Hello
Wondering how long mainsheets are on your 30? The online manual says 90’ and I notice it is a hand-correction. My very old manual says 84’ which is what I have but I think it is too short. I can’t get the sail out close to right angles. I was thinking perhaps 100’. Also considering Regatta Braid which is quite easy on the hands. You know, we need to support the economy.
After constantly being plagued by us students complaining - "What are we ever going to use that for?" our geometry teacher finally gets his revenge, because this is a case where the Pythagorean Theorem may help give the answer:
If the foot of the sail on a 30' is, say, 26', that squared is 676,
Multiply that by 2 (a squared plus b squared) and you get 1352,
The square root of that is 37, for round numbers, which is the hypotenuse, but also the rough distance the sheet must reach when the boom is at right angles,
Double that for the sheet to go out and back and you have 74,
But then the sheet must get to the winch and back to the helm, so you can add another 10' easily,
But the sheet sags some and you need some extra to work with so I would add another 10', and suddenly you're at 94'.
100' seems like a very reasonable number, if the foot of a 30' sail is in fact 26', and it might be more.
Mr. Piskuscus, a great geometry teacher, may rightly be leaping for joy in his grave (unless I made my usual careless error)!
QED,
Ed Cook
Chat-eau,N26C, #173
Middle River, MD
I did the Pythagoras thing, actually with some measurements and a a supposition or two and that is where the hundred camel from.
You are assuming a right triangle. Some of us like to let the sail out forward of the mast. My sheet is 120 feet and I have on occasion used just about all of it.
Paul M
NS30U #211, Sandpiper
Cowichan Bay B.C.
The lower perpendicular (roughly the foot) of the sail on the 30 is 24’ but you have to add some to that to get from the clew to the sheet attachment point. Adding 16’ of line will let the boom out about another 8’. I am with Paul Miller, longer is better until you have too much sheet lay about the cockpit. as to type of line a little stretch in the sheet is not a bad thing. It takes some of the shock load when you tack in strong winds.
Regatta braid stretches 3.3% at 20% of breaking strength. The manual calls for 7/16” and the breaking strength of the Regatta braid in the size is 5500 lbs. so 100 feet of line will stretch about 3” with a 1000 lb load. I don’t know what kind of loads are present on the sheet of a 30.
Mark Powers
I believe that mine is now 110 ft and, as someone mentioned, you need it to sail by the lee.
Joe Valinoti
S/V iL Gatto NS30U #221
Sea Harbour YC
Oriental, NC USA
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