Sailing

Tips for Lengthening Your Sail’s Life

By: KATHERINE M. CLEMENTS

Sails are not cheap and do not last forever, but with proper care, cruising sails made of high-quality sailcloth will provide many years of service. Here are tips to help prolong the life of your sails.

Avoid flogging

The best way to maintain the strength and shape of your sails is to minimize the number of times they are left flapping. Flogging happens when the sailboat is pointed head to the wind in a strong breeze. Flogging rapidly degrades the cloth; therefore, make every effort to avoid it.

Protect from UV

Believe it or not, direct sunlight is a sail’s worst enemy as it gradually breaks down the cloth. Therefore, ensure the UV strip is on the outside when rolled for furling headsails. In addition, keep a cover over your mainsail when it is not in use.

Prevent chafe

Chafing wears through sails. Check the ends and aft edges of spreaders and stanchion tops—tape up split pins, sharp halyard exits, and protruding screw heads. Check the front of the mast as tacking drags the foresail across it. Tacking is a sailing maneuver by which a sailing vessel, whose desired course is into the wind, turns its bow toward and through the wind so that the direction from which the wind blows changes from one side of the boat to the other, allowing progress in the desired direction.

Wing range

Sails stretch and lose their shape if you have too much canvas up for the prevailing conditions. On the other hand, being overpowered also leads to loss of control and will slow your boat down, so reef when you know you should. Reefing reduces the area of a sail, usually by folding or rolling one edge of the canvas on itself and attaching the unused portion to a spar, as the primary measure to preserve a sailing vessel’s stability in strong winds.

Leech Lines

Guarantee these are correctly adjusted to stop fluttering in the main and headsail leeches. Fluttering Remember that minor repairs to your sails can save you from many headaches and hefty repair bills. will quickly tarnish the cloth and damage the stitching. Both main and headsails are likely to have leach lines, so use them.

Halyard and outhaul tension

The proper halyard tension takes the pressure off mainsail cars and sliders, protecting the stitching. It extends a genoa’s life and enhances pointing capability. Ease halyards, outhaul, and reefs after use.

Check battens

Check batten pockets at both leech and luff ends to confirm the battens are secure and examine the stitching in these areas. It is essential to check the battens, especially after an accidental gybe, as they can snap. Gybing is a sailing maneuver where the sails move from one side of the boat to the other.

Headsail foils

Make sure your headsail foils are in good condition, with no burrs, and the foil sections are tightly bolted together and correctly aligned. This eliminates bolt rope tears and lets you hoist and lower the sail without damage.

Mast track

Keep the mainsail track and cars clean and free of dust and grime to prolong their life. Lubricating with a dry lubricant, such as a silicone spray, will significantly reduce car friction and make the sail easier to hoist.

Storage

Flake the main differently every time to prevent permanent creases. Flaking is a single turn or several turns of rope in a coil, more popularly called a fake. Light creases will come out. Stow sails clean, salt-free, and dry, ready for next use. Make sure you dry the spinnaker before stowing, as darker colors bleed into lighter ones.

Installing a Boiler

Ahoy Sailors, last time we talked about tips and tricks to decorate your boat and win you the grand prize in that boat parade. To stay on theme with sailing during the chilly months, this time, we will be discussing how to install a boiler for cold weather sailing. So stay tuned. Next time we will discuss something fun— New Year’s resolutions for boaters!

By: KATHERINE M. CLEMENTS

Unless you plan on making a trip somewhere tropical, Southern California sailing is currently what we Southern Californians call “chilly.” With highs of 55 degrees and lows of 40, we need to find a way to stay warm, especially when we’re out on the boat. Therefore, a heating system is required to make your experience more comfortable while cruising in places where the mercury stays at the bottom of the thermometer.

Heat requires energy. This means natural gas or electricity on land, but neither is readily available at sea. As a result, most boats run off safe fuel in the form of diesel. Diesel is a safe and energy-rich fuel to burn for heat.

Heaters come in a few forms: a fireplace style that radiates heat passively, a direct air version that blows hot air, or a boiler (hydronic) that heats hot water that transfers heat through radiators. The fireplace or hot air version works great for a smaller boat or a single cabin, but you’ll need a boiler to heat a larger boat.

With a boiler system, the boiler is typically installed in a lazaret or locker with a small expansion tank of water. Then it channels water to radiators strategically placed around the boat. Next, the water piping system is installed as a loop with a small pump. The pump moves hot water out to the radiators and returns it to the boiler to be reheated. The expansion tank adds the volume required to allow the water to expand as it heats and extra water volume to the system to store excess heat in the form of thermal mass.

Several manufacturers make these systems, most of them Canadian or European, likely due to the higher latitude sailing in those areas.

All successful projects start with a plan, and this one begins by planning the size of the boiler. Boiler sizing is essential: a unit that is too small won’t keep the boat warm and will prematurely wear out, but a boiler that is too large will cause short cycling and prematurely destroy it. Boilers are specified in BTUs delivered. You can approximate the BTUs required by calculating the interior volume of the boat (length x width x height) in cubic feet and multiplying by 12. This will give a rough calculation that you can adjust depending on the boat’s design. For instance, a deck saloon will require more BTUs than a low-slung cruiser.

Make space next to the boiler for the expansion tank. The expansion tank must be the highest point in the system to capture any air in the system. The exhaust should be routed as direct as possible. The shorter the passage, the better. Exhaust can be deadly, so plug all connections with a high-temperature sealant.

Exhaust systems on these units can heat up to several hundred degrees, so they must be completely insulated and routed away from flammable materials. Try removing the exhaust line at an exhaust through-hull fitting designed to keep hot gasses away from the fiberglass.

The boiler is useless without fuel, so address that next. These systems sip fuel and are supplied with an easy-to-route 3/16-inch fuel line. The boiler should only use about a pint of fuel per hour. Like any diesel system, it’s important to bleed the air from the line. This is easy to perform by extracting the fuel line from the boiler and pumping fuel into a cup until all signs of air disappear.

The most challenging part of the installation is the piping and radiators. Depending on your boat’s design, we recommend designing the system with a small radiator in each cabin and a larger one in the main saloon. Try small radiators with 4-by-8-inch faces for the cabins and cut holes in lockers to mount them.

To maintain the water integrity of bulkheads and lockers, seal the cut surfaces of each hole with epoxy. While you route the hoses, try to avoid any high spots in the hose, as these are prone to collecting air and could impede flow. Any high points require a fitting to allow air to escape, each radiator has one, and they can be added if an elevated spot is inevitable.

The electrical parts of the system are relatively straightforward. The boiler must be powered with 12 volts of direct current. The main cabin requires a thermostat, and each radiator must be powered to drive its fan. It is important to note that the boiler should be powered with constant power from a breaker. The power must be able to cycle independently of the system power switch so that when the system power switch is turned off, the boiler maintains power to complete its cool-down cycle.

Now that the system is installed, you must commission it. This means filling the system with water, flushing air, and looking for leaks. After that, you can add water to the system and run it cold or pump water through it with a utility pump.

With the commissioning process is complete, turn the system on. These systems go through a defined start-up sequence. First, you’ll hear the fuel pump kick in. Next, the boiler exhaust fan starts, and the boiler will light. The boilers are not silent, especially outside the boat— it begins with a whoosh and settles into a faint buzz. Finally, after maybe 15 minutes, the boiler will heat the coolant. Once the coolant is hot, the system turns on the radiator fans, and the heat flows.

Now get out on the water and enjoy some warm cruising.

When hand warmers aren’t enough, turn on the boiler to make for a comfortable sailing experience.

ON THE HORIZONS

By: KATHERINE M. CLEMENTS

2023 Berger Series & Stein

Series (Jan. 7)

MARINA DEL REY— On Jan. 7, the Del Rey Yacht Club will host the first of five races for the 2023 Berger Series & Stein Series. The race will travel up to Malibu and back down to MDR. The William Berger & William Stein Series is one of the most looked forward to series in all of Southern California. Malibu and Return is the first race in this five-race series. The Berger course is for PHRF boats and is 22nm (with a shorter course option if the wind is unusually light). The Stein course is for Cruiser Class boats and is 15nm up to Topanga Beach and return. The DRYC is inviting PHRF boats to compete in the 2023 William Berger Series and Cruiser boats to compete in the William Stein Series races. These five races represent the best-attended and most challenging random leg series in Santa Monica Bay. In addition, Berger Races 1 and 2 are part of ASMBYC’s High Point Series. The event is governed by the rules defined in the Racing Rules of Sailing and PHRF of Southern California (SoCal PHRF). Class Rules are available at phrfsocal. org. Boats will compete in either the Berger/PHRF division or in the Stein/ Cruiser division. The entry fee is a function of boat length and payable at the time of entry:

Boat Length Races 1, 2, & 3 for each race Races 4 & 5 both races

< 30ft $35 $80

30 to 40 ft $45 $100

to 50 ft $55 $120

>50 ft $65 $140

For more information or to see the Notice of Race, please visit https://www. regattanetwork.com/event/25503.

Frosty Deck Regatta (Jan. 7)

the rules as defined in The Racing Rules of Sailing and is open to boats in PHRF Spinnaker and Non-Spinnaker classes. PHRF class entries must have a valid current PHRF rating certificate. OneDesign classes may be established with five or more entries. The Early Entry Fee is $30 for registrations completed no later than Dec. 31. The Entry Fee is $40 for any entry received after Dec. 31 and before the entry deadline— the deadline is 6 p.m. on Jan. 6. There will be a competitor meeting on Jan. 7 at 9:30 a.m. The first warning signal will go off at 11:55 a.m. A Kickoff 2023 celebration will be held after the race for racers and guests at the DPYC. Take home trophies will be awarded following the race at the DPYC as well. To view the Notice of Race or for more information, please visit https://www.regattanetwork.com/ event/25524.