I just received my Victor footy kit in the mail today; anyone out there have experience with this kit?..especially with the rigging?
I recently assembled a V-12. I followed the instructions step by step as I think they are well written. I changed the following/or think it would be a good change:
1 The mast was not permanently glued in place. Instead I purchased a piece of aluminum tubing that would sleeve over the 1/4" OD mast and mounted a section that does not quite touch the bottom of the hull to about 3/8" above the deck. I drilled a 1/16" hole in this piece in the middle of the exposed 3/8" and a matching hole in the mast. Now rigs (different sails may be installed without untying anything but the sheets. Use a #2 screw for the hole.
2 I took a little more time and effort to sand the keel to an airfoil shape rather than just rounding the edges at the aft end.
3 I found that applying too much tension to the forestay caused the mast to bend at the deck line, so I purchased a 7/32" piece of tubing and inserted about a 4" piece into the bottom of the mast until it will be at least 1" above the deck line to add stiffness. (must drill matching hole here also)
The instructions show the reciever on one side, the battery pack on the other and the rudder servo centered in the aft part of the hull. I would put the rudder servo off to the battery side and position the battery centered and slightly more aft than shown. These craft have a tendency to nose in in a breeze and moving the weight aft slightly should help. Battery was also attached with sticky back velcro, not rubber bands. Winch servo was positioned as shown-far enough to the side for the arm to swing across the hull.
I followed the instructions for attaching the sail to the mast being frugal with the cord provided as there is barely enough. I used square knots and cut the ends leaving at least 1/4". The exit hole for the sheets was directly over the rudder shaft at the aft end of the deck. I simply folded the cord for the sheets in half to form a loop, put it around the wide piece of wood supporting the rudder shaft (on the opposite side from the winch servo), pulled the ends through, and then threaded them through the winch arm and through the hole in the deck. The sheets then go directly to the O ring for the main boom and the jib is threaded through a small screw eye centered on the deck just fwd of the mast step. There is not a lot of pressure on the lines for a small craft such as this, so I just threaded the sheets through the O ring and twice arouund the second O ring used for adjustment. You will have to play with the position of the 1st O ring to get the sails to move from close hauled to all out for running down wind. Tinker until you like how things work.
I personally thought the sail material is a little heavy for very light winds and decided to make a second set of sails, complete with its own mast and booms. I purchased some florists celophane from Wal-Mart and some more thin walled aluminum tubing from the local hobby shop. Tubing and brass wire for fittings was about $5 and the celophane was about $3.50 for a 30" x 25’ roll. Alternate sail material could be purchased from Into The Wind kite web site. The lightest material they have is around $13 per yd.
After a couple of sailing sessions I realized I could not adjust the luff of the sail correctly and added a topping lift to the jib. (Almost every sloop-rigged Footy I have seen has this feature.)
If you have some specific questions, I will try to answer them.
Dick
Nice writeup, Dick. Your mods certainly worked well in Raleigh.
Footys will be the featured class for an issue of the AMYA magazine this coming year. It would be great if you could take some pics of your boat that would illustrate the changes you made, and turn this post into an article for the magazine.
email me or call to talk it over.
Thx…Bill H