Jib sheet Knots

poter said:
What knots would you use on the Jib Sheets, I am about to put up the mast with new rigging & I always had a problem with my Jib sheet knots. I am using 12mm braid on braid & usually use a bowline but as I said it can & does get caught on the mast. The Jib is 130%.

Any thoughts???
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If a bowline is getting caught then chances are any knot away from the sail will.

Time for a nice new jib sheet. One long continuous sheet cow-hitched to the clew.
 
My staysail sheet is cow-hitched to the sail, but it still gets caught on the shrouds. Maybe it would be worse if I used bowlines.

I have seen a short length of line spliced into the sheets a few inches back from the knots, providing a smooth run from one sheet to the other. The splice doesn't need to be anything clever as it doesn't take any real load, just tucked into the sheath.

Pete
 
Have used a cow hitch with a single sheet (which I think I prefer) in the past, now use bowlines as this boat came with decent separate sheets.

It helps on my boat to clip the pole downhaul to the middle pole ring (no track, 3 rings) and keep it tight & the sheets ride over it & don't get caught.
 
Bowline quick to untie and re-tie

We use bowlines because it's handy to have something that can be untied quickly and then retied after we've had to thread a jib sheet back to the correct side of the spinnaker pole on the odd occasion when the foredeck gang get it wrong. Yes, I know that shouldn't happen but Mr Murphy and his law applies when sailing (especially when sailing).

If you have an assymetric kite then you can't get into that sort of pole tangle so the Dyneema soft shackles make sense. Been on one boat that uses them and they seemed fine and certainly no sign of snagging on anything.
 
LadyInBed said:
The Alpine Butterfly Knot I am using in my single line jib sheet is working well. You just have to work out how to tie it through the crinkle ;)
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Respect for that on it would be challenge, personally do not like cow hitch as I have seen them slip.

Presently lazy technique is bowline, I have then started using same rope as mooring rope :o. Its just easier than getting another rope out of the locker...
 
The reason I am going to join the 'bowline' brigade is that sometimes circumastances dictate that you are going to have to untie the clew from the sheet. The cowhitch solution might seem elegant, but you're stuffed if you want to get the sheet off the sail on a stormy night in the dark.

What exactly is getting stuck. We have a babystay with a plastic cover on the bottom few metres and the sail never gets stuck - perhaps the OP should try a plastic 'rolling cover' on whatever the clew is getting 'stuck' on?

How stuck - just a bit sticky or stuck enough for someone to have to go and free it?
 
john_morris_uk said:
The reason I am going to join the 'bowline' brigade is that sometimes circumastances dictate that you are going to have to untie the clew from the sheet. The cowhitch solution might seem elegant, but you're stuffed if you want to get the sheet off the sail on a stormy night in the dark.

What exactly is getting stuck. We have a babystay with a plastic cover on the bottom few metres and the sail never gets stuck - perhaps the OP should try a plastic 'rolling cover' on whatever the clew is getting 'stuck' on?

How stuck - just a bit sticky or stuck enough for someone to have to go and free it?
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The nice thing about a cow hitch is that it preserves the length of line so if something happens elsewhere you still haves long piece.

If you have to get the sheet off as you suggest then a knife does the job faster than you can undo a bowline. You are then no worse off than anyone else.

Cow hitch for me.
 
Ex-SolentBoy said:
The nice thing about a cow hitch is that it preserves the length of line so if something happens elsewhere you still haves long piece.

If you have to get the sheet off as you suggest then a knife does the job faster than you can undo a bowline. You are then no worse off than anyone else.

Cow hitch for me.
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Sorry I don't buy that argument. I have got plenty of long lines on board, and if I want a longer one I can tie two bits together. Using a knife is a drastic and 'emergency only' type vandalism to a sheet IMHO. The sort of circumstance I was thinking of is when you want to swap the sheet to a different lead to gybe over onto a new tack and reduce chafe. I know you can de-rig the sheet through the genoa car and turning blocks etc and then re-lead back to the cockpit, but there's something that's just wrong to me about seizing the sheets onto the clew with a cow-hitch or whatever except on the smallest of boats.
 
None of the above.

Bowlines are clumbungy and snag and a cow hitch cannot be undone after heavy load.

I recommend the method that I was shown by the late great Des Sleightholme, Editor of YM, in the Little Ship Club, in 1975.

Use a single sheet, or a diameter that a bight can just be passed through the clew grommet; middle it, make an eye with a racking seizing, splice or seize a short end of rope of the same size a few inches back from the new eye and extending just past the eye.

Shove the eye into the clew, shove the short end through the eye, pull back and you've got the sheets attached in a reliable, snag-free, way which you can undo in a moment.

QED
 
Minn said:
None of the above.

Bowlines are clumbungy and snag and a cow hitch cannot be undone after heavy load.

I recommend the method that I was shown by the late great Des Sleightholme, Editor of YM, in the Little Ship Club, in 1975.

Use a single sheet, or a diameter that a bight can just be passed through the clew grommet; middle it, make an eye with a racking seizing, splice or seize a short end of rope of the same size a few inches back from the new eye and extending just past the eye.

Shove the eye into the clew, shove the short end through the eye, pull back and you've got the sheets attached in a reliable, snag-free, way which you can undo in a moment.

QED
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If you are going to use a single sheet then the sheets will not snag as the OP requires. There are lots of different ways of doing this like your suggestion, dyneema strops, cow hitches or whatever. I am sure we all have our preferences and will argue them till the cow hitches go home. :o

If, on the other hand you think the ability to detach a single sheet is important (I don't, but that's not important) they you will have to have some type of a knot. Either a stopper type pushing both sheets through the clew, or something where the knots are before the clew. Either way the possibility of jamming exists. It all depends on your sails and your boat.

I guess I have been lucky. We have never jammed a sail when tacking. Either that or I bought the right boat. We have used cow hitches, short bowlines, long bowlines and even seized loops.
 
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