Re: [Paddlewise] kayak sailing video

I've made myself a "tossed leeboard" - basically an oak board with a disc of lead cast in a hole drilled near the bottom end. It hangs by lines from the top end off a fixture on the downwind side of my boat, just forward of my cockpit. The lead holds it vertical in the water; the water pressure holds it in place. Seems to give me about 10-15 degrees more off the wind on either side. Ideally it would be positioned more forward, about half way between the two sails, at the centre of effort, but my arms aren't that long:-) 
I've ordered a larger blade for my rudder system - I'm curious to see if that will provide more resistance to the kayak's tendency to pivot downwind around the leeboard, and let me sail even further offwind.
The brackets on my PA set up don't pivot when I raise and lower my sail - I haven't experienced any leakage in several years of use. In my set-up the straps run straight up to the sail knees on deck. The straps are quite aggressively tightened - I've reinforced the deck beneath them with an extra layer of fibreglass. 
The furling wrap for my PA sail came off shortly after I installed it. I improvised by simply wrapping the lines around the furled sail, then pulling them under a bollard on my deck. It worked even better than the line, and left one less thing to clutter my deck, so I've never bothered to replace it. 
 
 
---- Original Message ----
From: al.m_at_3web.net

>Fortunately, I'm not forced to choose, and using both sails on my single
gives me the best of both worlds and tremendous versatility.
>  On your typical Pacific Northwest summer day, wind begins to pick up late
morning / early afternoon. I put up the full size Spirit Sail and the
Pacific Action sail as soon as the breeze starts. They work best together on
a beam reach (wind coming roughly over one shoulder).

Besides broaching waves, there is one more problem with beam reach - without
a leeboard the drifting to the lee will be about the same as forward
progress, so eventually sailing at beam reach will be the same as, say,
sailing 135 degrees off the wind (only slower and with more thrill ;-).

One minor thing that I don't like about PA is that its brackets screwed to
the hull tend to rotate around that single screw - few degrees back and
forth. And when they rotate, they leak, no matter what.  They should've made
them half-inch wider, to use with 2 screws each, - then it would stay put
and with some sealant or epoxy wouldn't leak.

Yes, PA is somewhat loose when furled on the deck. It doesn't unfurl
completely by itself, but few inches of loose piece of fabric flapping
around on the deck is annoying.  Not dangerous, and probably doesn't even
create a lot of windage, but distracting. This can be reduced if you take
care to wrap fabric tight around the spars before shoving it under the
retaining loop (difficult thing to do in choppy seas, though). May be it
needs another loop, few inches further down along the spars.
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