Drove all day with it yesterday, and rigged it for the 1st time this evening in the driveway - holy cow that was alot more difficult than it sounded in the instructions. Stepping the mast proved to be a chore, luckily I had a friend, but neither of us had ever even seen it done before. Anyways, finally got it up, finally got it down, didn't get hurt, so score one for the good guys. After I figure out how to rig up a righting line, I'll try to put her in the water tomorrow.

Anyway, just sharing my excitement.

Brandon

Houston - soon to be Austin, TX
n5.5u # forgot the sail number already, but it used to be Carl Bohannon's boat...
Currently (perhaps temporarily) "Glass Maiden"

Welcome to the "uni botherhood"! And welcome to Austin (soon).

Look me up when you get here. Believe me, the uni rigging is about the easiest there is. You won't get much sympathy about that on this forum.

Will be in Austin by the end of the month. The rigging itself was easy - just the mast part that really kicked my rear I think. That and I think the mainsheet is threaded through the blocks wrong. I am currently looking for a good picture of one to see. Mine has 2 twists which create a lot of friction. << EDIT - I figured this issue out - didn't know there was an adjustable ratcheting pulley in there. Have not seen that before! >>

Another possible issue is that the bar that attaches the rudders together lies aft of the crossbar - which seems to imply that the tiller must be passed aft of the sail, not under the sail. This does not seem "correct"

the tiller is correct - it should be behind the sheets. I'll let someone else go into the pros and cons.

I would raise your sail, attach the main sheet blocks, and completely un-thread and re-thread the mainsheet to get it without any twists. It should sheet very easily.

that tiller crossbar thing is a point of contention with me I think it should be in front...

Don't get me started on it.

Welcome to the joys of boat ownership :P

If your tiller extension had to cross the boat in front of the mainsheet system, I don't think the crew would put up very long with being goosed and whacked on the head.

Good thing there is no crew! Although all I am asking for is a few inches!

re: the mainsheet, I got that working once I figured out that one of the pulleys is ratcheting, and had a dial to adjust it.

Oh yeah, where do I tie a righting line to?

Actually, I was answering Maugan, because I know his girlfriend sails with him a lot.

Maybe somebody knows the reason why almost all cats have been designed so the tiller extension has to be passed behind the mainsheet. My theory is that before the days of adjustable tiller extensions, all the boats came with a long, long tiller extension. If you tried to cross the boat with it in front, you would have had to raise it way up in the air to get it past the shroud on one side, lower it down to get it under the sail, and then raise it way up again on the other side to get it past the other shroud. It was a heck of a lot easier to pass it around the back where there are no obstructions, not to mention no passengers in the way.

Oh, she loves it when I whack her on the head. She always comes off the boat with 2 more bruises than she had before

What main do you have on it?

Is the bracket for the righting bar still attached to the dolphin striker?

If you have any questions drop me an email or call

Carl Bohannon

Simplest righting line is a long rope tied to mast ball post, tucked into pocket on tramp. When tipped over, take rope out, and throw over top of hull.

But, since you talked about the mast being hard to step (heavy?), I assume it's an aluminum mast. The aluminum mast unis are almost impossible to right by yourself. You'll either need crew, help on the water, or a righting bar of some kind.

For righting lines & systems here are some illustrations :

iagrams in Murays Marine Catalog
http://www.murrays.com/archive/45-46.pdf

Gary's "SoloRight System"
http://www.geocities.com/hobiegary/soloright.html

and Rick White's "PowerRight" system
http://www.catsailor.com/power_righter.html

above two appear to be variants of the Isotope catamaran righting bar
http://www.intl-fiberglass.com/boats.html

I use a righting bar.

I have the stock main on it right now - figured I better learn a bit more before I put the square top on. The bracket for the righting bar is still attached, but with no bar. Do you happen to know what system that bracket goes to?

Thanks.

My brother and I went out on Lake Belton today - it was a blast! Managed to do good enough, made about 1 out of 10 tacks or so, did not capsize, although we got the hull out several times. Now things like rudder hum make sense to me. Found the hulls are taking on water, which is pretty irritating, hopefully I'll figure out how soon.

For many moons I wondered how my H17 was taking on water. I even went to every wing plug and dumped a cup of water in there, waited 6 hours to see if any had leaked into the hulls... when none had I was furious...

then I found out that there are breather holes in my hull where the front crossbeam attaches to the hull that sometimes let water in. I've come to accept the fact that my boat will have some water in it when I'm finished sailing for the day.

The only boat we have ever had that did not leak was a Nacra 5.5 uni. We checked the hulls regularly through a whole sailing season, and there was never anything in there but dust. It was absolutely amazing!

Just for the record, my H16 doesn't leak a drop. With all the pounding that I put that rig through I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed let alone leak!

John
Palmdale, Ca
H16

Jim is right, no normal sized person can right an Al mast 5.5U by themselves, without a righting bar.

You are missing the righting beam, 2 blocks and some ropes. I removed the beam because unless someone shows you how to use it, you can hurt yourself. Unluckily for you I just reused the beam to build a dolly for my Laser. I have attached an early sketch I made of this

First check the bracket. It should freely rotate around the dolphin striker. It is made of epoxy glass. So make sure it has not deteriorated

The beam is easy to build. Glue 2 1x3x8 spruce or fir boards together with epoxy. Drill a hole half the width of the beam from one end (see attached drawing) and round the end of the beam around the hole. The hole should be the same diameter as the one in the bracket. Bolt the beam to the bracket and check the length. You will want to cut it so the end of the beam is about an inch inside the rear cross beam. (I used a tight bungee loop, tied to the lacings, to hold the beam in placed when it was not in use). Once you have cut the beam to length, drill 2 9/16 holes about 6 and 7 inches from the end you just cut. Round the edges of the beam. The sharp edges will hurt your hands. Now cover the beam with epoxy and after it is dry give it a couple of coats of white paint.

You will need to attach two plain bearing blocks to the front cross beam, one on each side near the inside of the hull. I believe I tied them to where the dolphin striker strap attaches to the cross beam.

Now the lines. You need 2. They have to be long enough to go from the Harken cleat on the cross beam that controls the rotation, through the block you just attached, back to the end of the righting beam. I ran the line through one of the holes in the end of the beam and tied a knot in it. Repeat for the other side.


Now when the system is not in use. You have a beam that is attached to the dolphin striker at one end and held to the underside of the tramp by a bungee loop at the other. There are 2 lines. They run from the end of the beam to blocks on each side of the front cross beam. tie a knot in the line just where it exits the block so it will not pull back through the block. When the lines were not in use I think I tied the ends together above the beam.


Now you have flipped the boat. You are standing on the inside of the hull under the tramp. Untie the ends of the lines. Feed the upper one through the rotation cleat. You do not have to pull the rotator line out. Just uncleat it and feed the righting bar line under it though the cleat. You will end up with 2 lines going through one cleat. Don' pull it tight yet. Release the bungee and fold beam out so that it is parallel to the mast. Now pull the line tight. Grab the beam and move out to the end. The idea is to end up hanging from the end of the beam with your feet out of the water. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LET YOURSELF GET ATTACHED TO BEAM. Don't hook your trap harness to the line. Don't get tangled. If you do you will end up 8 ft under water when the boat comes up. I did it once, it was the scariest 5 seconds of my life.

Good luck

Glad you had fun sailing.
NACRAs with boards most commonly take on water through small cracks in bottom of daggerboard well. Other places - any hole in hulls for fittings, which include forestay/bridle attach point, side shroud attach points, etc. Usually factory made holes are sealed well, it's owner created holes that aren't. Also, the porthole access lids sometimes leak.

When you say only made one tack out of 10 - what did you do the other 9 times? Jibe? Or go into irons and back out?
Usually 5.5 uni tacks easily, except high winds, or adverse waves. You'll get the hang of it.

Thanks Carl!

On the blown tacks, I either back winded, jibed, or let the current push the rudders around and then tried again. I just need to read the correct way to do things now that I hae a feel for what it is like out there. I had read all that stuff before, but I think it will make much more sense now.

On the leaking: I think that I am getting water in at the forestay attachement points and the plugs whose gaskets have cracked some.

Hey Aggie,

Hope you enjoy your new boat. The tacking will come to you eventually. IF you want to accelerate the learning curve, checkout Rick White's video on upwind sailing. It really would help you out.

Secondly, if you want to find out where your hulls are leaking try this. I did it on my Nacra 6.0 and it worked great. Get an old "Cool Whip" platic lid, then find a vacuum cleaner that you can reverse the hose on so it blows out. (A hair dryer on cool, low speed would work too) Cut a hole in the lid, and duct tape the hose so that it seals. Now, remove or unscrew the port on your hull and tape the plastic lid onto your boat so that it seals. The "Cool Whip" lids fits just right, but you could improvise with another type. Make sure that you take the drain plug out of each of your hulls, before you run the blower. Now mix a really concentrated solution of dishwashing soap and water, and put a rag in it. Use the rag to soap all the areas where you think you are taking in water. Turn on the vacuum (which will be blowing out now), and go down to the drain plug. Put your thumb over the drain hole for a few seconds or so. Keep doing this and start looking for bubbles to appear. Trust me, if you have any leaks, the bubbles will show you where they are. Make sure you don't seal the hull so that it will completely pressurize. Flat surfaces don't like pressure and they try to go round. It wouldn't take a tremendous amount of pressure to damage your hull. As long as you leave a relief like the drain hole, that will be enough. I found three leaks on my Nacra 6.0 doing this and repaired them all without any problems -- and it worked.

Good luck finding the leaks.

Don