Two prototype stowage compartment dividers were made many years ago. They came out of the need to stow spinnakers in an easy to reach and easy to stow area. At the same time a possibility for more rapid deployment was desirable. The Privilege 37 has two quite large stowage compartments in the bows. Larger Privilege yachts will have even more space. It is not advisable to store more heavy items than necessary in the bow of boats, but fairly light spinnaker sails should be OK.
I had to change some of the grommets this spring, and since this principle has worked fine for us, I thought I would share it. At the same time I believe a lot of people are already using the same idea.
The fabric used is nylon sailcloth. It is strong and has a smooth and slippery surface, so the sails go in and out without much friction. Some kind of attachment points for the grommets along the edges are needed. And some hooks so the top parts can be taken loose and kind of "open the bag" on top for deployment or stowage.
This way the spinnakers are stowed along the sides of the compartments, leaving space available for entry into the rooms and stowage of other items. The sails are stowed in a dry space, and no sailbags are needed. When stowing, the top of the spinnakers are fastened to the rim of the hatch. Then the spinnaker in the sock is slid into its compartment. The dividers contain two compartments, separated by a string of sailcloth. The one closest to the hatch will of course be easiest to use, but the system works well for both.
The picture shows the compartments in the "closed" position. The hooks can be opened to open up the top. The hooks are then attached to another point to widen the opening. I prefer to take the whole sail in the sock on deck for deployment, but I have also hoisted it directly out with the halyard in light winds. It can also be seen that there are two compartments.
The divider taken out for some repair. I used aluminum grommets at the edges. They are too soft, but have held up so far. The grommets at the opening are often pulled hard to press the sail into position, so I used brass ones. At least I thought so, they bagan to rust after some years. So now they are changed to larger ones and real brass.
If the spinnaker is wet when taken down, I do not put it into the stowage room. It is put directly into a small sailbag that is tied to one of the nets. Then it is dried when that possibility comes.
Hello,
SvarSlettA very nice idea and well implemented. I will remember it for later. Meanwhile I am back from Elba. A lot of work but also had fun on the boat. I installed a new inverter, a new B2B charger and a new battery charger and removed all the old charging technology and wiring. I also learned a lot about sailing. To this one must say that the original mast slides and some spare replicas made of inferior plastic are partly mounted. So I could get the mainsail the last two meters only with the winch up. And even that was quite exhausting. It didn't come down by itself either, you often had to pull the sail hard. Unfortunately on the last day a mast slider broke and the mainsail didn't come down. So I'll get rid of the old shit and then I'll probably install the Harken System A. There is still more to do...
Many greetings
Carsten
Hi, I havent been much on the blog due to a lot of summer sailing. We were out for 3 1/2 month, Norway, Denmark and the northern tip of Germany. I understand that you are working on your boat in Elba. Nice to get things in shape with the electricity, modern yachts depend a lot on it. Regarding the mainsail and new slides and track, we did that seven years ago, and it is still very good. The equipment selected was for mounting outside the original mast track slot, Antal HS.24 system. Installed it ourselves, but the mainsail did also have to be modified, as we changed from in-boom furling to traditional lazybag and mast track/slides. In the last year there has been more friction up/down, but the effect of some anti-friction spray was amazing. As new.
SvarSlettI understand that you are not on Facebook. Maybe you have a stand against it. I am very careful about posting personal info there myself, but find the groups very helpful at times. There is a group for Privilege owners that I believe you could benefit from. At Multihulls4us there is also a Privilege owners group, but most of the activity has moved to Facebook. But there might be some interesting and maybe helpful old posts there. I have found some help these places.