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AndrewHolmes
4 Posts |
 Posted - 31 Mar 2003 : 21:36:55
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Just taken delivery of our new Stratos Centreboard and hoped one or two existing owners could advise us on a few questions.....
Stepping the Mast. How do you decide how forward or aft the bolts should be? Also, we use a two man team to step the mast. One in the boat with a foot on the heel while the other person teeters on top of a stepladder to guide the mast down over the mainsheet hoop. Anyone got a better way of doing this?
Reefing. I'm sure when we saw the boat at the boat show, we were demo'd a way of reefing the main using a single line. On our boat the reefing line only just reaches the second reefing point at the leech before it needs to be tied back on the boom. The free end exits under the boom by the mast with just a few inches left. Nowhere near enough to go up and down the luff reef points as well? Is this correct or am I missing something important?!?
kind thanks
Andrew
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alastairwilson
33 Posts |
Posted - 01 Apr 2003 : 00:11:04
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I had my first sail yesterday in my new boat, and it would help if some experienced owners could respond as I have loads of question! Where are you now Dave from dalgety bay....( you gave me a test sail last autumn)
I'm a bit worried about how you stepped the mast. I had a friend sit in the boat with the mast gate open and then I lifted the mast into position, with his hands steadying the mast. I'm know trying to think why I didn't need a step ladder. I could only see one place where the mast would fit, with it in the middle of the floor plate, which meant it was hard up against the mast bridge. I hope this is right. It didn't fall down and the wind was a good breeze. Perhaps someone can advise?
I managed to lace up the reefing main using a white coloured outhaul, using the blue line as an outhaul. This seemed to work.
I didn't get the cunningham to work, but I think I know where I went wrong.
As other threads have mentioned the main sticks, and I'm wondering whether I have fitted the centre hoop round the wrong way. ( it slopes to the rear, but maybe the blocks on it should be round the other way!)
I will now order a CL257 for the rudder! It is too tricky to try and get it to come up.
The lower shrouds seemed a bit baggy on shore and I forgot to look on the water.
The jib halyard also seemed baggy. I fastened the metal loop on the jib halyard onto a metal
hoop and cleat on the mast. Is that right?
I have not even started to think about the Trapeze and the Genaker!
yours,
Alastair
The rigging guide is very poor and some pictures and better explanation is required, particularily if you have no reference boat to look at.
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NeilHargreaves
8 Posts |
Posted - 01 Apr 2003 : 13:33:21
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Hi there,
We are picking up our boat from the laser showroom in about a month's time, and have arranged to spend some time going through rigging etc with the staff there. Having read this thread, as well as some of the earlier messages on this board, I have a feeling that we might need to take a list of the problems that are mentioned. My impression is that the staff at laser are happy to give this sort of help to a new owner, providing you make the trip to Long Buckby.
There are quite a few messages on the board, not just in this thread, that suggest the rigging guide is poor. This seems to have been a problem right from the start of Stratos sales. These boats aren't cheap, and Laser ought to deal with this as a matter of urgency.
Paul from Laser...... how about a solid date for re-issue of an updated and expanded handbook?
Cheers,
Neil
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AndrewHolmes
4 Posts |
Posted - 01 Apr 2003 : 13:48:33
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Alastair,
Our boat had the main sheet hoop already fitted. offering the mast into place meant we needed to guide it from the rear of the boat over the hoopwards the centre bridge. The stepladder was needed to gain sufficient angle to allow the heel to sit on the mast step. Then we could lever it up into position. Maybe if we had taken the hoop out we wouldn't have needed the ladder.
There were 3 bolts in the mast step. I decided to leave the middle bolt as left from the factory and move the other two to fit around the heel. The mast sits about 2-3cm from the from the bridge. The boom seems to sit quite level and shrouds were tensioned to 5 outside, 4 inside (light winds). There is another thread that offers good advice on shroud tension.
Like you, I haven't tried the Gennaker or trapeze yet. Maybe later this week!
I have to agree, our rigging manual was poor. It's an indistinct photocopy to start with so we were on to a loser to begin with! There must be a better source for Stratos rigging and trimming techniques?
regards
Andrew
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DougRivers
63 Posts |
Posted - 01 Apr 2003 : 20:46:29
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Blimey, a load of questions in this thread! I've owned a stratos for a couple of years so let me give you my solutions (but no guarantees that they are correct).
1. The mast. I stand the mast vertically on the ground, get my son (age 13) to hold it and also holding with one hand I climb into the boat and lift the mast in vertically and put into place. I think the groove in the foot of the mast goes into the centre bolt (but need to check). I've never altered the bolts from the factory setting. The mast does have a lot of rake and leans right back almost onto the gate and almost looks like it will "kick" out from the front bolt.
2. Reefing lines. There are TWO reefing lines one for the leech, threaded as you indicate, and one for the luff. The luff rope is quite thick and white. I tie it to the boom and then thread thru the two cringles in the main and back down to a cleat on the starboard side of the mast. If you thread both the leech and luff lines in and out of the sail cringles the same way when you pull both lines down the sail reefs nicely on the boom. This might not make sense, call me at work on 020 7399 5093 for a better description.
3. The cunningham. Comes out the hole on the foredeck, goes thru the lowest cringle, and .... well I have put a knot in the end of the cunningham line and jam this into the mast groove where it narrows below the gooseneck (I need to check this as I haven't sailed since November).
4. Main sheet hoop. Came fitted to my boat but does slope back. The mainsheet comes out of the jammer and goes inside the hoop and thru the forward block on the hoop (it almost seems that this block is doing nothing but it stops the main strangling the crew sitting on the seat!) and from forward to aft thru the front boom block. Back down thru the aft block on the hoop (threaded forward to aft), back up and threaded aft to forward on the rear boom block, back down and tied tight to the rear hoop block. Mainsheet is too thick and will jam, buy new mainsheet (and new jib sheets too).
5.Jib halyard slack. Pull harder!
6. Shroud and lower settings somewhere else on site. The lowers will seem slack until you are sailing and pull on the kicker. At a training weekend with a video on the sail I realised that you need a huge amount of kicker tension to really get the mainsail leech ok in a breeze.
Final thing you may find some where on this site is to take the forestay and tie at the mast step after rigging to avoid tangling when reefing the jib. Don't forget to tie back to the front when taking the job down!
Hope all this helps but I can understand that my explanations may lack clarity. Do call or email.
And good luck with the assymetric!
Regards
Doug
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PGuignabaudet
United Kingdom
97 Posts |
Posted - 01 Apr 2003 : 22:04:59
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I had the same problem with reefing lines. I've replaced the leech reefing line with a longer one and I can now rig it as shown on the rigging manual. I've replaced the luff reefing line as well at the same time (mostly to get the same rope colour for clarity). I bought 10 meters of pre-stretched rope for both reefing lines.
I agree we the other comments on that thread that the rigging manual is pretty useless; fortunately a few calls to the very helpful Laser Center Customer Services team got me sorted out.
I think that for a £10K boat Laser could make an effort on the rigging manual: much more detailed instructions (including on trapeze rigging), much clearer drawings (colour would help), and properly printed rather than shabby photocopies. A decent manual would save new owners a lot of time (hence more sailing time).
One for you Paul...
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alastairwilson
33 Posts |
Posted - 02 Apr 2003 : 00:41:22
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thanks for the responses. I will have a look at the boat this weekend. I am almost certain I have the hoop round the wrong way, and I can now envisage how the main works.
Thanks again. any more problems and I will be back!
Alastair
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AndrewHolmes
4 Posts |
Posted - 02 Apr 2003 : 14:28:25
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Thanks to Pascal, Doug, Alastair, Neil and Paul from Laser (on his day off!) for all your advice.
We'll be out again later this week to try out everything we've learnt. We also spent an hour or so going through previous postings - a mine of information.
We'll let you know how we get on.
regards
Andrew & Vicky
Portchester Sailing Club |
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DBurnett
38 Posts |
Posted - 07 Apr 2003 : 16:37:20
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Hi, Dave from Dalgety Bay here....... good to hear you got the boat! I'm still sailing at Dalgety Bay, where we now have 2 keels and 2 centreboarders... I need to persuade them to race tho'!!
When it comes to stepping the mast, I always end up doing it all by myself.. never anyone around when I need help!
So my technique is to get the mast vertical and lift it into the boat, and flick the gate shut before I drop it! I've not altered the foot settings on the boat, so the mast sits in the centre..
Only problem I have at the moment is I'm not pointing too well compareed the other boats. We have a number of RS200's which perform similarly up on the beats to us.. and threy can outpoint me by a fair bit..
Might start a new thread on this...
Cheers all
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A new owners questions....
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