Sheriff 600, member #3


Member # 3 Gunnar Zetterström
A view of "Fru Klang".

Taking one step back and looking at this page from some distance, it is true that there are some links to other pages on it. These links can be found in the text below, but they may be difficult to spot. Because of this, the table of contents below has been added: "Fru Klang" 's own site Blueprint of the spinnaker from the translated Sheriff 600 manual. (Part of "Fru Klang" 's site) Fetching of the spinnaker at Oxelösund Installing the spinnaker Highlights from launching "Fru Klang" 2001 Link to Enar's sailmaker shop. Maker of the spinnaker.
The year 2001, "Fru Klang" was launched late. This is of course because of lack of time to handle all things to be done. Elsewhere you may find several issues, e.g. spinnaker installation, new holds for the cabin door and other things which are not (yet?) mentioned on these pages. But the launching is quite spectacular, most of all when the boat is fetched from the winter store on my property. So if you care to look, click here.
A spinnaker for the Sheriff 600!
Most of the enhancements I would like to share with the rest of you are displayed on my own homepage which has got a special "Sheriff 600 corner", but the efforts to find a spinnaker for the Sheriff 600 might as well be displayed here.
I put in an order for a new spinnaker for my Sheriff 600 at the end of January 2001. 2001-04-04 a new spinnaker sail was completed, and I fetched it in Oxelösund south of Stockholm. In May 2001 and on, I have been installing the new sail. It became a lengthy process since outdoor activities had to wait for the weather to be a bit warmer, and that occurred late this spring. If you would like to see some pictures from the home-bringing, go down to the bottom of this page. Click here to get there! There is now also a documentation of this installation displayed on a page of its own. If you care to look,click here!
The sites
I wanted to find a sailmaker or a vendor of sails in Sweden, so I naturally set out to look on the net for swedish shops. I found a number of them, but after some searching I found Enar's segelmakeri (Enar's sailmaker shop, unfortunately only in swedish). As far as I could find, this was the least expensive offer. And it was situated not very far from Stockholm, where I live.
The offering and the price
The offering contains a 27 m² (~ 74 foot²) fullradial spinnaker made by Bainbridge AirX-700 fabric. You also get your own specific sail# (numero de coque) for the boat put on the sail, and a sail bag. The sail is cut and sewn is pieces, and the pieces may be colored in 12 different colors. One sail may have a maximum of three different colors chosen from these 12 colors included in the price, and there has to be an even number of pieces for each color. The price for this offering is 6850 SKr. A current exchange rate is about 10 SKr to one Euro. After getting some more education in the way sailboats and their sails are classified and cathegorised, I now know that the area of the sail is of minor importance. It is depending on several different parameters:
	How the sail is cut and sewn How the sail is measured
The main issue here is instead the length of the leeches. According to the swedish LYS-rules, the following must apply:
	Longest allowable standing spinnaker leech on Sheriff 600 is 6,5 m (= 256" = 21.33') Greatest allowable width is 4.61 m (= 181.5" = 15.13')
It is my belief that these rules also apply in other countries, should the boat be used for racing. This ordered sail comply with the rules for the leeches.
The spinnaker pole
To be able to sail in a good way with the spinnaker, you need the telescopic spinnaker pole, as is shown in the Sheriff 600 manual. This is according to the designer. So far I have not been able to find a telescopic spinnaker pole that is maximum 2.34 metres long. But I have an offer from Benn's Mast och Båttillbehör (Benn's Mast and boat accessories, they also have an english spoken version of the page!) Their offer consists of a Pfeiffer telescopic spinnaker pole with a diameter of 40 mm. The length may vary from 2000 mm to 3800 mm. The price is 2.396 SKr (~ 240 Euro) and it can be delivered within a week. After having been to the shop, I have found out that since I got the offer for the pole, a new catalog is distributed, and this spinnaker pole is no longer in the product line. Instead, I have settled for an ordinary, not adjustable, spinnaker pole. After studiyng the LYS-rules, it may be concluded that the longest spinnaker pole allowed on the Sheriff 600 is 2,56 m long. I have now bought such a pole, which is sold as a kit to be assembled according to the buyers need. In my case it will mean to shorten the delivered aluminum pole to the preferred length by cutting it, and then mount the end fittings. The price for this pole was 1688 SKr (~ 170 Euro), but to this I also added a kit to allow the pole to be fastened to the pulpit to be out of the way when not used, and this kit cost another 400 SKr (~ 40 Euro) Eleswhere on these pages there is a presentation on how to install the spinnaker, where this process is documented.
Other accessories
To be able to use the spinnaker on the Sheriff 600, there may have to be made some modifications. As far as I have found out on MY mast, there is no block for neither the spinnaker halyard nor for the spinnaker pole halyards (uphaul/downhaul). So the mast will have to have theese additions made. There is also one halyard, two sheets and the boom sheets that will have to be manufactured. Look at the Sheriff 600 Manual to see what is needed.
The deal
I have been able to use e-mail for communicating with the sailmaker, but he has been using snailmail for his offerings. I got a deal with the company to have this spinnaker made. The delivery time 10 - 12 weeks,since it had to be made from schratch, and I fetched it myself at the shop. I made a drawing to indicate how i wanted the coloring of the sail. The drawing may be seen below and it was distributed using e-mail.

The Home-bringing
Oxelösund i situated some 140 km south of Stockholm. That is the place where my new spinnaker was made by "Enar's Sailmakers Shop". I have some photos of both the sail and the shop which I would like to share with you. The sail, spread out in the workshop seemed VERY BIG, and the coloring gives exactly the effect I wanted: My boat will stand out among the crowd of other boats with the spinnaker up.

The sailmaker himself turned out to be a social and humorous fellow with much sailing experience. He adviced me never to fold the spinnaker but just push it down into the sailbag in such a way that the eyes for the halyard and the sheets easily could be reached. This is due to the extremely light fabric (the sail weighs only a couple of kilograms) that is sensitive to physical wear but is extremely strong when used in the right way. To reduce the risk of damaging the sail, he also adviced me to put protective tape around all parts of the rig that otherwise might cause wear on the sail. There is a two year warranty on the sail and the work done to it. Of course there are limitations, but they seem fair.

I will be back with more information when there is any!
First upload: 2001-01-02 01:10 GMT+1