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Hi folks,
As a new member to the BOA and a recent convert to a Bav 36 last September I have a couple of queries as I am trying to make the boat a bit more tweakable having sailed a Beneteau First for the last three years.
Firstly as this is the first boat I have owned with a fully battened main is it worth fitting a cunningham as I’m not sure if it will alter the sail shape that much against the resistance of the battens and secondly I am in the process of kitting it out with a spinnaker so is it the norm on a 36 footer to have sepaerate guys and lazy sheets or do most owners use barber haulers/tweakers and if so how do they rig them?
Thanks in anticipation
RichardI am surprised that no-one has responded to your post as this is such an interesting question. I have a Bavaria 34 which we do not race, but i have spent many years racing on Impala’s and other well known designs.
If you can get sufficient tension on the main halyard to pull the draught forward in the mainsail, without the headboard comming up hard on the sheave at the masthead, i would not bother fitting a cunningham. It will flatten the bottom of the mainsail, but in the strength of wind at which you are likely to need this you probably need a reef anyway. and the lower fullbatten will as you say, reduce the effect of the cunningham.
Rigging a spinnaker involves a lot of personal decisions, the first of which is how the pole will be handled in a spinnaker gybe. Will the pole be dipped behind the forestay or will it be end for end, (mast end unclipped to become new guy, old guy end then clipped to mast.)
End for end can be achieved with single sheet and guy, but dip pole requires doubling up with a lazy guy and a lazy sheet. This system is also simpler to use in strong conditions, when using end for end, as the lazy sheet can be taken to the mast and clipped into the spinnaker pole end immediatly it is released from the mast, because it is not under load.
The only disadvantage with the lazy guy and sheet is you have a lot of string arround the boat to keep tidy.
Regardless of which system you choose, you should fit barber haulers. Only the guy needs to be lead through these, the lazy sheet is rigged free as only the guy needs to be hauled down to control the pole.
The barber hauler is kept hauled in on the old guy, until the new guy is established and hauled down. This keeps the spinnaker sheets within reach of the bowman until the gybe is complete.
When running in strong winds, it is a good idea to use both guys to control the spinnaker and to haul down on port and starboard to keep the spinnaker under control. This should not be overdone as the spinnaker needs to lift the bow of the boat to stop it ploughing into the back of the wave ahead, and the boat is more likely to surf with the spinnaker flown high.
Hope this helps
Alan,
Many thanks for the reply, but as you say it’s surprising that there had been no other rsponses.
I had done a lot of dingy and keelboat racing before I bought the Bav 36 so was fully aware of the different set ups and was after specifics on fitting out options that other owners had opted for.
Your comments are more or less in line with what I ended up installing, going for the lazy sheets and guys and the dip pole gype. I thought it was a bit harsh to expect Liz, my wife to end to end the pole all the time!
The only thing I’m not happy with is that the pole downhaul is run from a pad eye on the foredeck around stanchion blocks to the jammer on the outside of the cockpit coaming. Worried I might pull my stanchions out and the side jammers (the same for the furling line and genoa cars) are next to useless as they rely on the sheet/line being under tension for them to work adequately which is not always the case with the pole downhaul.
I did also rig a cunningham line which has some small effect in marginal reefing conditions, but I also use it as the third reefing line on the luff spectacle so I only had to rig the leech reefing line singularly through the boom which made life a lot easier.
Many thanks for the input. At least I know I was thinking along the right lines!
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