Sailing by Davis: “HRH Princess Anne at the London Boat Show” plus 3 more

HRH Princess Anne at the London Boat Show
Vendée Globe update from Mike Golding
January Rigging Sale Halyard Slippage Series : 2 Line and Clutch Issues
DoyleSails.JPG by Christophe Launay

HRH Princess Anne at the London Boat Show

Posted: 16 Jan 2013 06:58 AM PST

HRH Princess Anne visited the Musto stand at the London Boat Show this morning, where our founder Keith Musto was keen to show Her Royal Highness the Evolution Lined Gore Tex Coat, which is perfect for a cold day like today and a fine example of how we work with GORE-TEX® to create performance products for on and off the boat.

Vendée Globe update from Mike Golding

Posted: 15 Jan 2013 01:48 AM PST

On Monday we had a quick call from our stand at the London Boat Show with Vendée Globe skipper Mike Golding who discussed current conditions, current rankings and his Musto kit. The British sailor was forthcoming with feedback having been living in head-to-toe Musto for the past 66 days aboard Gamesa! Watch his latest update below.

January Rigging Sale Halyard Slippage Series : 2 Line and Clutch Issues

Posted: 16 Jan 2013 11:55 AM PST

You still have a halyard that seems to slip? There are a number of factors we can look at to determine what the issue is...

The January Rigging Sale Here

So you have a high tech halyard on your boat already and you seem to lose halyard tension over the course of the day?

The first place to look is the way you make off the halyard. On most boats bigger than 25-30' this will be a standard clutch. We will primarily talk here about boats with standard clutches as opposed to cam cleats or a horn cleat. I should also mention here that I'm primarily talking about upwind halyards here. Downwind halyards tend not to get as loaded up as an upwind halyard and as such usually do not exhibit slip in the same manner. Additionally most people are less likely to notice halyard creep on a spinnaker than they would on a jib or a main sail.

After you set the sail, mark the halyard (if you don't do this already) and look where the mark is relative to a scale or the clutch itself. Most people put a scale somewhere near the clutch and either mark it with a pen or a whipping so they can determine a repeatable setting.

Go sailing and does the line slip through the course of the day? Let's assume it does. If it slips a little through the day the first thing you want to look at is the clutch itself. Is the halyard diameter appropriate for the clutch? Most clutches have various innards that allow them to accommodate a wide range of diameters.

Spinlock XAS clutches which are fairly common, for example, currently have two cam sizes. The small range is 4mm to 8mm and the larger range is 6mm to 12mm. As a general thing in order to get the highest performance you want the diameter of the line you're using to be at the upper range of what the clutch is rated to hold.

This might be a good place to say that line diameters can vary. Cordage manufactures have tolerances for line diameters. For example in order to be considered x diameter it must be +/- x% of the diameter. Just as anything else can have variation in production runs, so can cordage. Some lines run a bit bigger or smaller as a general thing and also line has a tendency to "shrink" down as it is loaded up and the line is put under increased strain so I would recommend taking a set of calibers to the line to see what diameter the problem halyard is.

If you find that you're at the lower to middle range of what the clutch recommends using and you find the halyard is slipping you might consider bulking your halyard.

Bulking your halyard can be accomplished in two main ways and serves three main purposes:

1) It helps mitigate the potential for halyard-clutch slip

2) If you halyard sheave box at the top of the mast is small and you don't want to strip your halyard, bulking c can help you size up to fit the clutch

3) Smaller diameter line is less money. Depending on the length of the halyard, the added cost for labor can easily make up the difference of going up a size in the line

Now there are two main ways to bulk a halyard. Either you can add cover on top or you can add core inside

1) Cover added: good for existing halyards, easy to add on, cover doesn't necessarily need to be buried into core. Also good if you're seeing a lot of abrasion. There are high tech covers that you can get/use that resist abrasion. Also good because if you're comfortable working with line, this is something you can potentially do at home. Bad for halyards like a spinnaker where it needs to run well. Because it is not buried this has a tendency to catch or snag on the jaws of the clutch. note, this is best used in an application where you can keep the clutch open all the way until you get the bulked area through the clutch and then close the clutch.

2) Core install: preferred method for new line. Runs well. line on the inside can be tapered so it is less likely to snag or catch in clutch. More durable since there is less to abrade. Good because it can be blind stitched as well so it is less likely to slide around on the inside of the line. Bad because it is either difficult or impossible to do on existing line.

Now let's assume that the line looks good and that you're at the higher end of what your clutch recommends. Overtime the innards of the clutch can wear down and the cam and or plate can lose some grip as well as the spring cam arm can lose some spring. Spinlock clutches are great about replacement parts. They're easy to replace but you do have to remove the clutch from the deck so if you're going to the trouble to replace the cam or the base plate, I'd recommend replacing both while they're off the deck.

Spinlock has replacement parts for the XA/XAS, X/XTS and XCS clutches. Replacing the clutch parts is actually fairly simple. Here is the great video blog produced a few years back to help walk you through the rebuild process. Video

-Matt F.

DoyleSails.JPG by Christophe Launay

Posted: 16 Jan 2013 03:03 AM PST