Note:  Refer to the engine manual prior to starting engine for the first time.

1. Before launching, ensure battery is topped up and at full charge. A low charged battery may cause starter motor failure.

2. Check all thru hull connections and close before launching. There is a sink drain seacock in the v-berth at the aft end of the port settee, and an engine water intake in the engine sump.

3. Launch the boat and keep her in the straps. Open all the seacock and double check for leaks, especially near the stuffing box and all thru hulls.

4. Your engine has been tested and winterized at the factory and should not require bleeding the fuel lines.

5. Align engine after launching and before extensive use. Re-check alignment after five hours engine time.

6. Engine access is gained by removing the engine lid (lifts off), unsnapping engine box face, unscrewing the quarterberth panel and unscrewing the cockpit locker panel.

7. Ensure that a sacraficial anode (zinc) has been installed on the shaft (1" shaft).

1. Run all halyard shackle ends to butt of mast.

2. Attach forestay and backstay to mast.

3. Double check to ensure shroud tangs and mast belts have not loosened in shipping. Ensure that the mainsail halyard is behind the spreader bar and all the rest of the halyards are on the front side. Install spreaders and affix shrouds to outer end. Tape tips or install spreader boots to prevent chafing headsails.

4. Install any headmast gear.

5. Lift mast into position with hoist and loop of the line under spreaders and affix toggles to chainplates. (Make sure you leave a downhaul line on the mast !!!)

6. Connect mast light wires above the deck before stepping mast. Ensure hole is sealed with silicone.

1. Loosen the four side shrouds.

2. Tighten the forestay and backstay so that the amount of threads showing in the tip and bottom barrels of the turnbuckles are equal.

3. The backstay should be tight in "mooring" trim.

4. Adjust the lower shroud so that the lowers end up tighter than the uppers and the mast is straight athwartship when the boat is sailing to windward with 10 degrees or more heel.

5. Adjust upper shrouds so that the turnbuckles show an equal amount of threads on each side and the shrouds are quite tight.

6. For sailing, either tighten the backstay turnbuckle several turns or use the adjuster if you have a hydraulic or mechanical backstay.

7. Check that turnbuckles lock cotter pins are secured and cotter pins are bent in chainplates. Tape over pins to prevent tearing sails (and fingers).

8. Shrouds and stays wil require more adjustments after first few outings.

Upon sailing, periodically check the mast for tuning. The upper and lower shrouds should be kept tight to keep the mast "in column". The upper section may "pump" in a seaway or gusty conditions if the shrouds are too loose. Shrouds may loosen as you bend the mast in high winds. (It simply becomes shorter) Or as wire ages, it may stretch and your mast will require periodic re-tuning.

1. Attach boom gooseneck to mast with bolt supplied.

2. Attach boom vang system to boom and mast with shackles to the bales provided. Fiddle jam block goes on boom.

3. Attach self-cleating block to traveller car.

4. String main sheet starting at fiddle block and ending at self-cleating block.

5. Use the topping lift provided while at mooring.

6. A cunningham eye and cleat is provided as standard equipment and may be used for the forward portion of the jiffy reef.

If you experience more than slight weather helm:

1. Make certain main is not pulled in too tight.

2. Try moving jib or genoa leads foreward.

3. Try tightening outhaul, downhaul, and/or cunningham adjustments on the main.

4. You may be trying to sail with too large a headsail. Try a smaller one.

5. Crew weight may not be properly distributed.

6. Rake mast forward more.

7. If you experience slight lee helm or neutral helm, before you panic - the San Juan 28 was designed to sail with the jib in light winds with little or no heel, with NEUTRAL helm. With the addition of the genoa and a little heel the boat should have a slight weather helm.

If you experience excessive lee helm:

1. Make certain main is not too loose.

2. Try moving jib or genoa leads aft.

3. Try slacking outhaul, downhaul, and/or cunningham adjustments on the main.

4. Crew weight may not be properly distributed.

5. Rake mast aft more.

Mainsail

All mainsails should have at least one row of reefing. A second row is highly recommended for anyone sailing in areas where the wind exceeds 30 knots. A shelf foot built into the sail will help make the foot of the sail easy to adjust from flat to full.

170% Genoa or Light 150% Genoa

The 170% genoa is full cut and should be built out of a very firm 3.8 oz. dacron cloth to maintain its shape through a wide range of wind. The clew is about three feet off the deck.

150% Genoa

This is the real work horse sail that sees a lot of use throughout a typical season. It is cut with a low clew, and made out of 5 oz. or heavier dacron. It is designed to be used in winds from 8-20 knots. A reef can be put in this sail, but it is only recommended for short term use and not as a substitute for a smaller sail.

120% Full Hoist (Blade)

The blade is a full hoist 120% overlap working jib. It is a tall, narrow sail designed for winds of 20-30 knots. It works well in conjuction with a full or reefed main. This sail moves the boat faster, and balances the boat better than the old low cut 130% genoa. It is made out of 6.0 oz. or heavier dacron and is very easy to reef.

Tri-Radial Spinnaker

This spannaker is exactly the same cut as a radial head except that panels are radiated out of each clew. This is done to reduce elongation of the clew area on close reaches. We recommend this sail for all purpose use.

You will find leech lines in most of your headsails. This is a light line designed to stop flutter in the leech. Most new sails will not have any leech flutter if they are sheeted properly. If you have no leech flutter, do not tighten the leech line. As a sail gets older and the cloth begins to stretch, one of the first areas of stretch will occur on the leech. The leech line should be tightened only enough to stop the flutter in your leech. It should also be readjusted with changes in wind strength. Excessive tightening of the leech line will hook the leech of the sail, causing it to distort the air flow.

In setting your sails, it is important that your leads be positioned properly and that you put adequate tenson on your sheets to get the sail to take a proper shape. Enclosed is a sheet which will give sheeting positions for each individual headsail in your inventory. In addition, it will also give an approximate distance off your spreader the leech should set. If the saill does not come near the spreader a rule of thumb you might try is to tension the sheet so the leech of the jib, 25% of the way down from the head, is parallel to the centerline of the boat.

The headsails also come with yarn telltales attached. These are used to help steer the boat when going to windward. When you are sailing close hauled on the wind, the air passing over the sails will make the telltales stream aft, up, or down, depending on the air flow over the sail at the point at which the telltails are attached. Most people think that when both telltails stream aft the sail is set properly and the boat is going as fast as possible. This is not the case. It may be that your boat will go fastest when the leeward telltail is streaming aft and the windward one flowing up a little. What you must do is go sailing next to other boats and when you find that you are going fast, remember how the telltails are and strive to steer the boat so that they continue to flow in the same manner. The manner in which the telltails flow at maximum performance will vary from sail to sail and wind speed to wind speed.

On both the mainsail and genoa as the winds increase, the sailcloth will stretch. As the cloth stretches the location of maximum draft will move aft in the sail and the leech may tend to hook to windward. In order to maintain a proper sail shape, it is necessary to adjust the tension on the luff of a sail. If the tension on your luff is too little, small horizontal wrinkles will appear by the luff and the maximum draft will have moved aft. If a genoa has hanks on the luff, wrinkles will radiate out of each hank when the halyard tension is too little. On a genoa, luff tension is adjusted with halyard and on the mainsail it is adjusted with the cunningham hole (grommet hole above tack).

The key to setting sails is to remember that a sail is an airfoil with a specific shape built into it and you use your rigging to maintain that shape as the wind tends to distort it. On genoas the maximum draft is located approximateky 43% aft, and on a mainsail it should be 50% aft.

The mainsailis built with a very full foot so that the airfoil shape will carry right down to the boom level. In light air the outhaul should be eased about 4" to allow the foot of the sail to take an airfoil shape. The outhaul should not be tightened until the mainsail backwinds. In most wind conditions, when beating into the wind, the boom should be along the centerline of the boat, and the main sheet tension should be set just tight enough to make the top batten set parallel to the boom. Tighten the cunningham just enough to remove the horizontal wrinkles.

The spinnaker is a sail that many people tend to fly incorrectly. Once again we have built a specific shape into the sail by curving each panel. The shape of the sail can be distorted if the pole is not flown at the correct height. The pole height is set so that the forward edge of the sail will luff evenly. The height of the leeward clew has nothing to do with the correct height of the pole. In light airs, the pole has to be set a little lower than normal. Once you get a correct pole setting in about 7 knots of wind, the pole is at maximum height. Many people feel that the stronger the wind blows, the higher the pole goes, and this is not correct. The spinnaker pole end will be kept within a two foot range on boats 20 to 28 feet.

The shape in the foot of a spinnaker on a reach is controlled by the sheet lead. If the lead is too far aft, the foot will be pulled flat and airfoil shape lst. The camber in the foot should be identical to the camber in the middle of the spinnaker. This shape can only be achieved by moving the lead about 20% forward, on most boats.

The one final area that needs to be well understood is mainsail reefing. If reefing is done improperly, high strains can be put on areas causing costly tears. The Clark boats are all set up for jiffy reefing. When reefed, all the strain must go to the two large patches on the luff and leech. There are two small patches with grommets in them between the two main patches, These intermediate reef points must never be tied tight! They are only for loosely tying up the loose cloth that results from reefing. If they are tied tight the sail will rip!

When putting in a reef, first ease the luff down and then take up the line through the patch on the leech. When unreefing, let the leech reef line off first and then hoist the luff up. This procedure will prevent putting high strains on the luff bolt rope.

We hope that you will follow our hints and that they will be helpful to you. If you have any questions, please give us a call.

All Clark sails for the San Juan 28 are built to be sheeted to the tracks provided with the boat. If you are using another sailmaker he will need a drawing provided of the deck layout and sailplan, or access to the boat to build the sails to the correct dimensions. We recommend the Headfoil II slotted headstay for racing, as this eliminates the need for hanks on the genoas and greatly simplifies sail changes.

The size of sails should be reduced when the angle of hull reaches 25 degrees.

To encourage our sport, rulebooks, measurement information, and a host of other paraphernalia are available from USYRU.

Their address; United States Yacht Racing Union (Currently US Sailing)
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

(212) 575-1060
(212) 575-1062 (offshore office)

Good Cruising, Good Sailing, Good Racing, Good Luck !!