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If mice are eating your styrofoam floatation try covering the flotation with chicken wire . WE had a chipmunk problem getting inyo our covered motor boat in the winter and a chicken wire cover was our only solution after other measures ( mothballs, pepper) failed
First, you can have a second set of reef points added
Second, try removing the jib with the existing reef in the main. pull up the cwnterboard 1/3 to 1.2 way. The boat will sail very well
First, you could have a second set of reef points installed.
Second, with that much wind, lower the jib and pull up the centerboardperhaps 1/3 to 1/2 way. The boat will sail nicely this way, pretty fast too! Try it befor modifying the main.
If you really do not want to bother with installing a reef for those windy days then you can consider dropping the jib and raising the centerboard about 1/2 way. There will be weather helm on the tiller and you will need to make sure to have speed for coming about, but the boat will be much more manageable. Re-connect the jib halyard so that two wires will be supporting the mast from the front. I would however recommend a reef. The factory version is the delux way to go, but I have sailed without any problems with less hardware and less expense. Ask the sailmaker to install a gromet at the foot of the sail near the outhaul and that will save you the cost of a pulley. Also I use a vee jam cleat for the reef line, located on the boom near the gooseneck.
I hope this helps Gabor Scot 3512I agree that if it is Ocean sailing that is of interest then the Flying Scot is probably the wrong boat. The Scot was designed for lake and protected body of water sailing. Especially if single handed the recomendation for a keel boat is even stronger. I have sailed my Scot with just a reefed main (no jib) and the centerboard partly raised. The boat handled like an overgrown one man dinghy and was very ballanced and fast in strong winds. But waves are another matter and Sandy Doughlas the designer has said that the danger is in waves and wind especially when the wind gets under the broad hull perched atop a wave. FS 3512
Use a white sandable primer spray paint made by Rustoleum. It dries soft for easy wet sending and is durable enough so that you do not need any other finish. The tip is from the Neff’s. FS 3512
I just replaced my 20 year old 4 inch ports as the sun had deteriorated these. The new ones needed a 1/4 inch larger hole. There was a paper circle template with the packaging of the new ports and it was relatively simple to follow the pencil outline of the new port with a jigsaw. If I were installing just a single set of ports and had a hand held jigsaw I would not buy a hole cutter. IN ADDITION; My transom ports each have a light lanyard attached to the port covers!! If they are ever used in a swamped boat situation I will not have to worry about losing the port covers. They probably sink . Good luck with the project. FS 3512
Andy. 13 knots and above tends to be sufficient wind to heel the boat and it is difficult to keep the boat flat. With the hull heeling over, the boat has agreater tendency to round into the wind and the skipper has to correct for this by pulling on the tiller. This is called weather helm. To offset the tendency of the boat to round up into the wind it is helpfull to raise the centerboard a bit with the rollers being an inch or two up on the curved part of the centerboard trunk. In steering, the boat tends to pivot about the centerboard. Raising the board moves the pivot point aft increasing the moment arm distance between the center of sail force induced pressure and the center of water force induced pressure ( pivot point), and causing the bow of the boat to go leeward. A larger % of the sail area is exposed in front of the pivot point because you have moved the pivot point back. By adjusting the centerboard you can decrease the rudder action and rudder force needed to kepp the boat tracking straight even when heeled over. Speed improves.
Practice your starting technique by yourself. Picka buoy on the water and pretend it is a starting mark. Sail away from it and sail back in a simulated start, trying to arrive at the buoy just as the pretend start gun goes off. In an actual start you want to make your final approach to get there early, possibly 15 to 30 seconds. Other boats will slow you down as you approach the real starting line, and unless the favored spot is at the leeward end, you can sail down the line to use up time, assuming that you evade other boats. Also you can always scrub a bit of speed say 15 sec or so before the start. You will know that you are agressively starting when you are over the line early a few times.Plan on what to do when that happens.
Sailing in light wind in a chop is the hardest to master. The sails must be full and you must allow the boat to pick up speed by sailing a bit lower and then when at speed coming a little closer to the wind and as you feel losing speed sailing lower again. Watch the jib tell tales very carefully.
Gabor FS 3512Andy This is acritical time in your siling experience where things can get frustrating because there may not be that much progress. Try and think why you are not with the pack? some critical elements are:
– boat speed; Do you get to the windward mark with the others?
– boat speed; do you loose out on spinnaker legs? gain?
– starts; are you with the lead group at the favored side of the line?
– Have you assessed which side of the course is favored even before the start?
– Are you constantly aware of wind direction and speed, know and consistantly tack for the favorable windward leg. This may be the first most difficult acquired skill
– Are you keeping the boat flat with a minimum of rudder movement? Does the tiller feel balanced with little force on it? Have you learned to adjust the centerboard on the windward beat to ease the the helm if needed? Do you pull up the board part way on a reach, most of the way downind?
– Do you sail with tell tales on the jib for optimum windward work, masthead fly for the spinnaker?
– Finally your boat is much newer than mine, but is the bottom smooth with no antifouling paint?
– last but perhaps very important, are your sails tired? For club racing, unless the sails have been abused , they should last a long time and be able of mid pack and better performance for about 5 or more years.
– do you sail with similar brand sails as the other guys?
– Check the cenetrboard gasket, make sure there are no rips and that it is taught
There are a lot of second nature things that go into being at the top of the fleet and as you work on the above items you will get better. Gabor FS3512Perhaps some clarification is in order here.The sheet attachment point on the rudderhead tends to be behind the extension of the rudder axis of rotation defined by the rudder pin. This is true for the factory position and more so for the further aft positions that scott Mauney used. Thus the main sheet forces tend to relieve the force that you perceive at the tiller end. The moment that the mainsheet induces on the rudder is in the same direction that the skipper induces to keep the boat from rounding up into the wind.The rudder angle needed to maintain course remains the same. So the question is really a matter of skipper preferance. Does the skipper want to instantly feel the effect of for example a puff instantaneously via feedback through the tiller force or does he want to relieve the tiller force by moving the sheet attachment point further back on the tiller head?
In handling too much weather helm in high winds I pull up the centerboard a bit at a time until the helm becomes balanced, and when a puff hits I feel it on the tller and round up a tad, hike harder and ease the sheet a tad.
The centerboard has a better hydrodynamic shape than the rudder and is a more efficient surface than the rudder for creating the sideforce needed to minimize leeway, therefore a neutral rudder angle or (nearly neutral) is best. Gabor FS35121. I beleive the class rules require a minimum amount of floatation at the bow. I plan to install blue foam when I get around to it. An inflatable bag per se is not required
2. The extruded polystyrene blue foam and the pink foam is the same stuff and you can get them at the major hardware stores , Home Depot etc, sold as insulating foam.
3. I put a small piece of pink foam and submerged it in a bottle for a few weeks. There was no sogginess when I pulled out the sample.
4. You can glue the pink (or blue) foam with Gorilla glue
5. The pink and also the blue foam is compatible with epoxy resin, not with polyester.
Godd luck FS3512I would like to keep the racing rules as they are with respect to electronic devices. I enjoy the challenge of seat of the pants sailing and judging wind conditions, wind shifts, boat speed and possibly good tactics with just the things that I can feel or sense without the use of a speedometer or other device. I would much prefer to let the cruisers play with GPS and VMG computer programs for perfecting their sailing and keying in their optimum downwind sailing angle.
It is bad enough that I need to worry about keeping the key fob to my car dry when I go sailing on the Scot. If you push the racing to the edge then one day you will take a knock down and possibly turn over. If you never do take the knock down or turn over then you are probably not taking enough risks during heavy air racing.
If you are just starting in the class or are just starting to race then I suggest that practice behind the tiller and time on the water will improve your sailing more than any GPS or other electronic device. Sailing the boat at top speed needs to be second nature and you need to develop a feel for boat performance so that you instantly become aware of the “slows” without thinking about it. Constantly look at all the boats around you to get sailing input.
