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Ok, now lets talk about the placement of the jib on the foredeck, there is a lot of room for experimenting here as we shall find out. Assuming you have the mast in the correct position, and that's a big assumption to make at this stage, because as you shall see, where you place the jib could mean you have to reassess where the mast is finally going to go. There is a lot of leeway as to just how you fly the jib. Some like it to be as close to the mast as possible to help the slot effect, in other words as far aft as you can get it, so that the jib boom just misses the mast as it tacks from side to side. Another thought is to have the jib further foreward and actually help open up the gap between main and jib, which I must say makes more sense to me. You will be limited here to some extent as pushing the jib forward too far will upset the helm of the boat, but if you are suffering from a lot of weather helm then moving the jib forward may be the best option, as in many cases the mast may be keel stepped and leave little room for movement forward, which would the next most logical move to help elimiate weather helm. While we are on the subject of tuning the jib, another thing to consider is just how far aft along the boom you are going to attach the pivot point from jib boom to deck. If you attach your swivel to close to the leading edge of the jib boom you will not be able to get enough tension on the topping lift and you will have next to no control of your jib leech in a breeze, if the jib leech falls away out of control, ie. twists off to much, you will loose pointing ability and power as discussed elsewhere on this site! I would suggest something to the order of 25% of jib boom length for the placement of the swivel. ie. if the jib boom is 40cm long, then attach your swivel arrangement 10cm back from the leading edge of it. You may find this is further aft than you have it now, or than has been suggested to you in the past, if that is so and you have not been going all that well of late then maybe you should do something about it! But remember go to far aft and you loose projected sail area when goose winging the jib down hill, lifes about compromise and so is racing R/C boats. If any of this is confusing you, then that just goes to prove how hard it is to tune these little beasts! And if I get the odd thing wrong...well I'm only human. Another thing which will help hold the jib boom down or keep tension on the topping lift is sidestay tension. As long as the side stays are a little aft of the mast position tightening them will in turn tighten the forstay which will then transfer weight onto the topping lift. Also remember to keep the jib as low down and close to the deck as possible. In the photo above the clew of the jibs on both boats appear too high, suggesting to me the masts are raked almost forward, as well as the jibs being set to high on the forestay or swivel point. Also in thr above photo note how it is not possible to get the main boom down low enough on flush deck boats, something to think about when considering which design to try next. Compare the above set up to the one on Bantocks boat on the previous page. |
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