forum | Top Tips | TopTip2020 #34 - Rigging and Bimbling - by Gareth Griffiths, GBR

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Home >> Top Tips >> TopTip2020 #34 - Rigging and Bimbling - by Gareth Griffiths, GBR

Thanks Gareth. Great tips. Do you have any photos of your set-up?

I guess maybe not until the lockdown is lifted! Thanks, Mike

30/04/2020 11:20:00
Mike Rowe
Posts: 1

TopTip2020 #34 - Rigging and Bimbling - by Gareth Griffiths, GBR

Gareth Griffiths has been instrumental in building an excellent RS Aero fleet at Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club where we would have had our event last weekend. He is one of the fastest Grand Master RS Aero sailors on the planet and as an early adopter of the RS Aero he has had experience to test various tweaks to help make RS Aeroing that little bit easier;

' Rigging and Bimbling

1. Hoisting - Always pull the sail right up, cleat the halliard then apply max downhaul. Look up and you will see the sail is an inch or two down. Uncleat and repeat. It should now stay up as you will have taken all the slack out of the bobble loop and also bedded solidly into the top cleat so no risk of accidental uncleat. Then halyard behind mast mushroom and into lower cleat - don't pull too tight as you don't want it to come out at the top. You need some tension to have any chance it will stay round the mushroom when you apply mast bend. I also keep some tension with point 2...

2. Downhaul Release - Have an elastic from downhaul upper pulleys to a loop in the halliard just above lower cleat to help downhaul release. I use a clip so release is easy.

3. Dagger Retainer - I rig the daggerboard retaining elastic differently. Much longer and take it back to cockpit under traveller under toe strap and back forwards on the other side under traveller and onto daggerboard*. This has two big advantages. First the elastic never gets in the way of the kicker cleat when trying to ease kicker more with board up a bit on a run. Second when taking the board out the elastic is longer and hence less tight but is also pulling towards you rather than away** - on the first hull I had the elastic pulled the board out of my wet hand and karate chopped the deck to put a small hole in it.

[*Alternatively, in the 2019 edit to the to Class Rules permitted in C.6.1.3 (t); "a small rope loop may be tied to a traveller retainer and the daggerboard shockcord may pass through it to deflect that shockcord", **or always unclip elastic before removing]

4. Rudder Centre - I like to have an elastic self centre on the rudder (vertical elastic under back toe strap fastening and loop over tiller). This has no force when tiller is central so keeps steering light but means you can take your hands off momentarily when attending to something or when recovering after a capsize - yes I've done plenty of that and the tiller doesn't flop over so much when the boat leans towards you as you climb in, reducing the bear away.

5. UJ Memory - If you don't take the tiller extension off, always leave it fully extended forwards (makes a long line with tiller and then extension). This makes the rubber UJ get used to being extended forwards so that if you drop the extension it bounces in a forwards orientation rather than backwards, so can be more easily re-caught again. Worst is to leave it folded back.

6. Kicker Taper - Taper the kicker control line, it makes a huge difference to the ease of applying kicker. Really surprised me how much difference it makes.

7. Downhaul Blocks - Replacing the bottom double lower block on downhaul with two single blocks allows them to align better making it easier to apply. The rules were updated to allow this.

Gareth '

Photo by Steve Greenwood

Gareth rides out of Weymouth with King George III

28/04/2020 19:47:00
Peter Barton
Posts: 4676

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