Dinghy spinnaker foredeck tube...any hints?

[Greenheart]

Thanks Pete, I call that a brilliant plan, and I'm going to give it a try. I can't feel confident that the quality of my work will match the clarity of your explanation, but doing it myself will allow every opportunity for 'bespoke' fitment in the space available.

Curiously enough, I have most of the materials, somewhere...even the clay! :encouragement:

 

[prv]

Thanks Pete, I call that a brilliant plan, and I'm going to give it a try.

Excellent

East Coast Fibreglass have quite a few useful guides and videos:

http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/t-MakingMoulds.aspx
http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/t-Laminating.aspx
http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/t-videoguides.aspx

Pete

 

[Greenheart]

Cripes! Thanks Pete. It'll take me till next year to read all that. Very complete and thorough instruction.

P'raps I should make something a bit...bigger...I could use my whole hull as the basis for a mould for my next boat.

 

[Greenheart]

I'm sorry to have let this thread sleep for a month, but the new year has revived me to the need to get things started, and I'm hoping soon to have access to a sheltered space for various jobs on the boat.

Our chute is in front of the forestay - the same for an old merlin I used to sail. I haven't had any experience with a chute that is behind the forestay, so don't know if that makes much, if any, of a difference.

Hmm. This is a question on which I will welcome opinions. Despite the slick forward-chute featured on some Ospreys, there certainly is not space for such a convenience aboard my Mk2. So I need to know just how difficult it is to have the spinnaker emerging from (and being lowered and retracted to) a point behind or to the side of the forestay-foot...

...I envisage some serious tangles occurring, especially because the singlehander in a biggish dinghy isn't often free to apply himself to an irritating snag out on the foredeck. Is it likely to be the case that the spinnaker can only be lowered when sailing on the opposite tack from the side where the chute is located?

I remind contributors (if necessary) that my use of any spinnaker is so long ago that I'm not sure if I actually only imagined it.

So feel free to dumb-down your descriptions/suggestions.

Regarding construction of the chute, despite Pete's excellent clay-mould suggestion, I have been looking at sections of drain-pipe available at reasonable expense, and I wonder what readers will think of the pictured bend as a way of leading the spinnaker into and out of the foredeck. Not a thing of beauty, but I daresay it can be polished to pamper the sail, and it'll be out of sight anyway...

Critically, I've found that piping/ducting of more than 6" diameter is pretty rare, so the pictured 8" section of pipe with a 45°-bend might be useful and isn't costly.