The Rig

     

General
Rigging of the sails and the running gear is a personal thing to experienced sailors. This section is more of a photo shoot than a "How To" section. The theme of this rig is to be able to remove everything. Whereas, this Shamrock is a racing model and not one for heritage modeling, consideration was for frequent transport and sail changes at the lake. The thought of multiple rigs for a sail inventory was abandoned because of logistics in handling. At present only this full size (A) rig will be used.

This section has been written after three hours of sea trails and 21 heats in a regatta. This experience suggested some changes to the rig and much to the sails.

Sails
The sail inventory will be a PX75 suit, a TriSpi 50 suit and a TriSpi 40 jib and a PX75 high aspect ratio jib. Disregard any photos of a PX75 sail with a curled foot, as the suit has been returned for corrections. The mainsail cut is now a bit flatter in the mid section and the luff increased to 104 inches. Additionally, the leech was increased even more so the sail would hang from the headstay making the main boom lower and level to the deck. These dimensional changes are a development process too. It will be of interest to note the boom position to the water in various conditions.

The Rig
The design pictured on the cover page to this section was to control the standing of a stiffened mast. It has proven to do so with one not stiffened mast if it is chosen. A previous design included a shroud pair at station 23 but was found to provide little to the effort and was removed. While the design has proven to stand a straight mast, there is some thought to removing the mid shroud from the lower spreader to provide additional bending control fore and aft. It might be something to consider and easily done after sea trials.

The other consideration at this writing is that the jumper could be moved upward about two inches to preclude entanglement of the topping lift. Using a bungee loop on the jib boom that will allow two inches of lift before the topping lift line slackens and combined with a minimum of three pounds tension on the backstay, has prevented this problem.

   

The jumper wires are 60-pound test (.018 seven strand SS) and standing wires 135-pound test (.027 seven strand SS). These are secured to Pekabe external tangs with #2 and #4 crimping sleeves, respectively. The turnbuckles are the over center latched type by Pekabe. The backstay is .027 wire to 130-pound Spectra compound line with a two bowsie advantage loop system and a fashioned hook.

 

You will see hooks throughout the rigging to facilitate removal of the rig and sails for transport. These were fashioned from fish hooks using a mini torch to obtain the small radius. To date they have not opened, even minutely, at any location including the jib swivel and the backstay.

  

Control adjusters and Line Guides
The photos here will show ring like devices on the booms. These are made from nickel silver wire into adjusters and guides that can be moved easily. This is a modeling preference here and the fashioning process can be seen on the EC12 Building site.

Back Stay
This is an advantage loop dual bowsie system. This was used because of the high tension on the beast and creates the leverage so you can make small movements. The white bowsie is for big adjustments and the black one is for small adjustments. 130 pound line was used to the 135 pound rigging wire.