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Few Albacore questions

6K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  marcjsmith 
#1 ·
Hello all....brand new to sailing, and recently picked up an old Albacore for nothing.

Seems to be all there, save for a few sheets I bought...and she'll need a little glass work, no biggie.

One thing I cant wrap my head around, is rigging the boom.....the guy showed me how to do the mainsheet setup, but mostly, the connections where the boom meets the mast, has me stumped a little.


What I have (pics can be taken) is an aluminum mast, with a groove in it...sail slides into that, I got that much...same with the boom...now the rope that's at the clew of the sail, should that just tie off at the rear of the boom?? or should that go back to a cleat, or a cam cleat or something??

There's also a BIGGER cutout in the mast, which so happens to perfectly fit the piece on the end of the boom...Hmmm....must slide in there, right?? LOL


Next, the tack of the sail, there's a grommet (insert proper term)...LOL.
now on my boom, there's a pin, that doesnt fully come out, it has like half a pin sticking out, that when inserted into it's slot, and rotated, it locks in place......problem is, is the grommet will NOT fit into this pin slot...so there's some sail that's not fully in it's track on the boom one inch or so...I"m thinking a rope goes through here, and ties to a cleat also...(cunningham??)....

I had the boat setup in the yard last night, and without the battens in the sail, the leech of the sail was pretty sad looking....folded over, and generally not very healthy looking...this can be seen in the pic I have....sails seem clean, and in good shape in my untrained eyes....

I'll try to get some better pics of the gooseneck area that I'm having questions with, all set up....

Oh, and how high off the deck should the boom be??

I'm going to the library Thursday, and renting every sailing book they have so, please, excuse my non sailing terminology...;):rolleyes:

Anybody near the chicago area??


Sail numbers on the sails are 5227, if anybody knows the year.....


Anyhow...thanks for reading, sorry for the headaches I may have caused..LOL
 

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#4 ·
I've watched that video time and time again....but they don't really show much, I'll definitely know how to sign my Albacore out for the day, and get the sails from the shed though...LOL.


The spots where the video's pause, are juusssttttt about what I'm looking to see, but not quite.

I definitely don't have that fancy of a setup either, with all the remote lines, and stuff....well, not yet anyway. :hothead

Thanks though!!
 
#5 ·
I'll hazard some guesses, the photos aren't all that clear, so..

yeah, that's a standard gooseneck slide on your boom, it goes into the mast below the slot.

The gooseneck pin is supposed to go thru the mainsail tack grommet. If it doesn't , tie it as close to the sliding pin as you can. For now, don't worry is the luff rope below the slot is in or out of the mast groove, it shouldn't make that much diff.

End of the sail, the line on the clew is the outhaul, it should have a boom-end fitting to tie it to, or to pass it through on the way back to some cleat farther forward. No cleat? then just tie outhaul to whatever you have at the end of the boom, get decent tension so your main isn't too baggy.

How high off the deck shoud the boom be? Hoist the sail up all the way, that's the height the boom should be. Then pull downward on the gooseneck slide and use a downhaul line to tie it down to something (cleat??) so you get decent luff tension.

Loosey-goosey leech? Can't help ya there, it may look better when you get wind in it, make sure you have all your battens in. If still bad, you have to go see your sailmaker.

Good luck. the Albacore's a nice little classic boat that sails real well.

At the clew is the outhaul
 
#6 ·
Thanks nolatom.....makes sense now.

I'll take some better detailed pictures Thursday and post em up.

I was worried that the pin nor going through the grommet was a real bad thing..

So basically, the boom is simply held up by the sail then huh?

For my main and jib halyards, should I buy some blocks to ease raising?.....currently, I'm just pulling down on the lines to raise the sails (they do go up butter smooth)....or not necessary just yet ?
 
#7 ·
I am not familiar with your boat, but, looks like in the video the guy has a fixed gooseneck (riveted to mast), and yours is a slider. It also looks like in your photo there is a rope on the bottom part of the gooseneck used to tension the luff of the sail. The droopy looking boom in your photo with the sails raised may be due to the bolt rope shrinkage. You might be able to make this the proper shape by snugging the boom downhaul, or cunningham. Man, looks like there are a TON of control lines in the photo. Not all boats have every sail control ever invented. You will have fun with what you have, and figure out what else to rig as you go along. Read-sail-read-repeat.
 
#8 ·
Had the sails up again today and realized the pin does in fact fit into the grommet in the main.....I wasn't turning it enough to recess into the starboard side of the goose neck.

Sails say "racing" from a Chicago company....not like it matters, but ....


Question on sheets....I was desperate the other night to get the sails up, so I bought polyethylene rope in 3/16" flavor for the halyards....fits the sheaves well. Should I probably replace this for proper sailing rope before I take her out ( next summer likely)? Or will that work?

One more question......jib sheet, should it run outside , or inside of the stays?
Outside likes to snag kinda.....inside seems like it's not opening as it could...
 
#12 ·
Question on sheets....I was desperate the other night to get the sails up, so I bought polyethylene rope in 3/16" flavor for the halyards....fits the sheaves well. Should I probably replace this for proper sailing rope before I take her out ( next summer likely)? Or will that work?

One more question......jib sheet, should it run outside , or inside of the stays?
Outside likes to snag kinda.....inside seems like it's not opening as it could...
Polyethylene is generally a poor choice for halyards or sheets. Dacron at a minimum, low stretch such as Sta-Set is better. You don't want stretch in halyards or sheets.

For the jib sheets on smaller boats, I like to make a double-ended sheet set of a single piece of line. Find the mid point, insert a loop through the jib clew grommet and pass the 2 tails through the loop. Simple, effective, quick to rig, no shackles or hardware needed. I prefer a minimum of 1/4" line for sheets, prefer 5/16", so I can easily pull it with my hands. Make sure the size line will pass through the blocks properly and fit the cam cleats. Same for halyards.

On almost small boats, you lead the jib sheets inside the shrouds. The exception might be for a big overlapping genoa where the leech would hit the spreaders (or shrouds if there are no spreaders) when sheeted tight. Conversely, spinnaker sheets go outside the shrouds (and forestay).

On higher performance boats, the jib sheet blocks are often mounted on tracks to get better control/shape of the jib depending on point of sail and wind strength. Usually, the block is sort of centered (if the track is correctly located) for upwind work. If racing, I'll move jib sheet block aft as wind strength increases, and forward in light airs.

Fred W
Stuart Mariner 19 #4133 Sweet P
Yeopim Creek, Albemarle Sound, NC
 
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