Tiki 21 Questions

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Anonymous (not verified)
Tiki 21 Questions
Restored my T21, had her on the water since July, loving every minute! A couple of questions for you experts: 1. Windward performance is not great but I can't help but think that having the jib sheeted on the leeward hull is part of the problem. 'The slot' between the jib and main is large yet the chord of the jib is very flat when the sail is in tight. On my dinghy cat the jib is sheeted about 30cm off the centreline (ok, its a much smaller jib). Has anyone experimented with a closer sheeting arrangement that they could describe/share with me? 2. When the main is reefed the main sheet is still lead from the rope traveller, right at the back of the boat. So when the main sheet is pulled tight, the bottom of the sail is flat and the leech very open which can't be helping my windward performance either. Has anyone experimented with another sheeting option? 3. I was out sailing in 15kn wind the other day. On Chichester bar there were some bigish waves as the boat dropped off a wave the front beam appeared to have a very slight visible flex (only a few millimeters). Obviously there is alot of pressure with heavy wooden mast. I have the rig tight but not bolt tight (the leeward shroud slackens a little to windward) and the movement in the mast must have an effect. The lashings feel tight. Should I be worried about a small amount of flex? Should I further tension the lashings (not quite sure how I'm going to get them tighter!) 4. I have a mooring site that I am not using. Do any of you T21 owners lay your own mooring tackle - what sinkers/anchors/chain are you using. The conventional metrics (heavy monohull) don't seem applicable. Many say cats have more windage and should need bigger tackle but T21 has very little windage. Look forward to hearing from you and thanks. Simon "Tiki Sunrise"
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Tiki 21 Questions
Hi Simon, Glad you are getting some good sailing in. As far as my Tiki 21, I have a jib just bigger than a working jib size - it overlaps mast by about 1foot. Therefore I can take the lazy sheet and tighten it from the windward side and it pulls the jib clew closer to centerline like a barberhauler. If you have a bigger overlapping jib, then maybe a handy sized block and tackle with 2 hooks on the ends can be used to hook into jib clew and pull it to windward when you need to??? I dont drop the head of my mainsail by much when putting in the 1st reef - more an effect of rolling up the lower cloth. That way the main stays high enough on the mast so that there is good leach tension from the sheet. Also gives me good clear visibility under the sail when things start getting more hairy! Not too sure about your beam flex, but if you need to get more lashing tension - what I do is pre-wet the lines before tightening as wet rope always stretches a bit more than dry and then I wrap the line around my hammer handle to be able to bring my whole weight to bear. I laid my own Mooring in Auckland NZ. I used 2 x train car wheels - easily available from the scrap yard and put a big chain and riser through the middle of them. The wheels sink nicely into muddy bottoms. The 2 wheels were over kill but I wanted to be able to sell the mooring to a larger boat afterwards. I think 1 x wheel would hold a Tiki21 just fine. Hope this helps Happy sailing mate Cheers Rory
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Tiki 21 Questions
Thanks Rory useful information (as usual). I have a couple of Jibs (thanks to EBAY!) because I don't like furlers. The largest one overlaps a considerable amount and I'm not convinced that I get any advantage over smaller ones, upwind. I will try an barber-haul towards the centreline and see how I get on. I hadn't thought about rigging the sail up higher. It makes perfect sense and I will try this. My rationale to date was to keep the centre of effort as low as possible but I guess the difference is small and leech tension is more important particularly when in 1st reef marginal conditions. When down to the 2nd reef I may be able to rig a temporary traveller on the aft beam. when I mentioned 'flex' this is characterised by the small gap between the beam and the cabin front, normally just less than 1cm, increasing/decreasing by 3mm or so. Which makes me wonder if the beam should be touching the cabin front but then surely that small movement could score the cabin paintwork. Sounds like you have more tension in your lashings and I should probably follow suit. Thanks again.
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Tiki 21 Questions
No worries Simon, You describe the 2nd reef perfectly, I too have used a temporary block off aft beam to set the 2nd reefed main low down when heaved-to. As far as beam flex, I have had some issues. I notice that when pitching to windward the mast beam flexes fwd and aft a little in the center - but this is reduced to almost nothing at the cabin tops. The aft beam has had a gradual aft pull by the mainsheet over the years, so now I have rigged a tight central rigging line fwd to the mast beam to transfer loads somewhat. Also has the advantage of giving me a tighter trampoline net with central support. It is amazing what the Tikis will withstand if we consider the smaller ones are built just to be mainly day-sailers!!!! Cheers Rory
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Tiki 21 Questions
[quote]when pitching to windward the mast beam flexes fwd and aft a little in the center - but this is reduced to almost nothing at the cabin tops[/quote] That's exactly what I'm getting. I guess your idea of a rigging line could be extended to joining all of the beams together. I have a bridle on the outer cleats on the front beam for anchoring so I could attach to that too. My hulls appear to be made light in 5mm ply but the beams are VERY heavy and seem well built - Agree its a very resilient boat. On the subject of day sailers, you must have read [url]http://users.tpg.com.au/kkmiller/hobie/across_atlantic.html[/url] - makes you very glad you have a coffin in each hull!
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Tiki 21 Questions
Hi Simon, Rory is exactly right. 1 train car wheel is plenty for a TIKI 21. I had my mooring put in place a few months back and it has held my Tiki 21 through a few good blows. I'm fortunate that I can see the mooring from my house, and have fixed a standard garden solar light to one of the shrouds, so very easy to pick out on a dark night! I was sailing on Saturday in 15- 20 knots gusting at around 25knots. It was reasonably choppy and took note of the mast beam on mine (I'd read your post the previous night... ;) ). I noticed a small amount of beam flex particularly at the mast. I know I need to tighten all the beam lashings and I'll do that this weekend (thanks Rory for the tip on wetting the lines first!), and will check whether there is much change. So far loved every minute of sailing Tiki-Puru. Plans for December include a few days "camping" off a few islands and possibly Coromandel if time permits. Thankfully summer should arrive here very soon! Carl Tiki-Puru
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Tiki 21 Questions
Thanks Carl. I am releaved that others get this beam flex too. We have had weeks of storms here in the Uk and apart from one sail in the dark, there has not been much opportunity to sail. We are not even at the shortest day yet so its nice to hear someone is getting some tiki time on the water. Regards Simon "Tiki Sunrise"