So I got my P16 out on the water for the fourth and possibly final time this season. This time not only did I put it together correctly, I also had pretty reasonable wind - a bit more than a lubber like me would find comfortable. In connection with that, a few observations and additional questions for those in the know.
Observations:
1. Cats are FUN! In anything but the lightest breeze. I was not brave enough to try flying a hull, but I got it to heel pretty good and BOY did it MOVE!
2. A single person cannot right a P16 using a righting line, even if the person is 215lbs. However, it would be no sweat with a righting bucket or if I gained about 30 lbs. more (though with my frame that would preclude me being able to get back onto it once it's righted - unless I manage to bulk up 30 lbs of muscle).
3. Sitting at the back of the tramp and missing a tack (ending up in irons and turned so that you are now on the leeward side) will capsize a cat in decent wind.
Questions:
1. What is the appropriate line thickness for the traveler/mainsheet line(s)? On my P16, the line seems OK for the mainsheet blocks, but the traveler keeps getting stuck. While the mainsheet blocks LOOK to operate fine, I wonder if I simply don't feel the problem because of the 6:1 ratio of the mainsheet blocks. I ask because while I am sure I uncleated the mainsheet before righting the boat, the main appears to have stretched the bracket on the outhaul car to the point that as soon as I got underway after getting righted the main popped out of the outhaul car and got itself nicely wrapped around the mast, battens and all. Took a bunch of fighting to turn the boat into the wind enough that I could even drop the main - it was jammed in the mast groove. I suspect the main did not get released all the way because the line was too thick and it ended up scooping up some water while I righted the boat so the weight of the water deformed the bracket.
2. What is the best way to fix the problem with the outhaul sail bracket being stretched too wide to fit the pin? The pin holding the sail in was just long enough to stay in before the bracket deformed, but now it's too short and the ball does not reach the outside of the bracket. Even after I straighten out the bracket, I don't think I can trust it to not deform again. Can I trust a longer pin to keep the sail in? Do I need to get a new outhaul car or a new bracket? Incidentally, the pin that is now too short has a push-button to release the locking ball. The pins that a guy at West Marine said are replacing the push-button pins are those with simply spring-loaded balls - does anyone trust this kind of a pin? Seems too uncertain to me. On the other hand, it's not like the locking ball proved to be all that effective...
3. Can I trust the main now that the battens had been wrapped around the mast for a while? None of them snapped, but still that is not an expected mode of operation - I wonder if any of them are compromised and will rip my sail in the next puff of wind. Would probably be cheaper to replace the battens than battens AND the sail.
4. I noticed that the boat gets carried by the wind quite well while on its side - even panicked at one point that I might not catch up to it. Are there such things as boat tethers, like retractable cords that clip to the boat and stay on the spool but keep you tethered if you fall off? Or are they more trouble than they are worth? I might add a couple of lines to clip onto the passengers after the boat capsizes just to make sure nobody gets lost.
As always, thanks in advance for any information you can provide - and for reading this far through all my verbal barfage :)
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Mike
Prindle 16
Rochester, NY
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