Blaze

I'm bunging this thread here for a couple of reasons..

As y'all know I have one now and am thoroughly enjoying it, I think it's a
great boat, perfect for coastal use, excellent for sailing in shallow water,
great for gusty inland stuff where a trap is tricky. Well laid out controls
easy to hand kicker, cunningham, centreboard and in my case the lowers
but it could be something else, not sure what, but all can be adjusted
from the driving position.

Now the thing I kind of need help with, there are mixed suggestions as to
rig tension, they all got beaten up by a good sailor so naturally as all
good dinghy sailors do they immediately ignored the fact he might just
be better at tactics, shifts, getting a good start, no it was because his rig
was floppy so they now recommend a floppy rig which seriously sounds
and appears to be very dubious, not least because the mast step is now
working itself loose in the deck.. hence the adjustable lowers and soon to
be adjustable forestay.

2nd thing is sail control, getting the leech to stand up, it appears to be
cut very saggy high up, is this fact or is my sail shagged..

3rd, getting it to point seems to promote debate, so hints and tips. I'm
buggering about with a new foil on my "Frankenblaze' but I kind of need
to have a reference of what I should be doing.

What I know I should be doing is going to an open meeting of course, easiest
way to find our what everyone else is doing, but there aren't any round
here and the Nationals are off the edge of the planet in Wales ffs.

This might also be reference for anyone else considering this fine craft,
rather than brown nosing decks, or forever squatting over a huge toilet
bowl..

edit. Oh and I have tried the forum, but it's one of those Yahoo email
things 6000+ long, tried wading through it but my eyes began to bleed, I
know there's more info to be had here...

Edited by G.R.F.

I've done both of the above, hence why I've fitted adjustable on the fly
lowers, but the mast appears to bend in the middle between the spreaders
and a foot or so up from the boom, just as I get the standup to begin to
appear a bit more kicker then just collapses the belly of the sail flat.

Kickers are sooo different to Gnavs, there's almost a case for fitting both.

I did wonder, how big/small, heavy light is Steve Cockerill?

I thought it might more be the downhill effect and all that running by the
lee stuff lasers do.

not sure about your rig GRF but could pop down on weds night if you want. again with the spreaders going forwards will straighten the mast and also if you increase the spreader length outwards that should also stiffen the mast up.

a point to look at with the sail has the bolt rope shrunk best thing to do is unpick the stitching at the tack tie the head off somewhere strong and pull by the tack re-inforcement as that could be causing some of the leech problems.

does the leech drum in heavier winds between the battens?

Sunderland is where i used to live.

live in folkestone now. so just down the road.

Dave Turnbull sails at redoubt would be someone to speak to as well as he used to have a blaze.

what time do you kick off on wednesday?

 

From when I had my Blaze I can say the floppy rig worked when it was windy but needed to be a little tighter when it was lighter. The lowers I set at the recommended deflection (50mm each way if memory serves) for the light wind setting and then left it like that. I did have an adjustable forestay but found I never acutally used it so tied it off making it fixed again.

I did find that you had to check the mast foot regularly because it did work loose. There was talk of a 'wedge' being made available to help the mast oocated properly, doubtless Mike @ Cirrus will be able to let you know more about this.

What you should do Grumpf is get yourself to the nationals this year and speak to Mike, Christian and the other guys at the front of the fleet and see what they ecommend. It also matters a little which sail you have, Sobstad, Early North, current North as the cuts are all slightly different.