Some Things to do with your Holder 20 One Design
(some race legal, some NOT)
by Rod TerBeest, Fleet Captain
Roller Furling Jib
This time I want to tell you about some things I have done to my Holder 20 One Design to make it easier to sail. Most of what I have done is race rules compliant, but one thing is not. That is the roller furling jib.
I sometimes go sailing after work or on a weekend with no racing by myself. I am getting up there age and I want to make it easy to sail so I will have fewer disincentives to go sailing. The first thing I did was put a roller furling jib on the boat.
Roller furling is not legal for racing, but it sure nice for cruising around the lake by myself or with the grandchildren. I am at an age where I just don’t want to go on the foredeck if I don’t have to. I had my sailmaker, Quantum Sails, in Wisconsin build me a 135% genoa with a red UV cover, the UV cover is sewn on the port side of the sail so if you do use it for PHRF racing, the sail will furl clockwise as you approach the windward mark. I installed the Harken roller furler, (Harken Part # 436). This consists of the furling drum and the top swivel.
Harken Roller Furler
This type of system is simple and less expensive than a foil system, but you have to have dedicated sails for this system. When your sail is made, a wire is sewn into the luff to replace the normal forestay with thimble eyes at the head and the tack. The sail is then strapped to the eyes so that when the furler turns, the sail will furl around the wire. Usually the length of the sewn in wire will be less than the recommended forestay length of 23’ 8”, so you have to have a pendant made to make up the length difference. The drum and swivel take 8 inches, and the sail I bought wire luff length was 21’ 10” so I needed to make a pendant of 14”. I had a rigger swedge a fork unto 5/32 1x19 wire and the other end a thimble eye, with the correct length eye to eye of 14” Nicro pressed together. You could have the rigger put a swedged on eye on the other end, but the pins in the Harken roller furler system are 5/16” diameter and a normal eye might not have a large enough hole for the pin. The forked end of the pendant attaches to the mast and the thimble attaches to the top swivel.
Top Swivel
Be sure to wait until you have the actual sail to measure the luff length because, the measurement could vary from sail to sail. You want to have the total length of furler, swivel, sail luff wire and pendant be 23’ 8” when all attached. Don’t put the pendant at the tack end because the furler will not be able to roll the sail properly.
When mounting the furler to the boat, I attached it to the front tack hole; I had to drill out the diameter of the hole to 5/16” for the Harken Pin. I mounted a small Harken micro block (part # 443 with 1” #8 SS bolts with fender washers and Nyloc nuts) on the foredeck right behind the drum to guide the furling line.
The furling line is 3/16” Samson 25’ long. This leads back inside the shrouds to a Harken Micro cam cleat with wire fairlead and extreme angle fairlead (Harken Parts #338a, 372, 284) mounted on the starboard cabin side with 2” SS #8 bolts with fender washers and Nyloc nuts.
Harken Micro cam cleat
Be sure to caulk around the drilled holes in the boat when you mount the hardware. Remember that the hull and deck of your Holder 20 One Design are cored so just make it snug and secure. Do not over tighten the bolts, or you may crush the hull together.
The sail, pendant and top swivel must be attached to the mast when you raise it. You will not be using your halyard with this system so keep it pulled to the top of the mast or attached to the spinnaker eye. Do not attach the jib halyard to the bow pulpit because it will more than likely get tangled in the furling system when you go to furl the genoa. Raise the mast normally and attach the tack to the drum. Roll the genoa up as tight as you can get it, then thread the furling line through the furling drum when you pull on the jib sheet to unfurl the sail the furling line will wind up in drum, ready for you to furl the sail. Lead the line back through the fairleads and cam cleat to the cockpit and you are ready to go. My system cost about $1300 for the sail and hardware, the red UV cover added about $200 to the cost, a white UV cover is less expensive, but not as pretty. When you go class racing, it is easy enough to switch back to the normal forestay to be legal.
The next thing I did to make the boat easier to sail by myself was to increase the purchase of the keel lift system. My boat is a newer Hobie with the larger cabin, the original lift system is 6 to 1 with the lift rope exiting the cabin top in front of the mast, going through a deck organizer, cam cleat, and to the port primary winch. This system is the biggest negative of the boat. There is a lot of friction and not enough purchase. I change the pulley system to 8 to 1 by changing the bottom to a 4 sheave and the top to a 3 sheave block. (Harken 40-mm Carbo air blocks parts # 2654, 2640) Of course the 4 sheave block will not fit in the space provided so I mounted it sideways to the keel lift bolt.
Modified Block
To keep it from sliding around I put a ½ inch shackle on the lift bolt and bolted it together to make a collar. I moved the strap eye from the forward side of the port compression post to the aft side of the starboard compression post and reversed the path of the lift rope through the blocks. This got rid of a lot of friction. The old lift rope was 5/16 xls and it created a lot friction going through the old system, so I changed it to 3/16” spectra. The last thing I did was to buy a longer winch handle, you would be surprised how much more purchase you can get with just 2 more inches of length. This system cost about $225. I can now raise the keel by myself without having to stop to catch my breath.
I hope this helps you to get more use out of your Holder 20 One Design. If you have any questions feel free to call me.
Rod TerBeest, Fleet Captain Holder 20 OD Class Association
#269 Ragamuffin