Doyle Universal Power Sail

[jdoorly]

Wow, KC your UPS is bigger than the mainsail! What's the square feets, 120? That's a light air bomb!

My boat came with 5/16" (8mm) jib sheets which I liked the feel of so I got 5/16" for the UPS and I like it there too, except their a bit hefty and droop in light air. I got some 1/8 dyneema left over from another project which I'll try as light air sheets this summer.

I've never seen tapered sheet- tell me more, is it just 2 sizes spliced together?...

I use a small stainless shackle to attach the sheet to the UPS (same for jib). I measured the minimum sheet length necessary for all/each sheets and cut 'em off! I don't like ropes underfoot, if I can help it.

[K.C. Walker]

Chris,

Thanks for your thoughts on the 1/4 inch yacht braid. I don't use sailing gloves much, maybe it's time to get some. I'm thinking that I will probably get some rachet blocks as the turning blocks. The price on those things is going up quickly, though.

[K.C. Walker]

jdoorly,

Yes, the new UPS should be the bomb! When I first started talking to Josh at Doyle, I wasn't sure whether I would fly the sail inside the triangle or outside. And of course, I was thinking I would get the same size sail as you and Chris have. He told me I needed to make the decision whether it would be inside or outside and once I settled on the outside a larger size made more sense. I thought I was aiming at something about the size of the class spinnaker at 95 ft.². So, yes the sail did grow and I figure it is about 120 ft.².

The idea of the tapered sheets, of course, is that you have lightweight line from the clew to just before the turning block and then something bulkier through the block cleat and in hand. This way you get the best of both worlds. There are several approaches for doing this. Often, and I think the most often, is to buy double braid that has a high-tech core and is made for the purpose. In this case you strip the cover back. Some riggers will take a decent polyester double braid and pull a Spectra core through the jacket thereby replacing the polyester core. Also, one can buy just the cover and put it over something like Amsteel where you want it to be to bulkier. And lastly one can do a core to core splice thereby adding something like Amsteel to the end of a more hand friendly line.

Another approach is to do a Y-splice where you have a separate pickup line for the clew that is attached to the center of the sheets. This way you can use just one light high tech line from the clew. The disadvantage of this is that you have to pull more sheet around the forestay depending on how long your pickup line is. And, there would also be more sheet line underfoot.

One approach for minimizing the line underfoot is to do a continuous sheet. I'm still considering this as a possibility.

[GreenLake]

Has anyone ever posted a picture of their UPS underway?

[jdoorly]

Thanks KC. Now that I understand 'tapered sheets' let me add one more splicing possibility, . Dyneema/Spectra is single braid (12 plait), which makes it very easy to splice so dyneema to dyneema may be the easiest taper of all.

A long splice requires tucking in 12" of working end into the standing part after a couple of poke throughs. Since the ease of splicing '12 plait' is the ease of the 'bury', especially with a Selma fid, then you could easily splice 1/8" 12 plait to 5/16" 12 plait, or, use 1/8" 12 plait as a core for 1/4" or 5/16" 12 plait.

[GreenLake]

Standard Brummel splice, in other words.

• You poke 12" of your thinner line through the middle of the thicker line, 12" from its end.
• Then you take the longer end of the thicker line and poke it through the thinner line a bit closer to the short end o the thinner line, say 11.5"
• At that point the lines are locked.
• You then bury the tails

When working with really thin lines, I just use oversized sowing needles as fids. You flatten the end of the tail so it fits through the slot on the needle and comes out about 1/4 to 1/2". Then bend it back and that's usually enough to hold the tail while you pull it into the middle of the other rope.

But it's also not too hard to splice double braid onto some Amsteel. The L-36.com site has a set of instructions on that. I followed them to do a jib halyard where I leave a tail of braided line for handling and cleating.

I found there's apparently some small variance in rope diameters, so I had to go one size larger on the Amsteel than the directions lead me to believe, otherwise there was no way to do the bury (http://l-36.com/halyard_splice.php). Amsteel has no stretch, certainly not with the forces you can create during splicing, and there's a hard upper limit on how much you can bury.

In the end, I used two splices. The first between Amsteel and double braid (not Sta-Set as in the instructions but XLS of nominally the same size). Then, a second splice to get to a smaller diameter Amsteel for the balance of the halyard. Now for that, I buried less than 12", more like 6" so will see - if you read various instructions, the amount of bury should scale with rope diameter anyway, it's not a fixed length.

On occasion, I'll post a picture.

[K.C. Walker]

GreenLake,

I had some 1/4" Sta-Set, at least I thought it was, and what I thought was 1/8" amsteel. As you say, that Amsteel doesn't stretch and I was not able to stuff the cover in it. If the double taper makes it easier, which it sounds like it does, I may just try that.

[K.C. Walker]

GreenLake,

As for pictures, I've only laid mine out on the grass to admire it. Memorial Day is my goal for launching. It's still pretty cool here. I know, that's no excuse for a true sailor. Anyway, you know I'll want to show off and post a picture when I get it all set up and sailing.

[Kleanbore]

K.C. Walker,
The Sta-Set to Amsteel splice instructions are here
http://l-36.com/halyard_splice.php

Take care,
Kerry

[ChrisB]

I finally posted some pictures of my UPS flying. They are posted in my personal gallery and were taken during the Florida 120 this past weekend.

[K.C. Walker]

Hey Chris,

Lookin’ good! It appears that having some extra sail area came in handy!

Did you also get a chance to use your new reef point?

[ChrisB]

No, but I should have. The wind got stronger as the morning went on and by then I was committed to the first reef. I did use the new reef point one time previously though and it worked fine.

[K.C. Walker]

I finally got a chance to give the UPS sail a good workout. It didn't take too long to get the hang of it because it handles pretty much like a large jib. It points amazingly well in the light air. We even were able to leave a J-24 behind in a long tacking duel up the lake. That was with a crew of three and about 8-10 kn of breeze. I found that the apparent wind builds quickly with this sail so I was hauling in the main sail amazingly tight much of the time.

I found the trick for high pointing with this sail from reading a Weta forum post. Because the apparent wind builds quickly I needed to sail with a slight curl or softness in the luff to burn off some of the apparent wind, otherwise I'd be heading down into a screaming beam reach in no time. I haven't added telltales but I might do that.

I really like having it on the roller furler because of being able roll it up for tacking, jibing, and being able to roll it up when the wind gets too intense. I ended up getting a Ronstan series 60 furler http://www.ronstan.com/marine/range.asp?RnID=034g which really has been nice. This furler is great because it kicks the line out of the drum when the sail is deployed, so it is sort of in neutral as far as the line goes then the sail just pops open. When you want to roll it up, you can grab either side of the continuous line and it seems like three pulls and it's all rolled up.

I must admit the budget kind of escalated. I was sort of thinking of it as $350 when I started but it ran up to about $1000 once I increased the size of the sail, put it on a bowsprit, and got a nice roller furler.

I'm still working out all the rigging details. I like the bowsprit fine but for now I have the turning blocks on the transom lashed to the same location as my main traveler. I think the location is fine but I'm going to have to work out how to bring the sheet lines forward and cleating. For now I'm just handholding the line using rachet blocks.

Here are a few photos of the very first raising of the sail. After about 25 more hours of sailing I definitely got a better feel for the sail. However, you can see that even in very light air and no experience I was getting some good boat speed.

[ChrisB]

KC,

Lookin' good! That's one big sail.

I've noticed similar characteristics with the sail. I too have to sheet in the mainsail much tighter than I would with the DS jib for the same wind angle. I have also found that in light air, under 10 mph or so, that I can point almost as high with the UPS as with the jib.

BTW, nice background to the photos. Where were you sailing?

- Chris

[K.C. Walker]

Thanks Chris! That's Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire at a little after 6 AM. The UPS was perfect for early morning light breezes. I really liked getting out before any powerboats and just gliding around on the glass smooth water.

Yup, the size of the sail did escalate a little bit when I decided to go outside forestay. I think the size is okay. I also think part of that has to do with being able to furl it up and hurry if needed.