How to set up a twin wire assy?

Aye,

Sydney's been pretty good so far! Mothing it now but maybe the 14's in sydney will have a resurgence hopefully prior to the worlds. Glad you're having fun with the boat.....Tempted by the morrison? - better off staying with an newer ovi boat if you have a choice!!!!!!!!!

Ali.

Alex,

Sounds like you've heard from Gav who helped us up at Noth Berwick. Following Gav's advice we started from his settings and noticed much improved speed as I think we initially sailed with too much rake in lighter wind stength. The shroud purchases had a black mark on the wire on the port side as it runs over the foredeck. This was calibrated against marks we made on the port side of the foredeck in black marker - probably faded to nowt but have a close look....may still be visible?

And yes you need to pull on the jib halyard so the block within an inch or so of block to block. Work back from this in windier stuff. Hope you are still enjoying the boat it's a great hooligan tool for dealing with musto skiffs....

might see you out here if you're doing the 14 worlds in 2009?

Ali.

We are in luck with our 14. The the calibation was marked out in 5 wind strengths for the key mast settings. This is on the jib halyard (rake) lowers (mast bend) daggerboard (height and rake, it rakes backwards as you lift!). The remainder of the controls were however not marked. With some experimentation we have discovered caps hard on in light winds to match luff of mainsail. Kicker on upwind till top streamer just stops. Cunningham and outhaul on enough to stop us swimming.

I could measure the approximate rake but it probably wont be too much use to you. The masts and boat being totally different.

We have finally found out why the kite was such a pig. The setup on our other 2 kites is totally different with a hole though a tie patch. The kite now folds in half when you pull the retrieval line and drops onto the deck when you release the halyard.

We do as cracking the jib off helps the main drive the bow up towards the wind before the tack and sheeting in coming out gives me a feeling for where I can point the boat, and helps build the acceleration. Most often or not we are footing off for speed so usually we don't try and pin the jib in and go for speed, but you still have to sheet in as the apparent wind moves forward. I take the jib as helm and feel it actually helps greatly for boat speed because you get a direct feedback from the jib as to when you are pinching and when you can head up a bit. I've seen quite a few people think that with self-tackers you can just set them and leave them whilst going upwind not realising that there are substaintial gains to be made by tuning the sails. Saying that though, crewed for some successful 505 sailors and all their sheets are marked. Reckon they must have worked out the optimum settings for the conditions and know that pointing the boat in the right direction to get the tell-tails streaming gets you to the top mark fastest, although they'd be sailing more for height than what I do on my boat. 

Oh most definitely different settings for different days but it adds consistency through the tacks and after a downwind leg.  The marks don't actually line up with anything.  They might be an inch from the fairlead in one set of conditions and twice as much in another, but they are a reference so that when the boat is going good I say to the crew remember those settings, then when we tack the sheets go straight to the refernece and we see how it feels.  Often I have to say something like, "its a bit lighter now, can you ease a centimetre", and at least the crew know they are easing relative to some reference.

I suspect the very best measure would be a mark along the spreader for the leech to point at - but that would be out of sight.

By the way do you ease your jib slightly just before you tack and then draw it in again as the boat gets up to speed?