What a difference a disc makes!

Al Black

New Member
Treated myself to a gentle upgrade of the old Laser, Rooster clew strap, clew hook & block kit and Teflon disc for mast step foot.

The outhaul & clew strap kit makes life easier shoreside (fastest I've ever rigged the boat tonight), but I was amazed by the difference the Teflon disc made!

Second leg of tonight's race was a dead run. Up 'til now I've had to sail it as broad reaches with a gybe, tonight I discovered the delight of sailing by the lee! I could put my boom out a LOOOONNNGGG way further than before. In fact, on that leg I overtook a Phantom (Portsmouth Yardstick of 1043 against Laser's 1078). First time I've ever improved a place from one mark to the next (mind you I've only had the boat since May and have raced half a dozen times: most of my sailing is relaxed cruising in 40 ft+ keelboats)!

Happy man tonight!

Al. :)
 
I doubt that the teflon disc made any difference to how far the boom wet out just made the boom go out a lot easier.

I find £2.95 for a piece of plastic a bit steep so i use the lids of a pack of Pringle trimmed to the right size. Cost is free, lasts about the same amount of time and you get to eat the pringles too!

You might also want to look at your mainsheet, if it is too thick then it will no flow properly and this will also restrict the boom going out.
 
Cheers to the pringles cans... I hate when people get too hung up on gear having to be 'blessed'...
 
I doubt that the teflon disc made any difference to how far the boom wet out just made the boom go out a lot easier.

I find £2.95 for a piece of plastic a bit steep so i use the lids of a pack of Pringle trimmed to the right size. Cost is free, lasts about the same amount of time and you get to eat the pringles too!

You might also want to look at your mainsheet, if it is too thick then it will no flow properly and this will also restrict the boom going out.

You ain't seen the bottom of my mast step!

Mind you, I like the Pringles idea, are they class legal? If so, which flavours give best performance?

Al.
 
Wait, can someone explain to me about the pringles can/mast step thing? I joined this forum today and haven't sailed for a few years, but am joining my school's sailing teams and want to learn about stuff. Thanks!
 
Simple, buy a tube of pringles.

Eat said pringles (any way you choose).

Cut the rim off the lid and drop it in to your mast hole. They last about 6 weeks depending on how much you sail. Thats not problem though just have more Pringles, I have a stock of about 4 or 5 lids at the moment.

Basicallt what they do is act as a scrificial material between the mast foot and the bottom of the tube ie they wear out before the mast step.

Just make sure you rinse the tube out every now and then to get rid of any small pieces.
 
I think I may be doing something unneeded. I have #179936 (4 yr old boat) and got one of the stanless disks and pop it in the mast step when i rig. It's not glued in, but I feel good knowing there's something extra keeping the bottom plug from grinding into the bare bottom of the step. I understand that after a certain year, stainless disks were put in the step before being gelcoated. Does my putting the extra disk in do anything for the mast step's durability? Or is it purely in my mind? Or since it's not epoxied in place, am I basically doing nothing to keep the mast step from getting ground since sand/dirt can still get under the disk (though it's flusher than the blue plug at the bottom)? The disk is in pretty much the same shape as when i started using it 3 years ago and the bottom of the tube shows no significant wear.
 

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