On Tue, 8 Mar 2011 17:51:08 -0500, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:
"Bruce" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 8 Mar 2011 14:21:25 -0500, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:
"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
Look what I miss while I'm in the woods...
"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
anews.com...
Things I don't like a
3) no mast steps (it shouldn't take a committee to ascent to the
masthead)
Wilbur Hubbard
I thought you were one of the ones complaining about how nasty mast
steps
were for tangling lines...
L8R
Skip, still looking for that one Pace-Edwards mast step
--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog
"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half
so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing
about
in
boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's
the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do,
and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."
I'm against the kind that you were planning to install. They snag
halyards.
The kind I have installed are the folding type that can't snag a line if
they tried. No REAL sailor adds anything to his boat that will cause more
trouble than it's worth. That's why I tried to talk you out of your folly
but you wouldn't listen because you have a stubborn streak.
You can just barely see my folding mast steps. They are that unobtrusive.
http://captainneal.wordpress.com/
this particular photo shows them the most:
http://captainneal.files.wordpress.c...dsc00294ps.jpg
Please don't be envious of how my boat shines and Flying Pig is sort of
all
dull and chalky looking.
Wilbur Hubbard
Willie-boy, I keep telling you and telling you, keep your mouth shut.
You just keep talking and talking and proving over and over how little
you know.
If you haul up a sail the halyard is tight, or in the case of many
boats nearly entirely inside the mast. In these cases it does not
tangle in the mast steps, no matter what kind they are.
Wrong, Dumbo! You show what type of sailor YOU are with the above
dunderheadedness. (Can you say 'fair weather sailor') It just so happens
some us sail in gale or near gale conditions. Under those conditions
external halyards are slapping all over the freaking place when sails are
raised. It becomes even more of a whipfest when lowering the sails and you
know, Bruce, what goes up must come down. Duh! Everybody with those pile of
junk triangular mast loops will end up with a halyard tangled in them when
dousing sail. And, they will be stuck at the worst time with flogging,
flailing, out of control sails when they least want or need it. This will
require a trip up the mast CAUSED BY THE VERY STEPS that are supposed to
make it less likely that one will need to ascend the mast under emergency
conditions. Dumb, stupid, lame and bordering on the pathetic, I say.
Willie, lets be honest. You don't sail in a gale, or near gale,
conditions. You don't sail at all, excepting your recent bay safari,
so your knowledge of gale conditions is limited to whatever book you
are reading this week.
So the external halyards are slapping all over the place. Which
halyards are those, pray tell? You can't have modified your boat to
run the halyards external to the mast have you? On the other hand, you
may well have, knowing you.
But, internal or external what halyards are you referring to? You've
got your mainsail halyard that is hooked to either your reefed main or
a storm trysail and you've got your jib halyard hooked to your jib,
whatever kind you have bent on. Both halyards have tension on them and
a tight halyard doesn't flail around.
I can tell that you have been reading books again with your stories of
flogging sails and flailing lines....
But what is that is going to require your emergency trip up the mast
in the teeth of a howling gale?
I know that those sailing books are exciting, especially to the
neophyte, but put the books aside and actually take a trip on the
boat. Even down the bay and back. Maybe you'll learn something.....
maybe.
It is only at anchor when the sails are down and the halyards dangling
there beside the mast that they get all snarled up in the steps.
Wrong. See above. And, you probably have a lubberly roll-up headsail system
so you KNOW NOTHING about nor are you even able to remove a too-large
headsail and bend on a storm jib, for example when the wind has gotten up.
So the jib halyard snarls up around a bunch of ill-conceived mast steps and
you can neither get the too large sail down nor bend on the just right sail.
I can see now why you failed in your circumnavigation, Bruce.
Willie-boy there you go again. Remove a too large headsail.... and I
thought you were a sailor.what in the world are you doing with this
monster headsail up in a storm?
Certainly a squall might blow in, but even then, if you are keeping a
proper look-out you'll see it in time to get your sails sorted. But a
proper gale or near gale doesn't spring upon you out of a clear blue
sky, It takes days to develop and will certainly be reported on all
weather channels. You have no excuse, in these days, to be caught out
in a gale with the wrong sails.
Well, actually it is obvious that you haven't with your story about
halyards snarling up on the mast steps.... I keep telling you....
When changing a head sail the halyard is attached to the peak of the
jib, which in turn is shackled to the jib stay, or head stay.
Depending on the type of boat the distance varies but in any event it
is approximately half the boat length forward of the mast. Not a
chance in hell of tangling with the mast. The other end is neatly run
over the masthead sheave and down the inside of the mast where it
can't get snarled, out the base and aft to your cockpit, or neatly
cleated off at the mast foot.
Nothing there to get snarled and require climbing the mast.
You must learn that these book writers want to keep your interest so
they tell these resounding tales of daring do.... and you fall for it
every time.
By the way, talking about gales and storms and such. Take a look at
Lynn Pardy's tales about how they weathering two hurricanes in their
little boat. In both storms they stayed below, in their bunks. No
snarled halyards, no tangled sails.
But of course, the Pardy's ARE sailors.
What an ego. You just have to insist on talking and showing the world
how uninformed you are.
The world is perceptive enough to realize it's the other way around, Bruce.
Wilbur Hubbard
Cheers,
Bruce