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We are blessed by the quality, sturdiness and affordability of 40 year old small fiberglass sailboats. I got mine on Craigslist for next to nothing, put some work into it, got the rigging replaced for not too much more money, and now I sail the hell out of it much farther, faster and more often than all of my friends who have spent over ten times as much on their larger yachts. Love the boat.
In keeping with my desire to keep my sailing habit affordable and my inclination to reuse/recycle I have a headsail from a similar boat which is about a 110 on mine. The foot comes all the way down to the deck. My boat has an IOR configuration with a small mainsail/huge headsail configuration. I love this smaller headsail when I go out on windy days in Puget Sound. But the tracks for my jib sheet blocks/cars are mounted WAY aft and when I use this headsail with these cars it doesn't set properly -the leech flutters and I can't point as well.
As a solution I have put two large snatch blocks on padeyes well forward near the shrouds and run the jib sheets through those. The sail sets nearly perfectly and I when beating I can get tacking angles of 85-90 degrees and course over ground (GPS course) with 95-100 degree angles between tacks.
My question is: is there any reason not to do this? The snatch blocks are stout, I believe they are intended for spinnaker sailing, and they are larger/thicker than the jib car blocks. Is there any safety issue. I would prefer not to install any unnecessary deck hardware.
Another question: if there is a reason to avoid my solution and I don't want to install another jib car track, what do you guys think about getting the jib tailored with a higher clew so that the jib lead angle would be appropriate when using my aft jib cars/blocks?
In keeping with my desire to keep my sailing habit affordable and my inclination to reuse/recycle I have a headsail from a similar boat which is about a 110 on mine. The foot comes all the way down to the deck. My boat has an IOR configuration with a small mainsail/huge headsail configuration. I love this smaller headsail when I go out on windy days in Puget Sound. But the tracks for my jib sheet blocks/cars are mounted WAY aft and when I use this headsail with these cars it doesn't set properly -the leech flutters and I can't point as well.
As a solution I have put two large snatch blocks on padeyes well forward near the shrouds and run the jib sheets through those. The sail sets nearly perfectly and I when beating I can get tacking angles of 85-90 degrees and course over ground (GPS course) with 95-100 degree angles between tacks.
My question is: is there any reason not to do this? The snatch blocks are stout, I believe they are intended for spinnaker sailing, and they are larger/thicker than the jib car blocks. Is there any safety issue. I would prefer not to install any unnecessary deck hardware.
Another question: if there is a reason to avoid my solution and I don't want to install another jib car track, what do you guys think about getting the jib tailored with a higher clew so that the jib lead angle would be appropriate when using my aft jib cars/blocks?
