New life for an old Capri 14.2

sailordon

New Member
I recently purchased a 1984 Capri 14.2 from a friend that had stored it since 1995. I thought that boat would never sail again.

After I trailered it home, I spent a day cleaning it up with pressure wash and replacing frayed lines. The boat is in reasonably good condition since it spent over 15 years in storage.

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I had my first chance to take it out on Lake Livingston this afternoon. Wind blowing about 15 mph, gusting to 25. I noticed the mast pumping was so severe that the forestay would go completely slack and then retension with a violent snap. I was sailing with the mainsail alone, no jib.

I solo sailed 12 miles and recorded a max. speed of 9.2 mph (using a Garmin Zumo 550 GPS from my motorcycle). It was an awesome good sail, but I'm concerned that the violent snapping into tension of the forestay will dismast the boat.

Has anyone rigged a running backstay?
 
Congrats on getting the boat and bringing it back to life. It looks great.

The mast bouncing should be corrected when you sail with the jib attached. The jib has an internal wire, so the forestay will loosen up a bit as the jib wire tightens up. With the jib attached your port/starboard shrouds will be snug along with your jib, so there will be no slack in the rigging, getting rid of the bouncing mast.

You can have reef points sewn into the main. When the wind picks up, you can reef the main and sail with the jib... instead of sailing with only the main.
 
Congrats on getting the boat and bringing it back to life. It looks great.........................
When the wind picks up, you can reef the main and sail with the jib... instead of sailing with only the main.

Thanks for the congrats! I love this boat. :)

Years ago, when I sailed with my friend who was the owner back then (not a good sailor), I discovered that in strong winds, this design has a significant amount of lee helm that cannot be overcome by any amount of rudder control. So I would not advise sailing with a reefed main and jib, unless the person on the jib sheet is very experienced in sailing small boats. Also, reefed main and jib is not a good idea for solo sailing in heavy winds unless you are good at controlling the jib sheet, main sheet and tiller simultaneously (extreme multi-tasking). I've got plenty of control over the boat with just the mainsail (sailing it like a Laser on steroids :D ). The problem is in the gusty winds and blasting through waves, I fear I will cause the boat to "self destruct".

In case you haven't guessed, I'm a speed and performance "junkie". If you got it, crank it!

In my original post, I made an overestimation of my trip log distance. This morning, I spent an hour with Garmin tech support trying to load the track file from my Zumo 550 (which is basically a motorcycle GPS) into my computer. The problem was their "anal retentive" security codes won't allow loading Garmin's 2007 software into Windows 7 (which is what I am running now that the old computer died). Here is the track from the Zumo 550 trip log.

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It turns out I only logged 10 miles yesterday.

Here is a picture of my Capri 14.2 after yesterday's sailing adventure.

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I suspect the main and boom are too large to allow a backstay. To stop the mast from bouncing, you will have to tighten up the rigging or sail with a jib which will tighten up the rigging when you crank in the halyard.

I have not seen the bouncing mast problem, because I have never sailed the Capri without a jib. And I normally sail solo on the really windy days with or without a reef in the main.

Lee/Weather helm can be corrected by tuning the rigging before you go out, changing where you sit on the boat, tuning the sails while you are underway, along with adjusting the centerboard up or down. Mine is tuned up so I do not encounter any helm troubles.

Good luck and sail hard(er)
 
I suspect the main and boom are too large to allow a backstay.

Running backstay, like a C scow.

Unless the boom and mainsail were shortened, a regular backstay would never work.

Of course if you forget to release the leeward running backstay when you bear off for a screaming reach, look out.... capsize city is your destination. :D
 
Lee helm & mast pumping

Every book or sail trimming article that i have read all say to rake the mast aft to increase weather helm and reduce lee helm. Side stay tension is the only way i know of on these boats to add tension to the forestay to prevent mast pumping, except using the jib when sailing. I hear racers loosen their side stays to allow the mast to move over closer to the jib to increase performance. Sounds like quite a puzzling situation. Hopefully i have not doing the wrong thing myself!!! Charley
 

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