If you have a Nirvana, you pretty much know that the sheeting stinks and the sheets often get bound up enough on deck to make going downhill in light wind an exercise in frustration, especially on port tack. I’ve been working on some ways to alleviate this problem and still remain legal for the one-design racing (see the rules at sailrcnirvana.com). If you have ideas, by all means, post them up.
I started by giving the sheet exit, turning blocks and deck loops a dab of silicone lubricant, and then working the sheets back and forth. This has worked tremendously well in bench testing, I’ll test it at the pond Wednesday night. I’ve also considered trying light weight monofilament fishing line or fly-fishing line for the sheets instead of the common string found in the stock setup, as the class rules allow running rigging of any material. I thought about drilling out the stock deck loops and adding a Teflon insert, but I’m not sure that would pass for legal. Any other ideas?
I agree the sheet rigging leaves much to be desired. One thing I did was add a split ring to the deck loops. I also drilled out the sheet exit hole in the gear bay and epoxied a small plastic bead in place. Both of these have smoothed things up a bit.
I have also made the jib swivel adjustable using a wire protector gromet slipped over the jib boom. Now I can adjust my jib slot forward and backward as conditions require.
One thing I also added was a bowsie to each of the sheets. I have them running up through the boom, through the little wire eyelet, to a bowsie about half way between. I think this will really add the ability to do some fine tuning of the jib and main boom angles.
Unfortunatly I have stripped out my second Megatech sail servo, but have replaced it with a Hitec with a little more “grunt”.
I guess I don’t really worry about the rules much as I’ve never hard of a Nirvana regatta anywhere close to me. I’m just changing things to suit my taste and make it a better sailing boat.
We’ll see how it goes on the pond this weekend.