Or better: don't use IE at all. I hate IE. You won't believe what a web application developer has to do to get IE to work. IE, all versions of it, should be banned. Get firefox, safari, opera, chrome, anything really and you'll be better off.
And don't believe the hype: IE 8 is just marginally better.
Nice work. I bit the bullet and built my own based on your method. Worked like a charm except I broke the track while bending. Not too bad in the end though, it was a clean break and fit back together nicely. I am within 1/4" of my desired radius. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but am anxiously waiting for my sails to come in. I'll post some pictures soon.
Im glad that worked for you. Did you have a chance to check out the pictures I linked?
I was afraid that I might snap the track, but it bent fine. When I bent it, I made sure that the radius was pretty constant throughout the length of the track. I think I used 5 or 6 clamps.
I just went too small. Note for next time 47" radius is too small for the track, trust me... I had three pipe clamps and my jig was cut from a 2x12.
In hindsight (which is always 20/20) I could have bent the square tube a little small and just clamped the track to it to even out the radius I needed without any work on bending the track.
OK... I am still stuck on whether the staight track might be more
automatic
than a curved track. Think about it for a minute. As the pressure increases, the jib is forced to leeward. If the track is straight, the jib auto flattens. With a curved track, it will retain a belly.(?)
I am knot an engineer but I do seek to understand.
Hey Eric,
My experience with a straight track(Reynolds 21) was that when you sheeted the jib hard to flatten the sail for upwind work, the clew would move towards centerline because the distance between the jib car and the jib's tack is shorter the closer the car gets to the mast. This would close off the slot too much. This is mostly a problem in ligher air, when it's blowing harder there can be enough pressure to force the clew outboard.
With the curved track, you can sheet hard or soft without the tension influencing the clew position relative to centerline, as the distance between jib tack and jib car is always the same. This allows jib shaping with sheet tension without changing the clew location.
That make sense?
Dave
I haven't used the curved track but I love my self tacker with the straight track. All you have to do is sheet out a little in lighter wind which it needs anyway to give it more shape. It also flattens with the gusts and automatically picks up the low pressure and goes wing on wing if dead downwind.
On my N20 I have curved track. How do you adjust how far your traveler can go? I currently have piece of line attached to mast rod under the ball. However it takes some time for me to adjust it.
Thx
Kris
Thx
Kris
On the Formula 18s there is a jam cleat with an eye on the spinnaker pole. You would tie a line to the traveler car like you do now but on the other side (front) then adjust with the cleat.
Dan
Put a eyestrap centered on the beam right in front of the mast ball. Offset a small cam cleat somewhere on the front beam close to the center - opposite side as where your spin halyard cleat works. Run a line from cam cleat, to center eyestrap to the traveller car. Its a
travel limiter
in much the same way as the main traveller is.
If you look at the pics I posted on facebook, There is a padeye right in front of the mast ball. I have a continuous line running from a clm cleat on one end of the main beam, to the center of the beam, through the padeye, under the track, through a small block that is attached to the travler, back up under the track and through the padeye again, and through a clam cleat on the other end of the beam. this way, the travel can be adjusted on the fly, from the trap. if you look at the pick that shows the end of the main beam, you can see the line running through the cleat and then through the shackel holding the spin block to the main beam. If I were to do it again, i might put the cleat right at the end of the main beam. I was using an existng cleat and dont want more holes in the beam, but this allows me to adjust from the trap.