Righting line project

Good Morning All,
I finally got around to working on my righting line. In the below picture you'll see the bungee hooked to the dolphin striker, routed through small pulleys aft, and hooked to the righting line towards each forward corning casting. The righting line turns around the outside of the corner casting through an eye strap, runs aft, and is attached to the inner-rim of the aft hull. There's plenty of line to use and it fully retracts when not extended. The last time I righted, I tied a line to the windward shroud adjuster and leaned out (I didn't have this setup then). Note: the smaller bungee running across is the crew trapeze bungee.



Concerns:
1) Will routing the aft end of the righting line inside the rear casting significantly reduce my ability to counterweight? (Moving it outside is not a problem).
2) Does attaching the bungee hooks to the lower part of the dolphin striker induce undesireable loads? (I don't want to pull the striker out-of-plane with the mast). Should I move the hooks to just under the forward frame?

I would appreciate your thoughts on this project.
Thanks.

_________________
Eric
H16
Sail# 11500

Skipper,

My biggest concern looking at the setup is whether the bungee cords and hooks would hold together during a righting. I'm no expert, but I wouldn't trust it.

My setup is the simple stock solution from Hobie, which is a much thicker bungee from one rudder pin, around the pylons, to the other rudder pin. The one modification I've made is to tie a line across the underside of the tramp to the bungee. that way when I am over, I can untie from the under side and toss the line over the high pontoon, and reel in the bungee.

If you want the no frills approach, take some line, tie off to the dolphin striker, go around one pylon, across to the other pylon, and tie off on the striker. When you go over, untie one end, and toss it over the high pontoon.

Interesting solution. Get rid of the hooks and use hog rings to make loops in the ends of the bungees. You should be okay as long as the line intersects the front pylons. Take it out and try it.

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Hey All,
Thanks for you comments. I should have described the hooks as plastic-coated steel, but maybe I don't need them! We'll give it a try! There's supposed to be a stiff breeze tommorrow, can't wait to get out there!

Best regards

_________________
Eric
H16
Sail# 11500

It looks good, but from a professional flipper perspective... It seems as if you may have too much bungee. I like a righting line that has elasticity to stay in place yet, needs to be fully extended to be effective. If not fully extended, I think it will require more work to right your cat, especially when your at the "almost got it part." Some bungees seem to have eternal elasticity and have inconsistent stretch levels and eventually fail. I like the idea of your bungee to keep it tucked away, I just think that when you are actually righting your cat, you don't want the bungee to be a part of the process.

Wow,
Yesterday's wind was the best yet on CDA....moderate to fresh breeze with the occasional puff. most legs of the course was varying types of reach at least 20 minutes long with the waves 1' to 2'. Lots of spray and pitching fore and aft and rolling across the beam. My new crew was suitably impressed and wanting more of it!

Here's what I learned concerning my mast step rebuild, mast rake setting and bungee/righting line setup:
1) Max mast rake set on shroud adjusters - was able to point very close to the wind, noting increased weather helm and related tiller tug. After the sail I decreased the rake by one hole on the adjusters as I wasn't able to flatten the sail as much as desired when block-to-block.
2) Max rake decreased the mast base rotation limit to mast step rotation stop contact area - the mast base limit tabs acted like a large chisel. My mast step is chewed-up again. I think a welding shop visit to add height to the rotation stop might be in order.
3) Ottos' opinion about the bungee/hook connection was right. After getting capsized our combined weight of 360 lbs. was too much for the hog ring/hook to handle. The hog ring slipped, we plunged into the drink and lost that part of the bungee. Moreover, the righting line wasn't long enough to properly counterweight, nor could we hang from the line from OVER the top hull giving us better leverage. Also noted that even with our combined weight, with our bows windward and the mast just out of the water....she refused to budge further just like she was stuck - I know the sheets were free of the cleats. Success didn't arrive until a helper from a PWC gave the mast a shove up. A redesign of the righting line system is required here.
4) We have to be able to adjust trapeze height on the fly...I'm going to pick up some v-jam cleats and rig something simple. The rope locks currently in place do not easily accomodate different crew while under way. Will also get rid of the metal dogbones...didn't care for the flogging received.

Overall, I'm happily worn-out, having great memories, having met some new sailors (Terry and Patrick) and pleasantly looking forward to the next sortie.

_________________
Eric
H16
Sail# 11500