Ebbtides

[Bill of JENAIN]

 Hi Paddy and Chris,

                                Well, there may only be 3 of us at the moment, but we can share our ideas and experience regarding these great boats. I have now done nearly 80000 nm in Jenain since I launched her in 1996. I have had my share of bad weather, a cyclone in the Bay of Bengall, and 80 knots off the South African East coast. The Ebbtide always took it all in her stride, and the only damage was sail slides and a batten, my own fault for hanging on to the main when I should have had the trysail up!

 

                            I have just arrived in Phuket, Thailand after a tiring single handed trip from Langkawi in Malaysia. Coastal sailing in S.E. Asia is difficultdue to the large numbers of small fishing boats, who do not exhibit legal lights, nets and bamboo fish traps. I think that I am getting too old to spend 24 hrs a day on watch!

 

     Here are a few observations/ comments on your recent threads.

 

1. Engines. I started out with a 34 HP Perkins Perama. Jenain was seriously underpowered and could just do 5 knots in flat calm conditions. Any wind or sea would severly reduce that.  Last year I fitted a Beta 50 HP, what an improvement, I can now easily do 6 knots (at 2000rpm) and my fuel consumption is 0,5l/ hr less than the Perkins! I have a 4 bladed Variprop feathering propeller that replaced the original 3 bladed Max Prop. I hate motoring and only put 3000 hrs on the Perkins in 16 years of full time sailing, but now the extra power is a real boon.
2. Light air sailing. When I built Jenain, I opted for the “taller rig”. This is 6 ft longer, and means that I start reefing in about 25 knots, but the extra sail area is a boon in light wind.
3. Sails. I have a fully battened, loose footed mainsail, a trysail with a separate track. A hank on staysail and a storm jib( which I have never used) On the furler I normally have a 135% genoa, and can replace it with , 1. a working jib, 2. a yankee or 3. the twistle sail. ( More on this later) . I have a 100m sq assymetrical spinnaker that I fly on a short, removable bowsprit.
4. Twistle sail. This is like two yankees on  a single luff. It is made out of 3.3 oz storm spinnaker nylon and utilizes two freeflying poles on a universal joint. It is a fantastic rig downwind, easy to control, no chafe, easy to reef too. Ratsey and Lapthorne sell twistle sails and the hardware, but due to the high cost,  made my own. I have photos if you are interested, or you can Google Twistle or Twizzel  sails for info. On my recent sail back from Chagos, I made 12 consecutive days runs over 150 nm with this rig, and hardly touched a sheet! It is a very good Trade Wind rig, and unlike a spinnaker, safe to keep and night and night.

           Regards and cheers,

                                                Bill. 

 

Bill Robinson

Yacht "JENAIN"

[Chris Bradbury]

Hi Bill and Paddy,

Bill I'm glad you like the Twistle Rig as I am planning to use it with my new double thickness working jib which I'm building with 4oz sail cloth. I used two head sails before for down wind sailing (twin luff grooves in the furling foil) this was OK but it does impose heavy loads on the mast fittings for the poles, mine was pulled off the mast., 

Maybe at long last there will be a active site for the Ebbtide boat owners, well done Paddy!

I have just had a text while I'm writing this from my mate Wil to say he and Shandoo his 35ft steel gaff rigged Wylo have arrived in Trinidad. He left the Canaries mid November.

Cheers

Chris.

 

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From: Bill of JENAIN <jenai...@yahoo.com>
To: "ebbtid...@googlegroups.com" <ebbtid...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 14 December 2011, 3:27
Subject: Ebbtides

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[Bill of JENAIN]

Hi Chris and Paddy,

                                  Yes, a spinaker pole puts a huge load on the mast fitting. I sailed across the Atlantic from Cape Town to Brazil. A lot of this was downwind, wing and wing. The spinaker car track was partially torn from the mast, and, worse,  the lugs broke off the gooseneck! At that time, I had an Aries windvane, and it really struggled to hold a true course. This got me thinking that there has to be a better way of sailing downwind. Having the main up downwind , has a lot of problems. I managed to find a cheap 2nd hand spinaker pole, and built my Twistle Rig. (I would love to have two carbon fibre poles, but the aluminium ones are not too heavy to handle.) I do not know why more cruisers do not make use of this system.

 

                               A Ebbtide owners association would be great.

 

                               Cheers,

                                            Bill.           

 

Bill Robinson
Yacht "JENAIN"
Anchored off Yacht Haven,
Phuket , Thailand.
Tel: +66 (0)85 476 3817