International Telstar Owners Association

I was out last weekend for only my 4th sail since getting the boat last fall. It was by far the lightest wind being only in the 4 to 5 knot range. Was really impressed with the ability to sail in that light wind. It will definitely be an asset here in the summer. I have the laminate sails with the 3' overlap on the backstay. The sail would keep getting hung up on the backstay on the tack. I found I could release the stay and flip it over the sail. I haven't sailed before with this kind of overlap. How do others deal with this? thanks.

The main will normally come across by itself if the wind is decent, say 6 or 7 knots or better - especially if you fall off a drop to get more pressure on the sail. Anything less and you may have to release the sheet to allow the boom to come up. This will allow the battens and leech to slide around the back stay. Less than 4 or 5 may require the back stay to be temporarily loosened as well. In really light air you will have to walk the boom and sail around by hand. You should have more trouble in a tack as opposed to a gibe.

Do you have the clear plastic strips sewn to the batten pockets? Without them you would have much more friction where the sail tends to drag itself across the stay. In really light air I'd be tempted to spray something like MacLube Sail-Kote on the batten pockets, and then wipe the excess off.

Has anyone tried to install a "flicker"? By which I mean a fiberglass batten extending aft from the masthead crane, with a line of some sort connecting to the backstay, such that when the stay is slacked the batten pulls it aft at the top, to allow the sail to tack more easily. The batten flexes down when the backstay is pulled tight. I'm going to try to install something this winter, wondering if others have had success, or failure?

Replying to myself. The battens I used weren't strong enough to significantly lift the heavy wire backstay, though I believed my rig helped a little. This spring I plan to add a 3rd batten to the stack, and convert the ss backstay and cascade line to much lighter dyneema. Stay tuned.

Replying to myself again. The dyneema backstay and flicker do seem to help. However, last summer I ended up closer to a thunderstorm than I wanted to be, and it set me to thinking, what is the electrical path if I get hit? Down the mast and support strut and blow a hole through the bottom? Arcing from the chainplates? I'm putting back the old stainless backstay and cascade, so I'll have a discharge point from the aft chainplate, just above the waterline. When my parent's monohull was hit it left the chainplate bolts sizzling, causing a little whiff of smoke from the topside planking where they pass through.