J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Harken windward sheeting installation

Hello,

We bought our J30 with a Harken windward sheeting not installed.
The old traveller doesn't work very well, so we are thinking of installing the windward sheeting.

But it seems more complicated than I thought.
First, the holes of the new track are not at the same place, too bad ! We must fill all the old holes and make new holes...
What do you use for filling holes ? Epoxy or gelcoat ?


Then, an other problem, the new harken traveller is bigger (wider) than the old one.
It seems impossible to put the new traveler track where the old one is, because the traveller is wider.

We must put the new traveller track upper than the old one.

Maybe we can remove the old track, fill the old holes, put a wooden part in the channel, then drill through the wood piece and the deck and bolt the new track onto the wood piece and deck.

But I wonder if this other solution is possible or not : maybe we use the old track instead of the wood piece. I try to explain : we can keep the old track, put bolts inside the old track, put the old track with bolts inside back in place in his channel, and screw the new track onto the old one.
Have anybody ever done that ?


Thanks !

Marie

in your search for ideas ... take a look at how the J24s handle the travellers with a traveller beam.

The most common installation (I believe) is to fill the channel and install the new track on top. I wouldn't think that installing a new track on top of an old one would be all that sound.

Marie - I installed the Harken Windward Sheeting traveler this past winter on Rhapsody. You should read my blog at this link.



I ended up removing the old traveler and its wooden base, then replaced it using two 1" x 3" red oak boards stacked on top of each other. The bottom board was planed to accommodate the curvature around the edges at the bottom. It basically filled up the entire recessed space. I epoxied a layer of glass cloth on the top to seal it and then sprayed it with Awlgrip to match the surrounding gelcoat. I used the same hole pattern since I reused the old Harken track, but the holes could have been filled with thickened epoxy (not gelcoat) and new holes drilled.

Thanks for your answers !

I made some searching and I found a post talking about keeping the old track.

On this post :
https://j30.us/ubbthreads/ubbthread.../Re_Windward_sheeting_cars.html#Post1420

John said :


and :


Something still seems strange to me : he said that he made "minor adjustment to the holes".
But there is 1,466mm difference between two holes, it gives 10,26mm difference for the last hole. It seems more than a "minor adjustment" to me... 1,026cm it is not an adjustment, it is a new hole...

But if the old track can't be used to lift new track, I will search for a piece of teak.
Where did you find your piece of teak ?
How many screw/bolt did you use ? (old track uses 16 screws/bolts, do we need so much ?)

Marie,

Unless the old track is compatible with the Harken windward sheeting car, there is no reason to make the holes in the same location. In my case, I had a Harken track that I could reuse and wanted to keep the holes in the same place. You should use the number of bolts recommended by Harken for the type track you get.

I did not use teak, but used red oak instead that was much less expensive and available at a local lumber yard. I made sure that the oak was sealed with epoxy/glass cloth to prevent water saturation. I like how the new arrangement works and have no problem with the traveler lines. It operates much better than my old traveler.

The post you referenced is over 10 years old. The boat that John Colpitts had sold twice since then.

Marie:

I did basically the same thing Bill did except once I filled the holes with epoxy and redrilled new ones, I used a thick piece of white plastic to bed the traveller. Then, to adjust for the cambered slot, I used heavy duty stainless steel washers to build up to the correct height under the piece of plastic. So, for the end bolts, I probably needed four washers but in the center, I needed none. This allows water to drain out between the original depression and the plastic/track since the washers actually are slightly raised from the original decking. This has worked out very well with no problems and an easy way for your mainsheet man to work the main with the self-tacking traveller system.

Bob Rude

Hello,

I am interrested in your solution with the plastic piece, because it seems easier and faster than to stratify a wooden part with epoxy/glass cloth.
We are in sailling season, I haven't a lot of time to fix things, but the old traveller system is dead so I must change it.

Where do you find the plastic piece ?
I think of something to build fake wooden patio, some plastic material, it could be this kind of thing ?

If I can find a suitable plastic piece, I do it this way. Otherwise, I will try Bill solution with the red oak piece.

Thanks !

Marie

By the way, I took a really easy way out. I mounted the new track on top of the old one! It was to be a temporary measure, but was so simple to do (no new holes) and works really well...

No question in my mind that the addition of the windward sheeting car was the best modification I've made to the boat!

Hello Michael !

It was my first idea too.
How did you do that ? Did you put bolts inside the old track, put the old track back in place and then screw the new track into theses bolts ?

Thanks !

Marie