boltrope adventures

29 May 2008

      Probably the biggest surprise I had, taking our M17 out for the first two sails, was that it really wasn't easier than sailing my family's 50' boat!  Firstly, because I was a complete fumbler with the M17 mainsail - when you're used to a mainsail on slides or slugs - you're used to a sail that obediently slides down the mast, piling onto the boom for rolling/flaking.  I was flustered when I let the mainsail down on the M17 and the whole sail seemed to simply fall off, flopping all over the deck like a flock of half-killed chickens.  It just seemed wrong!  <g>  

Another thing is that our 50' sailboat had two-speed self-tailing winches *everywhere* - our M17 seems to require more strength sometimes, hauling up halyards with no winches, and these difficult jam cleats rather than cam cleats or just regular cleats.  Also, my dad had our big sailboat rigged for singlehanding - we had a windvane and a mechanical self-steering device, so if one had to go work on the deck, it wasn't a big problem.  My dad single-handed up and down the coast in that boat, from Mexico to Sitka, AK and over to Hawaii.  When I sailed from Hawaii-Seattle with him, we of course took 6 hour watches, so we may as well been single-handing.  I was surprised by how many hands were needed to get our M17's sails up and down!  Our halyards run into the cockpit, but that does not help when you must hand-feed the boltrope.  

(My Dad will be pleased when I tell him that I got spoiled on his boat.)

My husband surprised me this evening, telling me he'd already ordered a mainsail pre-feeder from Charleston Yachting:

 http://www.charlestonyachting.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product...

I really want to be able to single-hand, and raise that sucker from the cockpit!

I did find a thread from this list from Feb 2007 discussing slugs vs bolt rope that was instructional.  Boy, do I have a lot to learn!  

Danelle

----- Original Message ----
From: "Paint4Real@aol.com" <Paint4Real@aol.com>
To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 7:22:12 PM
Subject: Re: M_Boats: First sail finally!

That bolt-rope jam surely is a nuisance if you're single-handing and there's 
a brisk breeze and a chop while you're trying to get some sail up.   In fact, 
when I first set up my M15, 24 years ago now, I had all lines leading aft into 
the cockpit, including a jib downhaul, and I figured I'd be running the show 
from the helm at all times, but the first few attempts to raise the main 
required that I keep reaching forward to clear a bolt-rope jam -- and having to 
release my hold on the tiller if the jam was a 2-handed rescue -- and I realized 
it wasn't really a single-handed rig, quite.

My solution was a terrific little ball-bearing guide that fit into the slot 
just below the opening into which you feed the bolt rope.   The head of the 
sail was fed through the guide FIRST, and then into the wide opening of the slot 
and then on up the mast.   The guide was essentially a pincer shape, the way 
your thumb and middle finger would look if ringed around a PVC tube, say, with 
steel ball-bearings attached to "the tips of your thumb and finger."   The 
bearings were adjustable, so that the clearance between them permitted the sail 
to pass through, but the rope was captured behind them (inside the ring of the 
fingers, so to speak) and, so, fed cleanly into the opening and up the mast.  
Rigging at the ramp was a bit of a checklist, as the boom's gooseneck had to 
go in first and drop down out of the way, then the guide screwed into the slot 
above it (but still below the wider opening.)

Unfortunately, there was one design flaw -- if the adjustment was too loose, 
the bearings would fall off, as the "designer" hadn't worked out how to 
include a retainer of some kind (or if there was one, was perhaps a plastic or 
rubber O-ring and disintegrated over time).   When a bearing about 7/8 of an inch 
falls onto the cabin top on a boat being tossed about by the chop, while you're 
trying to get some sail area exposed, it can get lost.   I had it for 23 
years, carefully monitoring the adjustment, and then my son began to take his 
highschool football playing buddies out on the boat, and "suddenly" the bearings 
inexplicably disappeared.  

I have searched in vain for the device, though I have to believe it or 
something like it is still on the market.   I have the design well remembered, and 
could fairly easily replicate it with some metal stock from the local hardware 
and a drill bit and die to cut some screw threads.   (The steel bearings might 
be hard to come by.   Wooden substitutes would work fine, I think.)

I now always trailer, after years in a slip and the attendant weather wear on 
the boat, but the idea of switching over to slides is certainly intriguing.  
One thing it would permit is getting the main hanked on in the slip or before 
ramp launching, yet being able to keep it flaked low on the boom to minimize 
windage, which can be an issue in a marina if the breeze is up and you don't 
have a lot of room.   With the bolt-rope arrangement, you're left to raise the 
main about halfway, just to get the job well underway, but there's that other 
half that's going to jam.

I wish I could post photos here, at least of sketches, to make more clear the 
workings of the guide that feeds the bolt rope up into the mast opening.  
After I design and build a replacement for the now-lost version, I'll report 
back on it . . . unless I go with slides, in the interim.   I'm not getting any 
younger, and I sometimes take the easy way out, especially if it frees up time 
for sailing.

Steven Sweeney
M15 #324 "Shenanigans" (1985)
Stillwater, Minnesota

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Danelle Landis

Tim Diebert

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