximately 3.7 kN force. If about 40% reaches the reef clew, the clew must take 1.5 kN. Because the two reef-line legs pull at a shallow angle of about 10°, each leg carries approximately (1.5 ÷ [2 × \sin(10°)] = 4.3) kN. Allowing a 50% increase for gusts, flogging and shock x1.5 = 6.4 kN. so, a reef block i need for about 8 kN working load. The same logic calculation gives us about the same loads o...
Sailing We had a great time out on the water this weekend. It was my birthday, and we spent six lovely hours on the bay. The water was almost flat, and the wind was just 3–6 knots—perfect for a relaxing day. No sporty sailing, no drills, less than 10 degrees of heel, and speeds of 2–5.5 knots—whatever the wind gave us. We even enjoyed hot tea and birthday cake (Napoleon) underway, thanks to our big boy: a 3.5 kWh battery and a 3 kW inverter Just me Boat work Next day little work on boat was done. But Coffee is the first. So, what got done: A little software fix before we headed out. I fixed an annoyance with the NavPod: the button to activate the autopilot didn’t automatically set the current heading as the target heading. Now it works as autopilots normally do—press AUTO, and the boat continues on its current heading. Adding a cockpit shower. The work is partially done: the cold water line is routed to the lazarette, and a ball valve and s...