FeNIX Update

[Greg Ross]

Fred,
Great to see an update on your progress.
A question now, has there been any notable change in her going astern?

[fenixrises]

Hi Greg,

I did very little manuvering astern with the old rudder.
Most of the time that I have owned the boat it was in my driveway.
I really can't give you any information on old rudder vs new rudder performance while in reverse.

A truer test would be for someone with a great deal of experience with their 28 testing my 28.

Typical of boats of this type the stern walks when going astern if too much power is applied before sufficient speed is obtained for the rudder to be able to steer. Even then a strong cross wind would make things dicey. I do not know if the type of rudder makes much difference when manuvering astern under certain circumstances. The best things are usually patience, experience and a helping hand or two.

In my current marina there is plenty of room to manuver the boat once it is out of the slip. So far I have not run into any difficult situations getting the boat into or out of its slip. A strong east wind and an incoming tide could be quite a challange. I have not had to deal with that situation as yet. Fortunatly there has usually been at least one person around to lend a hand when I leave or return.

Happy sails to you,
Fred

[George Shaunfield]

I have not had time to write up an account of the trip from my log yet, but did pull together a pictorial account of the shakedown cruise and posted it on the web. Check <a href="https://mv3.accountron.com/cdsoa/Atlantic2006/">here</a> to see photos with comments about the 5-day trip aboard FeNIX, a CD28.

George

[RichMason]

I'm looking running some lines aft on my 28 and I am curious about FeNix's set-up. It looks like the main halyard is tied off at the mast but several other lines run aft? Which are they and why were they selected?

[fenixrises]

Hi Rich,

The lines that are run aft include the two lazy jacks, the spinakker pole lift and the main sheet. In some of the pics you can see a green line rigged to a tackle on the port side of the transom. This is for the topping lift. In this pic you can just see the topping lift next to my left arm behind me.



The reason I led the lazy jacks aft and have the topping lift aft is so that I can control the boom and mainsail bundle from the cockpit. This means I can ease the main sheet and lift the boom from the cockpit before lowering the mainsail when reefing.

The pole topping lift was run aft originally so I redid that as well. Although I have not used the pole very much so far this arrangement seems to work OK.

There are four halyards at the mast plus a line to control the height of the pole car. So the mast is a busy place. I considered running the reefeing lines for the mainsail aft but decided not to do this.

To reef the main, I lift the boom with the topping lift and lazy jacks from the cockpit before going forward to lower the sail. Then when I am at the mast working the halyard I can work the reef lines at the same time.

Lowering headsails by myself requires dropping the sail in stages as I pull it aboard. This would not be practical or really even possible if the halyards were run aft. So far I have not had to rig a downhaul on any headsail but I do have the hardware aboard to do this if I want.

Take care,
Fred