Contact with North Sails

I telephoned Steve Meek at North Sails this morning and we had discussions that exceeded all of my expectations.

From the moment we began speaking on the telephone I felt that we were talking the same language and had the same ideas about the issues.

After introducing myself and explaining my situation I asked him if he could make a new canvas spray dodger for me, and he replied No Problem.  I told him that he could use the existing dodger as a template but there was one modification that I wanted to discuss with him.

The next question was could he restitch my mainsail because it had done a lot of miles and I was worried about UV damage to the stitching.  He agreed that it was a good idea and he would put two additional rows of stitching on the sail.

I then told him that I wanted to discuss with him the possibility of a new mainsail cover and when I described my setup with a stack pack and lazy jacks he passed some interesting opinions on stack packs.  He thinks that they are necessary on certain boats, for example on big catamarans where the boom is too high for easy reach, but he would not recommend one for a cruising boat like mine because it results in thousands of miles of sailing with the stack pack hanging or tucked into the sides of the boom,  As for lazy jacks, he had doubts about them being worthwhile.  That launched me into a monologue of everything that I hate about my lazy jacks, and he could understand my problems.  He thinks that lazy jacks are useful for the initial drop of the sail, but it should be a simple matter to jump on the cabin and tie the sail to the boom.  I liked what I was hearing and I thanked him for letting me know that I wasn't some sort of extremist on the issue.

Steve arrived at the boat just after noon and we spent an extremely productive 2 hours discussing the work.  When he learned that I had only two sets of reefing points he expressed some reservation which got me started on my regular complaint that the second reef leaves me with too much canvas for sailing or even heaving to in heavy weather.  He told me that he could add a third reef to the sail.  We looked at a method of adding a third reefing line and I concluded that it would be too complicated, what with a cheek block on the boom, 2 more blocks at the mast, another line into the cockpit where there was no room in the organizer or the cleats.  I jumped at Steve's suggestion that I simply move the 1st reef line to the 3rd reef point when I go to the 2nd reef and expect worsening weather.  I will master that technique because I will be determined to make it work. 

He then took measurements for the sail cover and described how it would be constructed and fit.  I had suggested that the front of the cover should be tied at the front of the mast in order to let air pass through to dry the sail but he advised to have a zipper to prevent dust and grime from being brought in by the wind.  This made sense to me, so zipper it will be.  I complained that the mast steps never line up with the openings provided for them on the stack pack and he told me that his measurements were for the sail cover to go over the mast steps, with a strip of reenforcing inside of the cover.  That sounded good to me.  I then asked him if we would have to put slides along the foot of the sail and here I learned something new.  I had thought that the mainsail was loose footed as a necessity in order to allow the stack pack to slide on, but in fact a loose footed mainsail is preferred because it yields a better sail shape.

So it was settled: an ordinary sail cover, no lazy jacks, and I would be able to sail with a clean boom where I could see the entire sail and not have canvas hanging off the sides.  No longer would I have to deal with lazy jacks that got hung up at the ends of the battens when raising the mainsail.  It was exactly the setup that I wanted to return to.

We then had a look at the spray dodger.  With no comment or prompting from me the first thing he said was that he didn't like those press studs used to fix the canvas to the coaming.   Bingo!  Bulls Eye!  That was exactly the modification that I wanted to discuss.  He said that a track and a bolt rope as there was along the front of the dodger was the way that he would do it, which was the solution that I would have suggested.  So we'll have the dodger firmly fixed along the sides with strong and well sealed tracks.  He suggested raising the back end of the dodger a few inches, and I agreed, pending an examination that I describe below.  Steve agreed that 2 windows was preferable to one big one, and although they don't use window covers much in Cape Town he agreed to provide them after I explained the strong summer sun in Western Australia.

I also asked him if I could try out an idea with him that me might think a bit loopy. He replied that he does all sort of special things for people.  I told him how when hove to the boat will not point sufficiently into the weather because there is not enough windage aft of the mast.  My idea was to fix heavy canvas material on the upper half of the side of the cockpit frame.  This would provide an area of resistance of roughly 0.5 by 2 meters, or 1 sq meter.  That may not sound like much, but in a gale it could provide a significant turning moment mostly behind the wheel.

Steve though that it would work so we discussed its design.  He came up with the idea of extending it to the davits for that extra bit of area, which made sense.  The material will be strong, relatively cheap, not very UV resistant, though I don't think that it will be an issue since I would expect to use the material only in heavy weather.  The canvas will be fixed to the frame at the 4 corners and along the horizontal bar at the bottom.  Steve did not think that the zipper for fixing the sun shades would be strong enough for the job so the entire upper edge will be unsupported.

Then there was the question of one canvas which could be fixed to the appropriate side for heaving to, or two canvases.  I was leaning toward two in order to have them both set up and feel free to heave to on either side.  Steve then thought that using one canvas on each side will create a "slot" affect (i.e. the wind speeding up between the two canvases as per Bernoulli's Theorem) which would add to the turning moment on the stern.  So two canvases it will be.

If this canvas idea works it will transform my heave to experience.  I might even be able to heave to with the storm trysail or the 3rd reef of the mainsail.  

Steve then returned to North Sails - which is only about 2 km away - to work out his quotations.  My task is to fully raise the mainsail on the first quiet day (the wind is howling today) and call Steve so that he can plan the location of the third reef and, most importantly, measure the clearance between the boom and the spray dodger to determine if raising it a few inches is feasible. 

I asked Steve if he had enough time to do the work given that I was departing for Australia on 4 March.  He replied that there is plenty of time.  He said that they do sail repairs in 3 or 4 days, maybe a day or 2 later if there is a regatta on.  He saw no problem in getting the work done on time.

We also had a discussion about Vinny.  It turns out that Vinny has been around the Cape area for over a year.  Somehow he managed to beach his boat near Simons Town and it had to be dragged off.  Even back then he was on crutches.  I had assumed that Vinny had broken his leg during the collision with the container but no, it's an old break.  Vinny had told me that it would take time to heal, but gee, a year sounds like sufficient time to me  He had had his 50' boat at the corner only a few feet from Pachuca's present location and apparently the dog drove people nuts by barking at everyone who came by.  The yacht club just doesn't want him around and yet there he still was.  Steve pointed to where his bow was sticking out a few feet from behind another boat.  He had sneaked to the end of the jetty overnight which explains why I had not seen him at the VandA marina. 

Steve knew Vinny's present boat quite well.  He went out on her first sail in the late 70's.  They had a spinnaker up, broached, and when the boat came back up the mast was on the side broken.  Steve thinks that the boat is not very suitable for cruising and could definitely do with a second set of spreaders.  I said that I doubted that Vinny would go to the trouble and expense.  I was too busy today to visit Vinny but if he is still there in the morning I'll pay him a call.

Steve and I talked a bit about Jon Sanders whom he had met twice over the past couple of decades.  I told him that my experiences had greatly increased my respect for Jon as an outstanding sailor.  To do a triple non stop circumnavigation both ways means that you can't pick the optimal season or the optimal direction (e.g. rounding the Horn East to West) which means that you take the worst that nature can throw at you. 

Steve himself is an accomplished sailor, with from memory 3 Cape Town - Rio races and many other international ocean races under his belt.  He told me that he had a place on one of the Whitbread races but decided to return to SA for personal reasons.