GP14 Sailing Forums Forum Old style spinnaker sheet set up

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    • #22367
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I have an old 1980s (I think)GRP GP14 which I was given for free ( old club boat). I’ve had a lot of fun with it but now want to rig it for a spinnaker, and invest in some tapered spinnaker sheets.

      The set up on this boat is that from the corners of the spinnaker the sheets come back to small blocks on top of the rear transom deck. From there they come forwards to midway in the boat where there are more blocks just below the gunwhale deck. They then turn inwards to clam cleats. The distance between the aft and midway blocks is about 1.5m.

      My options seem to be:

      a) Stick with this setup and order longer than standard sheets .  As they have to go an extra 1.5m and back again on both sides of the boat, I reckon they would need to be 6m longer. I plan to run it as a continuous system .  Would I want the extra 6m on the thinner or thicker section of the tapered sheet?

      b)  Some club members have suggested I do away with the aft blocks and fit a couple of sheave blocks in the gunwhale midway in the boat to make it more like a modern setup . Then I would only need a standard length spinnaker sheet.

      Does anyone have experience of this kind of set up?

       

    • #22372
      Oliver Shaw
      Moderator

      >  Does anyone have experience of this kind of set up?

      Yes;  I had that on my GP back in the sixties,  at which time it was fairly usual.   It worked well,  but when I returned to the class in 2004 (with a more modern set-up) I did not miss the absence of the aft blocks,  and I do not now think that they offer any benefit,    I suspect that it may be a case of that being thought desirable at the time because the more modern option of sheeting to amidships had not yet been tried out!

      Hope this helps,

       

      Oliver

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