Hi,

My name is Bjørn Ludvigsen and I’m co owner of a Hanse 350 placed at Bohus-Malmön, Sweden.

I’we read about Bjoris’s debut at the regatta scene with the 350, and I wondered how you attach the gennaker (tack line) at the bow? Do you have a bow sprit (gennaker pin)?

We ordered the anchor windlass and a gennaker package from the Swedish dealer for our 350 #78. When taking delivery of our new boat in Greifswald at the 29^th of April, Hanse told us that they didn’t have a standard bow sprit (gennaker pin) ready for Hanse 350 yet. We were a bit disappointed because we were quite eager to test the gennaker on our trip back to Sweden. Hanse told us that we could attach the gennaker to the bow roller, and they drilled a 10mm hole at the starboard side to let us use a snatch block. When testing this solution in 3 m/s wind the bow roller flexed quite a bit and we felt that we had to take the gennaker down in order not to damage the bow roller.

I wonder if the reason for not having a standard bow sprit is due to our bow roller for the anchor windlass or maybe our early slot number (I think it is the 67^th Hanse 350 produced)?

We are generally very happy about the boat and we did not experience any major problems on our sailing trip from Greifswald to Sweden. We obviously have short list of shortcomings, and we too have experienced the same problem with a broken hose between the water pressure pump and the bathroom sink (luckily we were in the cabin when it happened).

Thank you Conundrum,

Is it just welded to the standard forestay fitting? Did you do this yourself or did the local dealer or Hanse do it?

The problem with the standard gennaker pin from the Hanse shop is that our 350 don’t have the standard pin fittings at the stem – so we are not able to attach it.

An alternative that works very well is to attach the genaker to a spinaker pole. The main advantage is that you have more posibilities to trim the genaker. Of course you need to have a spinaker pole. I just bought ours and I am very happy with it. I use it for both the genua 2 and the genaker.

Thank you all for good advice!

To Br00tus:

I’m not sure I understand what hole in the bow roller that you use. We have the same bow roller as Conundrum shows in his picture. One of the Hanse guys drilled a 10mm hole 3-4 cm in front and above the hole where the securing bolt is located on the starboard wall of the bow roller (you can see the bolt on the picture in Conundrum’s post).

Because the walls of the bow roller are rather thin, the bow roller wall twists quite a lot when the wind pressure increases. I’ve considered using a block directly at the bolt in order to apply pressure to both walls, not just one, but I’m afraid that the bolt will get stuck if it is bent by the gannaker pressure.

One other concern is that the bow roller is constructed to withstand being pulled down, but using a gennaker will definitely pull the bow roller up, even though it seems like the bow roller is fitted quite well to the stern and the forestay fitting.

Bjørn, very interesting to hear about your experience in Greifswald, we did take delivery th 22. of April and they then did not know how to solve this. I did not have my gennaker at that time so it was not a priority then.

In yesterdays regatta we just made a rope around the anker-roller (the black, rubber wheel in the middel. Not at all a good solution. We did have 15-18 knots of wind and where doing 70-80 degrees so it was heavy pressur on the anchor-roller but it did not flex as I could see. I guess it might when you put a hold in one of the sides. Well, I dont like this solution and have been talking to my dealer how says that J&W, have told Hanse that the same solution as the 370 and 400 whould not be strong enhough on the 320 and the 350, therefore they did put on an anchor-roller that is designed to take the pressure.

I did take my 350 up from the sea today, next week we will fix the epoxy-primer and antifouling. In that case I discovered today that Hanse dont except VC17 because it contains to much cobber and therefore it is a riske for metal-components on the boat, espesially the aluminimum rodder and the saildrive. Well, a dissapointment but I have dropped my plan to use VC17

Thank you Br00tus,

That’s good to hear.

It would be very kind of you if you could explain in more detail how you mount your gennaker to the bow roller. You mentioned a small hole, but I didn’t really understand which hole you meant.

Is it a hole in one of the side walls of your bow roller?

According to the Norwegian dealer there are two types of bowroller, just one of them are designed to handel a gennaker. Mine that flex quite a lot when stepping on it was not designed for a gennaker. I have no got a Selden GennakerPin... I`ll be back with pictures. I have not tested it jet...

Finally I remembered to take pictures of the gennaker PIN. As you can see Junker the Anchor roller has very thin walls and I agree it is just not good enhough. I think it might bee possible to end up with damages even using it just with the anchor...

This is our bow fitting after being on a moorings for a few months. A good example of the http://physics.weber.edu/carroll/Archimedes/lever.htm - Law of the lever at work. Don't mind the rope, it attaches on to a steel cable. To which we have two more heavy ropes attached, in an attempt to spread the load!