Talking of weight, I think the central beam has a lot of merit, it saves a lot of heavy components and if the forestay is added into the equation, it means a proper working jib and a screacher rather than the spinny we now use. The beam and front pole is only about 2 kilos at the moment so lighter than a conventional snuffer setup. Anyone out there good at converting loads to carbon fibre layup ?
Okay, now I'm lost. I don't see how the central beam is saving that much weight? Not to mention that you were probably the one who removed it from the 5.2 I have in my back garden when it was yours...
What are the advantages of the central beam and under tramp snuffer? I can see the following:
- Reduced weight and reduced windage on front, centering the mass is always good.
- Self sustained pole is probably real nice™ when rigging, one less thing to attach around
- Solid attachment for central sheeting (I'm curious to see how well it works as you still need to throw the extension on the back of the boat. I guess if it works for the A class, it can't be that bad)
- Rigidity? Is it really helping?
There are inconveniences probably:
- Lower clearance under the trampoline, the central beam may slap in waves?
- You have to either pick a side to launch the spi or forget about the jib completely and install split forestay. BTW, if split forestay are installed with no line from the mast to the middle of the pole aren't you afraid the pole is going to invert? How are you inducing pre-bend?
- launching and snuffing the spi may take longer as well as you have to pull all the length of the pole...
- You need extra long spi sheets to go all the way back to the trampoline
Anyway it's really nice to see something really new for a change, and I must admit I'm curious to see the results. Can I get a ride?
