Yachts66

sounds nice-who built her anyway?  But do you have to put one of those horrible arch things on-worst looking things to occur on yachts in a long time-not too mention weight up in the air.
Clearly, the boom furlers have gotten sorted out as they are on lots of big boats these days, but just as clearly they are expensive and require lots of tuning to get right. Might be cheaper and simpler to install a big powered halyard winch and a track system, perhaps single line reefing to that same powered winch and a good and simple lazy jack/cradle system and you'll have money left over and a system you can handle.  Remember, it is a cruising boat so if you think about reefing-then reef!
Love to see more pics of the boat too.

Don't dis my ride man!    The arch that offends you so is actually made of aluminum pipe, so it's not very heavy considering the boat weighs over 80,000 pounds, a few hundred pounds of stern arch ain't no big thing....me thinks anyway.  My plan is to put some solar panels up there out of harms way and on the back of the arch is a nice pair of folding dingy davits for the times you don't want to wrestle the bitch over the rail forward.

She was built in Alaska by Paul West, but he never finished her.  The interior is...well...it needs a lot of work and Paul was working on short funds towards the end so many things need some re-doing.  We're putting her on the hard as soon as I get back from my Mexican delivery trip and we intend to pretty much gut the interior from the galley aft.  Add intergal fuel tanks down in the bilge, pop in two re-man Yanmar's, rewire for conversion to 24V and relocate the absurdly small battery bank from the port stern to a point roughly low in the middle of the boat vastly increasing the size at the same time.  We're also going to add a hard dodger and proper cockpit. Lots of work to do I know....but I have a strong boy who is willing and able.  Between him and a couple of hired hands we hope to be back in the water in time for the Baja HaHa gig....we'll see.

I'm planning on a web site to document the re-fit and I'll post that URL when I get it created.

Regards,

TJ

Hmm, never seen a Roberts steel boat before that I didn't hate the looks of, but I sorta like the looks of that boat.  It depends on the keel/rig positioning but that boom looks pretty short in that picture.  For alot of öld designs (ie: had some IOR in em) you can extend the boom length by quite alot before getting a weather helm problem-but it really depends on the boat.  If you can, and it works balance wise, you will be happy with a bigger main and smaller genoa.  I also think that if you are relatively young, fit and capable that with  a first rate luff car system, lazy jacks and a good mainsail-a big mainsail like that is dealable-can't make any first hand comments on boom furlers...

  Yep, the boom she is very short.  I hired Dudley Dix to design a new sail plan for me and he determined I needed another 5' of boom, so the old boom is going away regardless of what I do about the furling system.  I've never been much of a fan of furling system in general, in the mast systems at all and frankly, I don't know squat about in boom systems.  Were the boat not so damn big I wouldn't be considering one, but with a main that approaches 800 square feet and me rapidly approaching old fart status, I guess I'm going to have to be less of a purist and more practical minded.  Hence my looking into a boom furler.  Here are the measurements on the new sail plan: I = 73.58 J = 24.67 P = 66.16 E = 23.17 I (inner) = 49.17 J (inner) 16.27.

I'm also going to add a hard dodger and expand the stern arch to accommodate several solar panels.  This boat is a fin keel with skeg rudder.  Roberts designs are notorious for their skegged rudders falling off as they are only welded to the shell plate, but this boat did not follow the plans he drew and the skeg and rudder are firmly attached to the transverse frames.  Even with the indadequate sail plan she currently carries I've had her up to hull speed on a beam reach.  She's a fun boat to sail and fast.  Handling her in the marina is pretty easy as she's got twin engines so she can pretty much turn in her own length.

Regards,

TJ

See TJ, I told you to post a pic didn't I? And some magic numbers as well. Just give me the word---I've got a photo ready,  locked and loaded for ya........

   Ohhhh you mean a pic like this?    Wanderin_Star_Large.jpg   994.95K   120 downloads

Or did you have something else in mind?

Regards,

TJ