Five MORE Tips for Cruisier Cruising

3:10 AM Sun 16 Aug 2009 GMT

'Let’s make cruising cruisier' .

Last week we brought you FIVE TIPS for 'cruisier cruising' from Mark Cherrington (see story ), five suggestions to make cruising more fun and less stressful.

This week we bring you five more tips, which range from free to a couple of thousand dollars, and all aimed at making our sailing lives simpler, as well as letting us do some tasks more quickly.

Many of these things are of course standard on more modern production boats, but there's still a lot of older boats around where I reckon the owners could make life a lot easier for themselves.

Tip 6 - furling jib - .. .

6. Fit a furling jib:
I would never cruise without a furling jib (and that means one you can sail with the jib partly furled). They can cost serious money, but especially if you do any coastal cruising, you can't beat them.
If the wind gets up, it's only a few seconds to reduce sail, and make the boat a whole lot more controllable.
If you are buying a furler, look for three key things:
A well thought-out prefeeder system, so that feeding the jib bolt rope up the foil is easy and straightforward.
A jib halyard you can feed back to the cockpit, for easy hoisting/lowering, and easy adjustment of halyard tension.
A "cage" around the drum, so that loose furling line won't drop off the drum and wrap around the lower forestay (easy to happen if the jib is flapping around lazily going downwind in light airs).
Cost: At least $1000, up to several thousand dollars. It's generally older boats that don't have furling jibs.
Advantages: Set and douse the sail entirely from the cockpit. No wet sails below. If your motor dies, you can deploy it immediately. Safer, more flexible sailing.

Tip 7 - two speed self-tailing winches - .. .

7. Fit two-speed self-tailing winches:
Expensive, but for short-handed sailing, you can't beat them - and your crew will really thank you!
The two-speed feature gives you a good balance between speed of sheeting in the jib when tacking, and plenty of power as the breeze gets up.
Self-tailing means the sheet-hand can manage the winch on their own, without requiring a second pair of hands to tail the sheet.
We went from 8:1 sheet winches to 32/16:1s, and the difference is amazing.
Cost: Start at around $700 per winch.
Advantages: Assuming you are sailing two-handed, allows the helm to concentrate on steering, while giving the sheet-hand the ability to manage all aspects of sheeting in the headsail.

Tip 8 - replace wire halyards with spectra - .. .

8. Replace wire halyards with Spectra:
We were forced to do this after our aging wire halyard let go while rounding a buoy, as we were hoisting the main while shaking out a reef. We were able to make do with the topping lift, until one of us could go up the mast with replacement Spectra line.
We had ignored the broken bits of wire around the eye for a month or two, one of the warning signs that a wire line is about to break.
The Spectra line has less friction, so raising/lowering the sail is much easier, it's easier on the hands, and it doesn't require any difficult wire-to-rope splices.
You'll also get plenty of early warning as the rope wears, with the outer (polyester) jacket wearing well before the Spectra core becomes compromised. Buy at least a metre or more longer than you really need, so you can cut off the worn line at the headboard fitting every few years.
We opted for 8 mm Spectra, not for strength, but just to make it easier on our hands (and to give a better grip in the rope clutches).
Fitting it can be tricky. Ideally, replace the wire halyard before it breaks, and use it to pull the new halyard through. Otherwise you'll need a trip up the mast, using a light mousing line with a weight at the end which you thread down the mast to lead the way.
Cost: 8 mm Spectra costs around $5.50 a metre. You'll need double your mast height, plus a few more metres (if necessary) to allow for bringing it back to your cockpit. Depending on your sheave width, you may also need to replace this with a wider sheave more suited to rope, rather than wire. If changing from wire, check the sheave carefully to ensure it won't chop out your rope.
Advantages: Stronger than wire, less friction, easier on the hands, more reliable.

Tip 9 - change to a single line reefing system - .. .

9. Fit single-line reefing system:
We figure that we usually need to reef in less-than-ideal conditions, so why not make it as easy as possible? We have a single-line system back to the cockpit, so we can shorten sail just by winching in the reefing line as we ease the halyard and boom vang.
It's very quick and easy, and we feel safer not having to go up to the mast to put a reef in.
Depending on your existing set up, you will need a cheek block at the leech end of your boom, and another up near the mast, plus a block at the foot of the mast to bring the line back to the cockpit.
Our set-up also lets us quickly move the line to the second set of reefing eyes on our sail, if we need a deeper reef. However, this does require a trip to the mast, and some fiddling about with the leech reef-eye, but it's all done with hooks, so we don't have to untie and retie any knots.
Larger boats of course will need more sophisticated systems than this.
Cost: Two cheek blocks (about $40 each), a standard block and about 10-15 m of 10 mm double braid, plus a clutch (say $40 second hand), plus hooks and blocks for the reefing eyes. You should be able to do this for less than $100.
Advantages: Quick, easy and safer reefing.

Tip 10 - install a foot pump - .. .

10. Footpump in galley
Over the past three years, we have gone through about five of those hand-operated galley pumps. After just a few months' use, they'd suddenly fall apart in our hands, or sort of explode.
We were in our local chandlery, looking at an alternative, when one of the staff suggested we consider a foot pump.
It was more expensive, about $100 all up, compared with $25 for yet another hand pump, and an absolute bugger to fit, but it makes life in the galley much much easier.
Now we have one hand for the pots, or plates or other dishes, and one to scrub or clean, rather than having to pump, then clean. Also makes washing your hands and face a whole lot easier.
It works so well, now we'd like a second one for salt water rinsing.
Cost: Around $100, plus a lot of cursing to fit it in properly.
Advantages: Much more convenient access to running water, leaving two hands free in the sink. Possible downside: so easy to use, that we may be using more water.

Look out for still more tips from Mark next week

by Mark Cherrington