Hi everyone, I'm new to sailing and the forum. Last last summer, I purchased my first sailboat, a nice condition late 70's (I think) NACRA 5.2
The boat is in good sailing condition, and I've had her out three times using only the main sheet before the weather turned cold.
The problem I'm running into is that it seems I'm missing all the jib hardware! I do have a like new zipper style jib that I've rigged a halyard to, but I have no hardware to attach to the foot of the jib to adjust it. I've tried looking for photos and searching for rigging, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm new to this and at a complete loss.
Can you guys point me in the right direction? What do I need and where can I get it?
I do have a harbormaster that's willing to help me, but he's and hour and a half away and very busy. I'd like to make sure I have everything I need before I make the drive and take his time.
Thanks Tim! looks like most of what's downloadable is for newer models. I found a few threads here, none were too terribly helpful. There's one that looks promising, I'm reading through it now.
In the previous link, check out the "vintage" document. If that's not helpful, here's a link to you boat's specific manual (on this site). If those don't help, ask away!
Thanks again Tim, the manual is really helpful. Unfortunately, it's showing me the extend of what I DON'T have! There's no jib travelers, cars or ratchet blocks with my boat. All I have is the Jib, jib halyard, and clew blocks. Is there an easy/inexpensive way to get this jib up? I can't say that I really even understand how the jib works, or how it needs to be adjusted.
Also, I do not have any hinge pins to prevent my mast from slipping off the ball when raising the mast, can this be retrofitted?
Check with Pete Begle, he's always got a good stash of older cat part, as well as a helpful and knowledgeable nature. He's got several ads in the parts classifieds. If he doesn't have what you need, I'm parting out an H18 if you want to adapt foreign parts. I'm in the parts section too.
jr,
I'm probably not the best source of info, as I just got my Nacra. There are a few 5.2s on YouTube that give a decent view of the jib setup. I'm not familiar with the 5.2, but it looks like the jib's cam cleats are located on either side of the tramp. I can't tell if they are adjustable fore/aft or are in a fixed position. I'm sure someone else can clarify that.
You basically rig your jib up so that there is a set of blocks to either side, and the sheets run aft to their corresponding cam cleat. The windward sheet is slacked so that the jib can blow over to the leeward side of the boat. The leeward sheet is then pulled to flatten the sail to the desired position.
As for the mast pin, your mast base should have holes in which to put the pin, locking the mast to the ball. Go to Murray's Sailing's website and you'll be able to see a great pic. If it doesn't have the hole(s), or if that portion is broken off, you'll have to replace the mast base. Once you have a good base, you simply slip the mast pin (also available from Murray's) through the hole so the ball is captured, put on keeper rings so the pin doesn't come out, and raise the mast. Once up, remove the pin, as the side stays will hold your mast in place and allow it to rotate.
A really great resource for answering a LOT of questions about sailing your cat is the book Catamaran Sailing: From Start to Finish by Phil Berman. It was invaluable to me. I read it a couple times and was able to rig and sail my H16 with no problems, right off the bat.
Where are you located? There are probably a few guys on here who are near to you and can get you rolling.
Murrays Marina has a upgrade kit for the mast receiver and 1-1/2" ball replacement.
It will keep the base of the mast in place while raising it. http://www.murrays.com/01-8002.html
-- Jeff O
N5.0
solcat 18(sold),
N5.2,
H16
Camarillo CA --
JR, on the older 5.2's, the jib blocks are attached to 2 cables running fore and aft, the cables are located approximately 12" inboard of either hull, and are attached to the top of the front and rear beam using mini-eyestraps or fairleads...
On the older 5.2's, the cables ran above the tramp, limiting real estate, so an upgrade was to remove the center bar and install a tramp that allowed the cables to run underneath the tramp, this entails relocating the jib cables and eyestraps under the beam, the tramp has jib strop cutouts which allow the cable to pass over the top of the tramp for a short distance.
A word of caution, Nacra produced the 5.2 in 2 widths measured from inside of hull to inside of opposite hull, 72.5" and 74.5", determine which production yours is if you plan to do this upgrade.
I recently purchased a 5.2 project boat and am in the process of doing this upgrade, I have the upgraded tramp from Slo and am ready to go once the weather starts warming up.
PS, side note to Damon, a strange technical quirk has my dialog box growing in length as I type, any suggestions?
The tack of the jib is attached to the chainplate that connects the bridles via one of these brackets:
http://www.murrays.com/56-9890.html
Use a short ( < 1") clevis pin to connect the bracket to a hole (your choice which) on the top of the chainplate. The holes should be aligned so that looking through the center of them points fore and aft, not side to side. This will orient the bracket such that in the pic @ murray's, you'd be looking at (towards) the port side of the boat, with the bows pointing left, and the jib coming up and away from the bracket to the right.
Typically I leave the bracket on the boat (not the jib) when not in use.
Then attach the grommet at the tack of the sail to the bracket with another clevis pin.
The sail halyard runs straight up the forestay, through a block at the top of the forestay, and then back down the mast. The jib zipper only goes around the forestay, not the halyard as well.
The halyard comes down the port side of the mast, and should have a bullet block or equivalent on the end of it (usually a bullet with a becket, so that you can tie a pigtail to the becket).
Towards the base of the mast on the port side you should have a clam-cleat and an eyelet close to each other. You want a short line, ~24" IIRC, tied to the eyelet, which will act as your jib luff tension-er..
When you hoist the jib, you pull the halyard down via the pigtail (any old 3/16 sta-set works great), then when you have it all the way up, the block at the end of the halyard should be down to about a couple feet above the tramp. Untie & remove the pigtail from the block's becket (and don't let go..), take the tensioner line that is tied to the eyelet and run it up through the block and back down to the clam-cleat. This gives you a 2:1 purchase on the tension of your jib luff.
For the sheet, you just rig it the same as any other overlapping cat jib sheet. The slot can be really tight on the 5.2, depending how the jib blocks are attached, but I think a search will turn up plenty of posts on that.
The reply text area is supposed to grow to the size needed for the text, and it still does, as I'm typing this on latest Chrome, but I've seen the problem of vastly expanding text that causes a lot of scrolling to get back down to the Submit - Preview - Cancel buttons.
Haven't been able to figure out what's up, appreciate any suggestions. I'm sure it's a change in the way the latest browser updates are handling the CSS or AJAX responses.
The problem isn't consistent, it didn't happen on this reply, even after using the Preview feature and continuing typing. Would appreciate if anyone can diagnose.
It happened to me in the latest version of Chrome yesterday. It isn't happening right now, though. Maybe just a corrupted cache (client side) or something due to a site update?
WOW guys, thank you! Tons of info here. I do have the Jib tack hanger. Seems I'll need everything from the clew (aft bottom corner, am I using that right?) aft.
These lines and blocks and travelers look complicated. I'm going to have to do some studying.
That mast step upgrade might be a well spent $250, could mitigate some dangerous situations when stepping the mast.
It's 6 degrees here now, I'll try to go out to the boat to take some pictures when it warms up a little.
Thanks again guys. Where do you think is the best place to find the missing parts I need?
It happened to me in the latest version of Chrome yesterday. It isn't happening right now, though. Maybe just a corrupted cache (client side) or something due to a site update?
I just tried to quote a post in Chrome and would get error. No problem here this time with this post using Firefox. Go figure . . .
It looks more complicated than it it is, click on the pic above to enlarge and lets break it down:-
1) The jib blocks attach to the cables using 1/2" shackles, they adjust fore/aft
2) the purple line is the jib sheet, its a continuous line, attaches to the becket on the jib block, goes through the clew block, back through the jib block, through the cam cleat, over to the opposite cam cleat, through the jib block, through the clew block and back down to the jib block becket.
3) The red/white line is to adjust the blocks fore/aft.
4) The yellow line is to pull the jib lines outboard for downwind sailing, known as a barber-hauler
A word of caution, Nacra produced the 5.2 in 2 widths measured from inside of hull to inside of opposite hull, 72.5" and 74.5", determine which production yours is if you plan to do this upgrade.
Did they really? I've never heard there were two widths (that's a picture of my old 5.2 with the green mainsheet).