J Class Genoa boat running rigging gubbins control

An extremely dull collection of clips I took to remind myself how I had rigged up the control gubbins in my 60" J class yacht.

[@user-oz4ei6rz4z]

So much going on - I'm about to build a 60" J and whilst keeping it simple, would like to add the backstay. How well does it work, especially the Actuonix servo and its ability to hold position? And given the J is a wet boat, is water ingress through the rear tube a problem?

[@chinachile]

Hello, great idea to keep it simple which is what I will do on my next one, lessons learned. In my opinion the movable backstay is a huge help when rigging and on the water as I can flatten the mainsail while tightening up the forestay and seems it to work well on a beat while slackening off seems to help when on a run. The Actuonix servo is more than powerful enough to fold the boat in half and locks in position with no electrical load.....once locked it will NOT move. I raised the lead out for the backstay about 25mm above the deck and could not say if water gets in there or not but the hatches lead to the biggest ingress of water as I don't think I did a particularly good job on the seals. The actuator I used is the "Actuonix L16 actuator 50mm 150:1 6V rc control linear actuator"

[@user-oz4ei6rz4z]

@@chinachile Thanks - very helpful. nb, on a 48" I built a couple of years ago I used silicone bath seal on the rear hatch - can access by cutting the sealant with a sharp nife, but rare that I need to. On the front hatch I placed a thin pieve of ply (1/64th) right over the hole, under the hatch. This is sealed again with silicone bath seal. Inset into this ply is a IOM type access lid (sailsetc2). I can access the battery through this, and leavce it open to air. But the whole thing is just about 100% watertight.

[@user-oz4ei6rz4z]

@@chinachile I actually love the systems you have built into the boat. But on th ebackstay in particular, I found an excellent review of the Actuonix L16 series on You tube called "Test of Actuonix L16 linear actuator". It did show one possible issue - which may have related to the individual unit having a fault. The test unit tended to oscillate around the 'set' position. This did settle down after a while in most instances. But on the plus side it had very good 'hold' once settled. I've asked for other experience with it (Facebook). Did you experiment with any alternative servos?

[@user-oz4ei6rz4z]

A footnote. Excellent service from Acturonix. Answered my question on this in 30 minutes. Put simply, the hold force (Backforce in their terminology) is about 50% of the power of the servo. So if the pull on the backstay exceeds the Backforce but is within the capability of the servo's power. Each time it reaches the set position power goes off and it moves. Power comes on to correct - and so on. Oscillation. Martin overcame this with a simple one pulley mechanism inside. I'm thinking of two pulleys outside, one fixed to the deck and another to the backstay. Should look good, reduce the strain on the servo to 25% and also fascillitate a through deck water resistant pulley because the force is minimised. Still Martins brainchild, just my variation on a theme.

[@cosmiccolonel]

Just trying to get my head around this is causing a migraine, god knows what it did to you….. looks awesome though 👍👍👍

[@WestburyDF65races-fb1bf]

All joking aside, I was recovering from a pretty serious head injury when I strung the boat up but had enough nous to record my madness. It sort of makes sense to me but I will do it differently and a bit more orderly next time : )

[@cosmiccolonel]

@@WestburyDF65races-fb1bf funny you should say that…….. I’m recovering from a pretty serious head injury too !!! Just got my first two rc yachts as part of my therapy! I’m planning on building a J class once things are a bit more settled, head wise…. Hope your feeling better after the tbi……