Submitted on August 23, 2005 by Kirk McAnsh

Question: Hi,

I'm in the process of refitting my 39 foot professionally-built, center-cockpit, double headsail steel ketch that displaces about 30,000 lbs. When the boat was built in Holland in 1986, the ship yard bolted the aluminum cleats, mainsheet track and 12 foot jib sheet track to the deck, put nuts on the bolts on the under side of the deck and then insulated and installed the overhead in the boat. I would like to eliminate as many holes as possible in the deck and have been wracking my brains out trying to come up with a workable solution.

I could eliminate the jib track completely, weld shut the holes and install pad eyes on the bulwark rail (at a 90 degree angle to where the cars would have been had the track remained). At the aft end of the jib track, the outer bulwark rail is only 6" outboard of the jib track. At the forward end of the track, the bulwark rail is 18" outboard of the track. My question is - "How much would moving my jib/staysail leads outboard affect my boats windward performance?"... Some people say "not much - after all it is a cruising boat". Others say that it would completely destroy any windward ability. Any thoughts/suggestions/ideas?...

Thanks!
Cap'n Kirk

Answer: Hi Cap'n Kirk,

I will guess that your boat has very wide tacking angles, but moving the inner jib sheet leads to the rail would probably be a mistake. The inner jib needs to have a sheeting location more inboard than the forward headsail to maintain a slot between the two sails. As you bear away onto a close reach the effect of moving the lead to the rail will be less noticeable but with a two sail rig, the inner jib will still be better with a more inboard lead so that the twist of the two headsails is a close match. If the forward jib is currently sheeted to the aft end of the 12' track, you could move that lead to the rail without any consequence. For the inner jib, you could weld a padeye or shorter track to the deck but it should go at the inboard position.

Regards,
Dan Neri

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