[70521]
Well-Known Member
Halyard tension always taken off when leaving the boat. Adjusted as necessary when sailing, having new sails you can feel the difference between a loose and taught sail even when they are furling.
Do you adjust your furling jib halyard during the season .
- Thread starter LONG_KEELER
- Start date
Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
Assuming that the sail is not furled then the halyard tension will affect the sail shape is exactly the same as a hanked on one.
As an aside many racing boats have a 'tuff luff' foil rather than using hanks on a bare forestay
Old Harry
Well-Known Member
I have a hydraulic one
LONG_KEELER
Well-Known Member
I have dyneema halyards for main and jib now. I think it's worth it.
Stemar
Well-Known Member
I'd be happy to have the opportunity to play with my halyard tension. Right now, the forestay's with the mast in the club rack and the sails are in my loft. 
johnalison
Well-Known Member
My jib is laminate, so exact tension is not critical, at least for cruising. Furling/unfurling with full tension puts a lot of strain on the furling gear, so I always do this with the halyard slack, ie tighten after unfurling, and ease before furling. Not only is this better for the gear but it make furling especially much easier, never needing a winch.
I have a 19/20 rig. My usual practice is to leave it slack to the point of wobbly, tighten it moderately before setting off, and much tighter when going to windward. I was told that I wouldn't be able to over-tighten it, but my courage usually fails after a dozen turns of the handle, by which time the mast is suitably bendy.
I have a 19/20 rig. My usual practice is to leave it slack to the point of wobbly, tighten it moderately before setting off, and much tighter when going to windward. I was told that I wouldn't be able to over-tighten it, but my courage usually fails after a dozen turns of the handle, by which time the mast is suitably bendy.
Quandary
Well-Known Member
Our Moody is masthead but in her youth she was raced, she has a 32-1 purchase on the backstay, (8-1 tackle x2x2cascade) we apply tension depending on heading and windspeed, we only have dacron cruising sails (the high tech. ones do not furl so are kept above the garage) so we also tension the genoa halyard for going upwind, again dependent on wind strength, easing it to reach or run and release the tension to a second mark on the halyard before furling. The shape changes are quite obvious and effective, the boat does appear to sail well for its size and shape.
I thought everyone did this, for me it is part of what makes sailing satisfying.
I thought everyone did this, for me it is part of what makes sailing satisfying.
LONG_KEELER
Well-Known Member
Personally, reading sail shape does not come easily.
Hank on jibs produced sail creases that were much more easy to read. Fully battened mains are less easy to read but being able to site from under the boom helps a lot. I would never go back to the old systems.
I have a 3/4 bendy rig which I do adjust whilst sailing via the tackle . I try and remember to back it off when leaving the boat.
NormanS
Well-Known Member
Back in the day, with hanked on headsails, halyard tension was really important, with easy to see results. With the complete luff of a furling jib contained in, and supported by its foil, I cannot see any advantage in tweaking the halyard. Normally, I hoist the genoa in the Spring, and take it down in the Autumn. Sadly not happening this year (yet?).
sailor211
Well-Known Member
I can measure improvement in performance as I adjust halyard tension . As with car position I can get better air flow . Different tension for different wind speeds. And some times sea state.
I also use different tension for beating and reaching.
Similarly I adjust kicker tension and twist on the main.
neil_s
Well-Known Member
T
As Refueler says above, tension in the halyard is not the same as tension in the forestay. That said, I do play with the halyard tension and slacken off when leaving the boat. My Spinlock jammer is getting a bit slippery now!
As Refueler says above, tension in the halyard is not the same as tension in the forestay. That said, I do play with the halyard tension and slacken off when leaving the boat. My Spinlock jammer is getting a bit slippery now!
Old Harry
Well-Known Member
You are a real sailor
dunedin
Well-Known Member
Why? And is it a small boat?
Taking our sails off is a hard work project, and takes at least half a day if two up, almost impossible to do for one person. Vertical battens are a killer on the jib, and weight plus long battens and 3 reef lines makes the mainsail slow. And folding needs help.
So sails left on all year round, though old jib on during winter. Survived plenty of F10+ so far.
And almost never adjust jib halyard. With foil and laminate sail, halyard is generally never very taut to get best shape. So no need to ease when leave it.
Ramming on the jib halyard tight is often not a good thing - look at lots of Olympic dinghies with slight horizontal creases, only heaved down tight when full survival mode.
Poignard
Well-Known Member
'
Well I am fortunate in having a masthead sloop only 28' long with short mainsail battens and I can take her sails off very quickly (as I might well want to do if I had the misfortune to encounter a storm of sufficient severity).
Why do I take her sails off if I leave her unattended for more than a week or so? Because:
She is dry-sailed from a yard a long way away in southern Brittany, and we go out and sail for a few weeks and leave her for a few weeks.
It seems to me that I am prolonging the life of the sails by taking them off.
If, for any reason, eg my wife or I becoming ill or injured, or my being prevented from going out there for some other reason beyond my control (such as a pandemic lockdown!), I would not be worried about the sails deteriorating, or blowing to bits if I had carelessly forgotten to put extra lashings around them .
Am I being overly-careful? Probably, but does that matter?
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
Easy on mine because the boat is pointy at both ends and so a single backstay attaches just to one side of the sternpost. Last time I gave it a check during a trip was at Ulva Ferry, where I discovered that all but about three threads on each side of the bottlescrew had completely stripped and after undoing it half a turn I could simply pull it apart. A tad worrying. Luckily the every-helpful harbourmaster, Mark, was able to sell me a very nice, very heavy duty replacement at a mutually agreeable price, saving me a trip to Tobermory at least and maybe a longer wait.
Sorry, bit off topic. I tension at the start of the season and untension at the end.
Quandary
Well-Known Member
I do not really get this, possibly because I come from a racing background, but surely there is a direct relationship between the useful life of a sail and the proportion of time it is under tension, if you ease the halyard tension before you furl ( as recommended by Furlex and many others to extend the performance of their gear) you are only subjecting the sail to tension for the time you are actually sailing, in our case perhaps 30 days out of the 50 odd we are on the boat in a season, perhaps only a total of about 100 hours or less instead of over 4000.
2.5%? That is a shock, I thought I had more fun than that in a season.
I can understand that if you do not study sail shape or performance it is something else to do, but would you ride your bike on flat tyres?
2.5%? That is a shock, I thought I had more fun than that in a season.
I can understand that if you do not study sail shape or performance it is something else to do, but would you ride your bike on flat tyres?
johnalison
Well-Known Member
Much like what I said. It is the effect on the furling gear that chiefly interests me. Although I grease my gear according to the instructions, the difference in effort when easing the tension is all too obvious. Even with a laminate jib, it makes sense to relax the sail when not in use, something I also do with the mainsail foot. It is not as if either task involves much time or effort.
Refueler
Well-Known Member
OP never mentions cars ... which I adjust as well ... also he never asked about backstays ...
I just have difficulty accepting halyard tension adjust on a furler ... only time I would expect to adjust is if it was 'slack' !
Boathook
Well-Known Member
I let the tension off my jib after sailing just to save stretching it. The main and jib are easy to take off but putting them back on is another game. The jib has an UV strip and is rolled tightly so during the season not a problem. During winter it is taken off. The same really applies to the main as well.
Laser310
Well-Known Member
Luff foils are very common on race boats - they permit headsail changes without being bare-headed.
on race boats with head foils.., the halyard tension might be adjusted several times in a single weather leg.
The presence or absence of a foil isn't really that important - you can still get all the benefits of adjusting halyard tension even with a foil.
the primary effect of luff tension is in draft position - increasing luff tension moves the draft forward. In the simplest case, you might add luff tension just to counteract the natural tendency for draft to to move aft as the wind increases.., to keep the maximum draft in the correct position, fore and aft.