Single hand a C&C 35 1974?

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by roverhi

If your reefing is at the mast, keep the halyard winch there. No advantage to having just the halyard at the cockpit and actually a big negative when you are reefing. Personally, have set my boat up with double line reefing and halyard at the cockpit. Super easy to reef in the comfort of the dodger. Under most conditions don't have to leave the cockpit for anything. It does cost close to a boat unit to do that, 2 four line deck organizers, 2 four gang line clutches, 2 winches, 4 Harken medium stand up blocks at mast for the clew reefing lines, 3 blocks on pad eyes for the tack reefing line, Halyard turning block, and miscellaneous pad eyes. Not cheap but well worth the money.

The mainsheet needs to be accessable from the helm. Want to be able to dump the main should I be hit by a gust passing close to something like a bridge tower. Embarassing as hell to take a knock down and round up into one of those things.

I agree with the first paragraph re: Double line reefing from the cockpit which is sooo easy. Main halyard led aft is necessary to avoid having to leave the cockpit. Don't understand why leaving a main halyard at the mast makes any sense with double line reefing led aft.

In gusts, we always drop the traveler first, midboom sheeting. Why? Easier to reset the traveler by simply pulling it back up rather than having to re-winch in all that mainsheet line. Plus, it keeps the sail shape the same, and only changes the angle of attack.

[Cheechako]

I've just found the usefullness of a traveler on a cruising boat iffy. They are never wide enough to do much good really. If building a boat I would probably go without and invest in real nice preventors to the toerail. if I really wanted to hold the main down that's pretty much what I did most the time anyway....

[roverhi]

End boom travellors aren't the most useful. There is only a limited amount of boom/travellor movement where the force on the boom will be vertical. It's enough for me to want a travellor but then I'm a bit anal about mainsail shape and trim. As the travellor is moved forward either to the bridge deck or on the cabin top, the wider angle the boom can swing and still be pulling down vertically. In the good old days before rod vangs from the boom to the mast, once the boom was outside the range of the traveler, the boom needed to be vanged down. That was usually accomplished with a four part tackle to a padeye on the deck or rail. This type of vang had the advantage of doubling as a preventer but still required someone to get on deck to put it in place and haul the boom down. If the boom ever dragged in the water, you stood a good chance of bending the boom as it was locked in place by the vang.

One disadvantage of the cabin top travellor was the sheet was usually led forward and then back to the cabin top. The friction in the extra blocks almost guaranteed you'd need a winch even on a small main. Mid boom travelers weren't an issue for bending the boom because there was usually slack in the sheet by the time the boom was far enough out to hit the water. If the boom did hit the water it would just be pushed inward with no harm done.

A bridge deck travellor gave you a more useful range for it but gets in the way of a bimini and/or dodger. Two things that are high on the list of cruisers. Doesn't bother me as I want to be able to easily see the main at all times.


Quote I agree with the first paragraph re: Double line reefing from the cockpit which is sooo easy. Main halyard led aft is necessary to avoid having to leave the cockpit. Don't understand why leaving a main halyard at the mast makes any sense with double line reefing led aft.

I said to leave the halyard winch at the mast if your reefing is at the mast. You can lower the sail, hook the tack cringles in the goose neck horns and hoist the main back up taut while you are at the mast. If the halyard is run aft in such a reefing set up, you have to slack the halyard at the cockpit and then run forward to pull the sail down and hook it into the tack horns. Hopefully you fed out enough halyard or you have to run back to the cockpit and let out more, hook in the tack cringle and run back to the cockpit to retention the main halyard. If you don't retention the main halyard, half the time the tack cringle will shake out of the horns while you are hauling in the clew. Then you have to loosen the clew reefing lines till there is enough slack to hook the tack cringle back into the horn and hope it stays there while you retighten the clew reefing lines. BTDT and it's a real pain in the okole.

[roverhi]

Who said anything about single line reefing. That is a non starter for anything but a small boat. On my boat, hauling in the third reef with single line reefing would mean hauling in more than 70' of continuous line. With all the drag from running through a bunch of turning blocks and cringles, might have to winch much of that line in which would be ton of work and sssslllllooooooowwwww.. Tried to reef a friends 27' boat with single line reefing. It took two people, one in the cockpit tailing the reefing line and the other at the mast shaking the boom and sail to free up snags and hauling on the line as it constantly hung up. If that boat was representative of how well singly line reefing works, would never attempt it on anything larger or even that size.

Double line reefing, one for the clew and one for the tack is the only way to go. Pulling down the tack is dead simple and takes seconds to haul in, secure with the clutch and retention the halyard. Usually get all but the last 4-6' of the clew line in by hand before having to go to the winch. I normally don't head up to reef, just slack the sheet and haul in the clew reefing line. Takes a bit more muscle but faster and the sail keeps working as it is reefed.

I don't have a boom to mast vang system. The boom is 16' long and only 28 inches off the cabin top. Afraid the tension to hold the long boom at such a steep vang angle would rip the fittings out of the boom and/or mast. I've used four part tackles permanently rigged to padeyes on the walkway each side trimmed from the cockpit for vangs. I purposely used rather small Spinlock PXRO810 cam cleats to 'cleat' the vang lines. Know that there is a risk of damaging the boom should the boat roll enough to drag the boom. Figure I rather blow up a cam cleat than bend the boom. So far haven't tested it to see if this weak link theory has any validity.

[lifeofreilly57]

I've sailed a C&C 38 with the same main setup as the 35 you mentioned, I have an auto pilot that helps tremendously with singlehanding it but it's not necessary under most conditions. I would suggest making sure you have all the reefing lines on the boom before heading out though, reefing once underway can be a challenge if you don't, fortunately those models had relatively small mains and large headsails so the main isn't too difficult to handle.
Having the mainsheet in the cockpit is a good thing, it makes handling it easier. I use a clip on block on the toe rail and run a preventer to the same boom bail as the mainsheet when running downwind, it makes setting it from the cockpit quite easy.
These boats point quite well and broad reach well too, running downwind takes a little more attention than a cruising design since the rudders were meant to provide just enough lift but not too much drag for better speed, the hull shape also contributes to that tendency, they like to yaw surfing down a wave in running conditions but not dangerously so.
I've found them to be well balanced upwind and on reaches, when trimmed properly they don't require an autopilot unless the seas kick up, I've had no problem sailing in 15-25 knots upwind or off the wind singlehanded without needing the autopilot as long as the trim was correct.
I would suggest having a couple headsails since up to 17 knots a 150 works well, over that a 100 is good. In 35-40 a storm jib mounted on an inner forestay and a main with 3 reef points balances well and moves it along pretty quickly, actually just the storm jib is needed to move along briskly. Depends on how quickly you want to move. If you're thinking of flying a spinaker shorthanded go for an asym, the symetrical spinakers require crew to fly, usually at least 4 on board since you need foredeck crew to hoist, douse and jibe, an asym can be flown with two or singlehanded with an outopilot.
I will say it is a racer/cruiser so it does require more attention in a blow so it is a more fatiguing boat than a dedicated cruising design, it all depends on what you want to do with it. What is nice about the design is it's ability to scoot along in light winds and still sail well in heavy weather when reefed appropriately. I've sailed mine up and down the New England coast in all types of conditions and feel confident in the boat but I am realistic and know it is more demanding than a boat on the other side of the design curve. The previous owner raced the Newport / Bermuda race in it and encountered a storm crossing the Gulf Stream, they were dropping off the top of 20' waves at one point and reported that the boat handled it well although the crew didn't feel all that well about it, they commented on how solid it was.
I am selling her now though, my wife, our two boys and I are looking at farther horizons so we opted for a larger dedicated cruising boat, the creature comforts and longer keel will definitely be a plus on the long transits we plan on making. I will miss her though, the sailing performance and feel is great with lots of grins when balanced well, my joke is that I'm selling the BMW sports/touring car for the family wagon, which is appropriate for my current situation.
If you have any questions on the inherent strengths and weaknesses of C&C's of that vintage feel free to contact me, I can give you a few pointers on what to look for in those vintages.

[capncrooks]

Simple rigging has less trouble ,god knows we get enough ,may the wind keep blowing hauling up the anchor is my biggest bitch