Radial Jib Fitting

[Jim Linville]

I went through this entire section and found nothing on radial jib fittings. Are they legal? If not, is the one on my old Dumas hull grandfathered (it was sailed competitively in the class in the 70s).

--Jim Linville

[Doug Wotring]

I was under the impression they are legal but I thought they did not gain you alot except in high winds.....and on top of that they were hard to get just right.

[Jim Linville]

I have a radial jib fitting on my Star 45, and it seems to help the boat point... especially in lite air. Not sure if it's the radial fitting or the sails (Windjammin), but when the contitions are right nothing I sail against outpoints it (that doesn't mean I win, only that the boat sails higher with the radial jib fitting when it's properly set-up). I was asking because my Old Dumas has a radial fitting, and I'm trying to figure out if I should keep it or not. --Jim Linville

[s vernon]

I used to use a radial fitting on Spot. I went thru about 5 or 6 time consuming iterations. I gave it up primarily because I could not absolutely eliminate vertical play in the jib clew – the fitting would always allow the aft jib boom to move up and down slightly and generally would allow the jib leech to twist off too much downwind in high wind. Any tiny bit of play in the fitting is magnified out at the clew. The other thing I did not like was that with the fairly heavy EC12 aluminum jib boom, the jib did not want to go out on its own in light wind. I needed a twitcher and I did not enjoy using it.

It seemed like the boat accelerated very quickly out of a tack. It went downwind better since the entire jib is exposed to the wind – front of jib not hidden behind the main. And it reached well too since the jib gains camber as it goes out – offset gooseneck like the main. I do not remember pointing high, but it may have. You get more air thru the slot upwind with a radial since the tack is on the centerline.

Lots of good points, but too many bad ones. Major big deal to reposition the fitting and its axis when trying to balance the helm.

I would recommend you get ahold of the lightest stiff jib boom you can to try to minimize the downwind in light air problem. You are familiar with light air, aren’t you Jim?

Good luck with it. It is a great way to go if you can lick or put up with the problems. I am happy enough with the conventional setup. Less work more fun.



Scott