Modifying pulpit to attach tack of cruising chute?

[William_H]

Tack attachment for cruising spin

If you want to attach the tack to the top of the front of the bow rail then just make a SS sheet clamp that goes around the tube with a hole for a shackle. If you have doubts about the strength of the pullpit under spin loads then you might try stay wires from under the tack attachment down to the bow perhaps one each side to points either side of the anchor roller. Wire would do well with if you want turnscrews to keep it all taught. good luck olewill

 

[Blueboatman]

Ric, lots of good ideas here. I think you are justly concerned at the unpredictable loads with a stayless sail and , in a sense, attaching to the top of the pullpit is like using a lever against yourself, ie it is exerting leverage and bending on the pullpit's tubed structure instead of loading directly into the boats rigid bow/stemhead fitting..
Looking at your pics I see that like me you have alloy toerails. What about a block shackled to a strop attached through the foremost hole in the toerail? Flying to leeward wouldn't this be clear of every obstruction? I assume that the chute is short enough in the luff that it doesnt need to be tacked down hard at deck level?

 

[PTB]

Chute tack via pulpit

Would be interested to see a photo of that.

Hi Ric, piccy attached showing some load transferred to stemhead via snatchblock. Works for me with no noticeable deflections. Although not flown over F4. Cheers Phil

 

[silver-fox]

We just attached ours aft, yes aft, of the furler to a pulley on the stem as we have a very pointy pulpit, works well.

Gybing is just a mattere of snuffing the sail, loosening the tack line, unclip the tack line, flip the tack in front of the genoa, clip on the tack line, tighten up the tack line and un snuff. If it's too windy to do that we shouldn't be flying the sail anyway

Loved the video; captured the joys of light wind sailing and solitude;wish I could bottle it and pour on rainy winter days !

 

[Amulet]

I mucked around with many of the variants described (26 foot, smaller boat, smallish chute). They all were a faff. My brother then said to me why don't you use the pole like any normal spinnaker flying person. I don't usually admit he is right, but on his occasion he definitely was. I'm becoming convinced that all the mucking around to avoid a conventional spinnaker set up is a waste of time, and hanker after a proper spinnaker.

Of course a small boat and a small sail make things a lot more manageable.

 

[Ric]

Just thought I'd resurrect this thread to show my eventual solution thanks to suggestions on here. I made a U out of an old 25mm propshaft (yes, it was bloody hard to bend) and bolted it to the stem. I welded half a ring to the tip so I can attach a pulley for the chute tack.

Not tried it yet, but should work. Another advantage is that it stops the anchor jumping off the bow roller if I wind it in too fast.