jib downhaul

[joeh]

hi
has any one experience of using a jib downhaul line for remote pulling down of jib from cockpit. jib is of hank luff. will jib fall nicely on foredeck downwind, upwind, backed or what ? easing of halyard is from cockpit singlehanded. thks.

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[Rick]

Fitted one to our Sailability 24 footer last week - was simply a piece of 4 mm VB cord that passed through a block attached to the stem head, and was then tied onto the head board of the jib. As it happened, we had some trouble with the upper hanks "capsizing" and locking, so moved the attachement down two hanks and it worked fine.

I found that the sail was easily doused by firstly sheeting on hard, secondly opening the halyard rope clutch, and then heading up very slightly as the downhaul was pulled to stop the lower third or so of the sail tangling in the lifelines.

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[charles_reed]

Surprised you

need one - Go head to wind and the whole thing should come down on deck.

I had to fit a downhaul on my forestay - the problem was due to the forestay attachment point trapping #1 halyard. Once that was sorted I had no problem with the thing coming down.
Mind you I've got a Rotostay roller reef which is used for all sails except the solent.

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[WayneS]

I fitted on on my last boat. Just run the downhaul through the top hank before attaching to the head. That way tha top hank will not capsize when you pull it down.

Cheers

Wayne


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[joeh]

hi wayne thanks for the tip. one other thing : do u run the downhaul line inside thru all the hanks ?

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[WayneS]

No, if you run it through all of them you may find that there is too much friction.

Just run it from the cockpit, through a block at the bottom, through the topmost hank and secure it to the head of the sail.

Play around a bit, maybe you need to run it through the top two hanks but I managed with only one.

Cheers

Wayne


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