I am planning to add an adjustable Harken backstay and would like to add later the Free Hand vane. Does anyone have thoughts on this or see potential problems? Thank you,
Tom Winkler
My first thought is why add an adjustable backstay??
My second thought is why a Freehand system and a not a more sensitive horizontal axis vane with a servo pendulum auxiliary rudder?
BCC IDUNA
Why indeed! I think it will give me another option in balancing the rig as well as relieving tension while at the dock, but mainly it was suggested from a source for whom I have the highest regard and in whose explanation I was completely and utterly lost. The second one is easier: The Free Hand is sitting in my garage! (And I like bronze).
Tom
I would suggest that your source of information was probably a racer, rather than a cruiser.
Look up “Center of effort” in Google for an explanation of the impact of tightening a backstay.
It’s not something a cruiser will worry about, - racers worry about seconds, cruiser enjoy the sail!
Terrier Wrote:
Why indeed! I think it will give me another
option in balancing the rig as well as relieving
tension while at the dock,
Tom
I think an easily adjustable backstay would have minimal cost/benefit because of the BCC’s inflexible masthead rig On the other hand, with a masthead sloop rig one can easily make dramatic adjustments in the draft of the main or sag of the headstay, with correspondingly very useful trade-offs between pointing ability versus “punch” through choppy seas. On a BCC I suppose that headstay sag control might even so be a potential benefit, but jib fullness also can be adjusted somewhat (and much more cheaply!) with halyard tension. These are all big issues when racing, when a few seconds per mile gain will be critical – but less so when cruising.
Since leaving racing’s dark side a few years ago for our BCC, the only adjustments which to me have sometimes seemed worth fussing with have been main outhaul tension, main cunningham (important), vang (marginal) and jib & stays’l sheet fore and aft lead. Even when another boat is in view on the same heading, thus far I have steadfastly resisted the urge to unearth a pair of snatch blocks to rig and start fussing with barber haulers to open the slot between jib, stays’l amd main. Maybe this year I’ll back slide, now that it we may have three BCC’s to match race against right here in Belfast, Maine!
For windward work in choppy conditions I think that Itchen would surely do noticeably better if we got a few hundred pounds of dead weight out of the ends by moving the anchors and chain aft onto the middle of the cabin sole (just kidding) and the batteries from the lazarette to some as-yet undetermined location forward of the engine. That probably would do more to improve drive versus hobby-horsing than any conceivable combination of rig adjustments. That, and new sails! Whole libraries of books have been written on all this and the devil is in the details but I’ve been pleased to find out how very well a BCC performs against a variety of nominally more modern boats, with little need for constant rig adjustments.
I’d be interested in other’s experiences with BCC rig tuning, especially mast rake versus weather helm. We sometimes have more weather helm than I would prefer but new sails with draft more forward might be all that is really needed.
As for relieving rig tension at the dock, in principle not a bad idea but certainly less important for a massively built BCC with short ends than, for example, a Tartan Ten or Aussie 18. Other opinions welcome . . …
Thank you all for your input. It may be that I have spent too much time pondering and not enough sailing! I’ll reconfer with my “source”. Cheers,
Tom
Terrier, BCC#31
Scott,
who else is in Belfast? I’ll be up that way this summer again… rendezvouz?
-Ben
Scott, sounds like I will have my derriere served back to me on a platter by Itchen this summer. I look forward to the seeing three or maybe four Hess boats in Belfast this summer.
Jonathan
BCC #36
Jonathan:
Suggest you attach a 8-12" diameter drogue chute to Itchen’s keel. That’s about the only way you will have a chance to just stay even. Scott raced dinghies just about all his life and can squeeze the last oz of power of Itchen’s sails. His racing skill is widely known in these parts.
BCC IDUNA
benjiwoodboat Wrote:
Scott,
who else is in Belfast? I’ll be up that way this
summer again… rendezvouz?-Ben
Well there’s Jonathan, now hard at work putting a racing bottom on his “ex-Shawnstar” and Bennett rebuilding his “Osprey” (26’ wood BCC-like Hess design which I have not yet seen) so let’s hope that with you we can have a rendezvous this summer. We have no big plans for Itchen, just to explore our new home waters after launching hopefully by early May. Who else is on the Maine coast, think there must be at least a couple other BCCs . . .
IDUNA Wrote:
Jonathan:
Suggest you attach a 8-12" diameter drogue chute
to Itchen’s keel.
Spur cutters on the prop shaft; I can foresee that that will become essential racing gear in Belfast waters.
That’s about the only way you
will have a chance to just stay even. Scott raced
dinghies just about all his life and can squeeze
the last oz of power of Itchen’s sails. His
racing skill is widely known in these parts.BCC IDUNA
Thanks a lot Rod – now ask me how I got so familiar with artfully designed boat names on the transoms of other dinghy and PHRF competitors . . . .
Do you have any thought of a northward (or is it down East?) cruise this summer?
Time for another subject: Does anyone have a good solution to find secure space for two big 4D AGM batteries down low and forward of the engine. Not under the companionway ladder – too much bulk in the way of the cook’s feet. Our current lazarette battery location is well-designed and very handy but takes room which could be used for a valise-packed life raft, and that much weight so far aft is not ideal.
Scott,
4D are bigger but Anhinga’s two 8G27 are installed under the quarter berth.
Any place is always a compromise…
Scott:
Right now I hate boats. After Itchen waxed IDUNA, I hauled the boat on the hard and have barely looked at her. Granted, we are not racing sailors, as you are but fair sailors never the less. I will have to admit, your sails were well set and she was steered beautifully. I learned how to spell “ITCHEN” many times over, as we tweaked sheets, halyards, outhual, etc. attempting to squeeze more speed out of IDUNA. Considering we had a coat of new bottom paint on the boat, we were humiliated. Perhaps we need to add a cunningham but I doubt if we could have handled a BCC as sweetly as ITCHEN was handled. Next time, we see ITCHEN, we will turn and run with the hope you never spied us.
I suspect after this summer ITCHEN will be feared by all classic boats in the Belfast area. A reputation that will be well deserved.
Sorry for blabbing the news.
Regards boat plans - maybe.
Fair Winds,
Rod
Hello Scott
Glad to hear you are keeping the transom to the competition. We were just through Belfast last Sunday and stopped in town to look around. Did not see
Itchen at the marina at foot of Main St. Must be keeping her elsewhere.
Beautiful area up your way. Wish the summer was longer than several weeks.
Best to you and Dottie
Mark,
SV “Lightfoot”
Mark Giegel Wrote:
Hello Scott
Glad to hear you are keeping the transom to the
competition.
No way! – normally I defer entirely to Rod’s wisdom and experience but in this case he is exaggerating shamelessly. Dottie and I have been and remain resolutely in cruising and daysailing mode and have not had a serious racing encounter since we bought her from you. Anyway it was you who showed the way with – wasn’t it? – three straight PHRF wins on the Hudson?! Not for nothing that big deck-sweeper of a jib. I was very pleased though, to outreach an Island Packet and a 40 foot-ish Hunter overnight from Naples to Key West two years ago in lumpy 8 - 18 kt conditions. On the other hand I doubt very much they realized they were in a race.
We were just through Belfast last
Sunday and stopped in town to look around. Did
not see
Itchen at the marina at foot of Main St. Must be
keeping her elsewhere.
Yes she’s undercover in a Belfast Boat Yard shed a couple miles out of town. Checked her out last week and she looked anxious to be back in the water and with varnish not needing much work thanks to Maine’s short summer.
Beautiful area up your way. Wish the summer was
longer than several weeks.
Yes, but even so we had our last sail the last week of October so it’s not all that bad. Give us a call next time you come through the neighborhood and we’ll go for a sail.
All the best,
Scott
Best to you and Dottie
Mark,
SV “Lightfoot”
Scott and Dottie,
In a shed…indoors… ah yes. Indoor storage is a NE thing which I miss that possibility. Have the boat on the hard, mast unstepped and all of the harware, stanchions etc removed for wooding and varnish of bulwarks etc. Indoors, this would almost be therapy.
Outdoors, it’s just a pain getting it done. We were looking at a small downeaster style power boat to day cruise the creeks etc. when the wind is not blowing. Hope to have the boat back in the water by July. Season is thankfully a bit longer in the southern VA area.
Best to you both
Mark
SV " Lightfoot"