Adrift at Sea —Dan’s blog on dankim.com

Once again I was in Annapolis, over at Performance Cruising. I had a few questions about the Telstar 28, and wanted to discuss them with Tony Smith. Tony and I talked for the better part of an hour and I was able to get a lot of my questions answered. I’ve changed my previous blog entry to reflect some of our discussion results.

As Tony and I finished up our conversation, Will came in and asked if I was interested in going on another sail. Tom and his father, who were the soon-to-be owners of the Telstar I had sailed on the previous week, were in town, and in the process of picking up their boat. As part of the owner orientation, Will was going to take them on a sail, to show them the ropes so to speak. Silly question—of course, I am always more than happy to go out sailing on the Chesapeake.

The boat we took out this time was number 304. This boat is one of the early prototypes and is an all vacuum-infusion build. It is a bit lighter than the production boats, which have the main hull and deck made of hand-laid glass. The 304 also had a rather temperamental Tohatsu 40 hp two-stroke outboard motor. After a bit of trying, Will was able to get the Tohatsu to cooperate, and off we went.

I took the helm and guided us out to the Chesapeake; while Will showed Tom and his father how the amas were deployed. He also showed them the control lines for the amas and nets. He also showed them how to raise and lower the centerboard and rudder, and where the controls for doing so were located.

Then he took the sail cover off the main sail. The sails on the 304 are the new laminate higher-performance sails that were recently designed for the Telstar 28s—very cool. After raising the mainsail and unfurling the genoa, we killed the engine and went off under sail power.

The wind today was even better than it had been last week. With it blowing a solid ten knots or so—we were able to do six-to-seven knots under sail. Will went over the furling and unfurling procedures, and gave Tom and his father hints about jibing and tacking the Telstar. With Tom at the helm, we spent some time letting him see how she handled under sail.

We then turned, to head back to the docks. The Tohatsu decided not to cooperate, and we had to sail the first part of the way up Back Creek. Fortunately, just as the wind was dropping off the Tohatsu decided to start, and we were able to motor the rest of the way back to the dock without trouble. This is probably why they’re not offering the Tohatsu as a stock engine…but the much more solid Honda four-stroke outboards.

At that point, we broke for lunch. After lunch, we came back to see a mast raising and lowering demonstration. The unique, patent-pending, mast raising system that Tony has developed for the Telstar is very impressive. A single person can easily raise or lower the mast by using the mast raising/lowering line, which runs through the base of the mast and connects to two other lines. This can be done with the furled foresail, furled mainsail and boom in place, but more typically, the boom, mainsail and foresail will be removed before the mast is lowered.

The Telstar 28 Mast Lowering Procedure

The procedure goes something like this:

• Lower and remove the foresail and mainsail.
• Remove the boom from the mast, via a pin at the gooseneck.
• Loosen the backstay.
• Run the mast lowering/raising halyard to the winch. Take four turns around the winch drum, and then tie the line off on a cleat.
• Disconnect the support struts for the roller A-frame. Attach the two mast lowering system lines to it.
• Attach the spinnaker halyard to a padeye by the forestay. Tighten the spinnaker halyard and disconnect the forestay.
• Disconnect the spinnaker halyard from the padeye. Secure the end of the halyard to the base of the mast.
• Take the roller furling line and tie it to the roller furling gear. This is very important, as if the roller furling line gets caught, it may damage the roller furling gear.
• Put the roller furling gear at the lower end of the forestay into a padded bag. This prevents it from scratching the finish or ports on the boat. The idea for the padded bag is one I came up with. Right now they suggest leaving a piece of carpet over the port and foredeck to protect the finish, but I like the idea of the padded bag as being more elegant a solution. It also prevents the roller furling line from catching on anything.
• Remove the two bolts at the base of the mast, which secure the mast to the mast foot.
• Ease the mast lowering line on the winch slightly, and tug on the backstay to start the lowering process.
• Slowly lower the mast, using one hand to ease the line on the winch. Watch to see that the mast doesn’t catch on anything, and that the roller furling gear drops into the fork at the base of the mast. Also keep an eye on the various lines and stays—to make sure none of them get hung up on anything.
• Reconnect the support struts on the roller A-frame.
• Once the mast is down, you can lash it in place. The rear arch over the transom, the H-shaped bracket at the mast foot, and the large A-frame arms at the bow support the unstepped and lowered mast.

Mind you, this is a rough description of the procedure, and if you own a Telstar 28 with the A-frame mast lowering system, you should probably check to see if I’ve missed anything. Will had Tom actually run through the process to get a better idea of what the process requires.

The Telstar 28 Mast Raising Procedure

To raise the mast from the unstepped and stored position, you simple reverse the procedure above.

The procedure goes something like this:

• The rear arch over the transom, the H-shaped bracket at the mast foot, and the large A-frame arms at the bow support the unstepped and lowered mast. Untie all the lashings on the mast.
• Run the mast lowering/raising halyard to the winch. Take four turns around the winch drum, and then tie the line off on a cleat.
• Disconnect the support struts on the roller A-frame.
• Slowly raise the mast, by using the winch to tighten up on the mast-raising halyard. Watch to see that the mast doesn’t catch on anything. Also keep an eye on the various lines and stays—to make sure none of them get hung up on anything.
• Continue raising the mast until the base of the mast seats in the mast foot. Do not over tighten the line, as the final seating of the mast will be done next…
• Cleat the mast raising line. Do not forget this step or the mast may drop suddenly and cause damage or injury to you or the boat.
• Use a screwdriver to snug the mast into seating completely, and align the bolt holes that are used to secure the mast to the mast foot.
• Insert the two bolts, which secure the mast to the mast foot, at the base of the mast and tighten them.
• Remove the roller furling gear at the lower end of the forestay from the padded bag.
• Untie the roller furling line from the roller furling gear, and stow it where you normally would.
• Untie the spinnaker halyard from the mast. Connect the halyard to the padeye near the forestay base.
• Tighten the spinnaker halyard, and then connect the forestay.
• Disconnect the spinnaker halyard, and tie it off wherever you normally would do so.
• Disconnect the two mast lowering guide lines from the roller A-frame. Reconnect the two support struts for the roller A-frame.
• Tighten the backstay.
• Attach the boom to the mast, via a pin at the gooseneck.
• Attach the foresail and mainsail.

Mind you, this is a rough description of the procedure, and if you own a Telstar 28 with the A-frame mast lowering system, you should probably check to see if I’ve missed anything.

One thing that is really nice about the mast lowering system is that it allows you to halt the process at any point, or even reverse it—by either tying off the mast lowering line, or winching the line in, as needed.

Some advice from Tony about the backstay: If you mark the backstay with at specific points with colored marks, you can know the height of the mast from the water, by looking at the marks and where they enter the water. This can be useful if you have to partially unstep the mast on a regular basis to pass under a low-clearance bridge. This way you can save some time, as unstepping it completely is not necessary.

The Telstar 28 Trailer

Then Tony and Will went over the trailer with Tom and his father, and the way to secure the Telstar 28 for transport. Tony pointed out that for fairly short, local portages of the Telstar, there really is no need to take the boom and sails off of the Telstar. For longer trips, it is highly recommended that you remove the sails and disconnect the boom from the mast.

The trailer for the Telstar 28 features several screwjack-type adjustable struts to support the amas, once the boat has been pulled up onto the trailer. It also has four larger, adjustable struts that are used to prevent the Telstar from tipping in case you need to extend the amas while it is on the trailer with. Most of the weight of the Telstar 28’s center hull is supported on two rests that are located where the two main bulkheads run across the hull. These two points are the strongest sections of the hull, and are the best for supporting the weight of the boat on the trailer.