Westerley Fulmar mainsail dimensions

R

rex_seadog

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 Jul 2001
Messages
233
Location
Sutton Coldfield
Visit site
We have got to the stage when a new mainsail is on our shopping list. However in measuring up we find that the foot of the existing main when fitted to the boom and tensioned measures 3.78 metres. The foot length of a second spare mainsail (the original, I believe) is just about the same. The "E" dimension and also the foot length of the sail are quoted in the original Westerly manual as 13 feet (3.962m). Can anyone please explain this approx 18 cm discrepancy and to any Fulmar owners, what are your sail dimensions?

Our current sails have bolt ropes in the foot and I'm told that these shouldn't shrink, rather they may stretch to a slight extent.
On the subject of bolt ropes what are your thoughts on loose footed sails?

Any advice would be appreciated but if there are any further questions please bear with me as I will be away for a few days on the boat.
 
You will get answers but they may not make any sense. The discussion threads always end up in a whole lot of disjointed gobble'de'goup.
 
I would'nt get to worried about measuring until you have decided upon your prefered sail loft. They will then send you a form or if local to boat may well measure for you what you have actually got rather than what the book says.Depending on your intended sailing The loft will build a suitable sail filling the available triangle as appropriate, whilst keeping within designed rig perameters.
I am having a new main built at Kemp. They have made many Fulmar mains and apparently there is variation in rig measurements.

Good Luck
 
Interestingly I started the process of measuring mine last week-end for the same purpose.

I made the following measurements:

a) Length of foot of sail 3.92 m (with some tension but not full tension on the outhaul)
b) back of mast to the start of the foot of the sail 8cm
The mesuring form asked for the measurement from the back of the mast to the black band on the boom. As I don't have such a black band I estimated where it might be and measured 4.15 metres. I think this may have been an over estimate, perhaps I should have said 4.1.
Anyway I have not yet placed the order. I will finish measuring next week-end when I get the sails off.

Hope this helps.
Regards
 
Thanks for the rapid responses. Thought I'd have a quick look at the forum before setting off for the boat.

We do have the measuring proforma (well more than one) - hence to some extent the confusion.
One required measurement is the tack pin to the max travel of the outhaul. However this is about 4.2 m due to the boom being much longer than the sail, presumably to give the correct angle for the main sheet to the transom mounted traveller. If we left the sailmaker to fill this triangle we would have ended up with a sail well over size.
Like you asj1, we have about 8 cm from the tack pin to the face of the mast.
Likewise we have no black band but if we measure from the face of the mast back to the theoretical 3.962m our existing sails are 18cm short.
We just don't want to perpetuate a previous mistake and order sails that are too small. On the other hand, we don't want to order too big if it was done to improve balance etc.

I am in the WOA but, for some reason my user name/password doesn't seem to work. Nees to sort this out.

Have had a quick look at http://www.mauriprosailing.com/sailboat-rig-dimensions.htm Will have to study it in more detail. Our Fulmar is a fin keeler.

Peter, do you have your new sail dimensions to hand. Did you go for loose foot?
Perhaps I'm being over cautious but have had problems in the past with ordering the "standard" sail.

Thanks again to all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top