Lines Leading aft £

thinwater

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Currently just the original non tailing but those will be replaced over the winter. On the other boat I have 16st winches. Awkward to solo sail without self tailers.
In fact, I have self-tailers, and often as not, don't use the feature.

Mount cam cleat on the bulkhead under the winch to park the tail. Very quick and efficient. You may decide you don't need self tailing winches on what is a smallish boat.
 

thinwater

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I have sliders and full chord batten cars ... the mix does catch in the mast groove 2 or 3 times during hoist - needing a hand at mast to pull down to straighten ..
Something is wrong. That should not be happening. I've had 4 boats over 40 years, sailed on many others, and can't remember a jam on the hoist with sliders (after a few maintenance adjustments on new-to-me boats). All full-batten sails. Perhaps the groove is damaged or the sliders are the wrong size or worn.
 

johnalison

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Never ??? I find that hard to believe .. sorry but I've lost count of the number and different boats I've sailed and they all at some time do catch a slider or so ...
There was one time when I had failed to screw the gate back in fully, but that's all I can remember.
 

thinwater

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Never ??? I find that hard to believe .. sorry but I've lost count of the number and different boats I've sailed and they all at some time do catch a slider or so ...
Reefing, no. Dropping sail in easy conditions, no.

Dropping the sail in bad conditions, yeah, you may very well be hauling the sail down, one slug at a time. At the mast.
 

Skysail

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Nobody has mentioned the use of bags in the cockpit to organise the lines led aft. My wife made them for our Moody 336 which had lines led aft. We found them invaluable, and the system worked well, with no jamming.
 

Daydream believer

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As others have said, it is not a problem even singlehanded, raising the main and reefing at the mast. Indeed that is the set up I much prefer an I'm single handed almost all the time. It keeps the cockpit freer of a clutter of ropes and should a problem arise, like sticky or jammed sail slider, halyard caught around stay, spreader, lazy jack etc you read already at the mast to sort it out.
What clutter? Several posts have referred to this. On my 31 ft boat I have the option of 26 different control lines in the cockpit ( not all at once of course, as I do not, for instance fly the genny at the same time as the self tracker). But after every major sail adjustment, I just coil the rope and hang it up. Ie The reef lines for single line reefing are not an issue being long because it is just a couple of extra loops in the coil.
I have everything sorted and rarely get any snagging. My lazy jacks are set at the start of the season an never snag.
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But I do change the ropes regularly, if they are seen to be getting hard. I remove them every winter and do not have green mould on them. That is a recipe for disaster and I often wonder at the state of some people,s running rigging.
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The only reason I go on deck is to release the main from 3 straps I have in the cover before hoisting and again to gather it in ( if I wish) and re buckle it when I drop it.
I have a line across the shrouds to stop the halyard from snagging on the stays.
All pullies for reefs are ball race type and halyards are thinner dynema a to avoid friction.
It is just a case of having the time to sit and plan what one needs to do and set it up so it works.
Plus , of course a few years practice ——-and bad language
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Dancing about on the deck should be, in my opinion, avoided as much as possible when single handed. You will have all the practice you need coming in to port putting out fenders and setting lines etc so the argument that mast work gives you experience of deck work is b…x. You will be on a 34 ft boat not the QE2
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As for cost- which is the purpose of the ops post. He needs to decide what he wants in the cockpit.
Halyards-2. Will be 38 m long 8 m dynema ( not cheepo stuff)
Reef lines- 2 or 3 probably 15-22 m each 8 m diam
Vang, Cunningham, clew out haul, asymmetric tack down haul. Asymmetric halyard
I would suggest that Tranona.s £2700 would be right if starting from scratch. You need decent clutches and organisers and packers plus pullies etc. winches need to be self tailing and you need to be able to free them up. The earlier suggestion that one can leave the halyard on the winch is, frankly,— well, decide for yourself
 
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Daydream believer

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Never ??? I find that hard to believe .. sorry but I've lost count of the number and different boats I've sailed and they all at some time do catch a slider or so ...
My sail comes down so quick I have to be. On my toes to stop it. My sailmaker sent me a couple of top sliders to try first so I got a nice easy hoist without any excessive friction.. even the sails on my old wooden masts were easy to use . I do not recall any sliders causing jams.
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But there again I maintain my boat and check such things as the mast and sails regularly. Stitch in time and all that:)
 

Zing

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Another vote here for mast reefing when single handing. I find it just fine. I thought about converting, but found very quickly that it’s good as it is and a conversion would make for a worse boat. I couldn’t do it without an autopilot though.
 

srm

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I couldn’t do it without an autopilot though.
Essential for single or short handed sailing. Either electric or one of the windvane self steering devices. Fitted the later to my second boat in the mid 70's and on every one since. Just use an electric tiller/wheel pilot for motoring. However, I have set/stowed sail singlehanded without any helm assistance but this was on a directionally stable boat. Hoist jib and sail on a close reach with helm on a becket to hoist main. Heave to or close reach to reef main or change headsails. Heave to then drop both main and headsail at much the same time. This with hank on sails and halyards at the mast. However one of the self steering devices makes life quite a bit easier.
Basically, find the system that you are most comfortable with. Fortunately, we have the freedom to do things the way we want to on out own boats.
 

geem

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"What clutter? ...... On my 31 ft boat I have the option of 26 different control lines in the cockpit...."

🧐
Yep. I noticed that. By comparison, we reef at the mast. The only lines in the cockpit are genoa/jib sheets and mainsheet. They are at the rear of the cockpit so the front of the cockpit has zero lines.
 

Refueler

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Another vote here for mast reefing when single handing. I find it just fine. I thought about converting, but found very quickly that it’s good as it is and a conversion would make for a worse boat. I couldn’t do it without an autopilot though.

Its an awkward matter on my 38 .. which needs sorting.
To reef the main ... need to sort controlling halyard which is led aft ... so far - I let out slightly more so main drops enough .. up to mast - hook onto ramshorn ... back to cockpit and tighten halyard ... take reef line at end of boom and make to sail cringle ... tighten reef line pulling sail tight along boom.

Why is reef line 'loose' at boom end ? I don't want two reef lines (one at each leech cringle) permanent and flapping around.

You can just see the tail of the line hanging from boom end ....

xT2pN6el.jpg
 

Daydream believer

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Yep. I noticed that. By comparison, we reef at the mast. The only lines in the cockpit are genoa/jib sheets and mainsheet. They are at the rear of the cockpit so the front of the cockpit has zero lines.
So every slight adjustment of the clew outhaul or vang means a trip to the mast does it?
Same with halyard tension on jib or mainsail.
Surely you do not just set them and leave them - good grief 😫😫😫
 

geem

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So every slight adjustment of the clew outhaul or vang means a trip to the mast does it?
Same with halyard tension on jib or mainsail.
Surely you do not just set them and leave them - good grief 😫😫😫
We have no fear of going on deck. We do all the adjustment we need at the mast. We recently sailed Azores to Ireland in 7 days. Antigua to Azores in May was 15 days, so yes, we do adjust. Both of these were fast passsges. Just me and my wife onboard, so we are single handed sailing in shifts.
We are likely doing quite different sailing to you so our boat is set up for what suits us best. It's not a money thing. We see no advantage to lines in the cockpit when we can do it all so easily at the mast with far less complexity. It may not be so easy on other boats that have complex deck shapes that provide difficult footing, low guardwires, light boats with an aggressive motion. We have a totally uncluttered flat deck, with large granny bars and 5 winches on the mast. We can put a reef in very quickly and both of us are quite happy to be on deck in +30kts at night without waking the other crew. It's what you get used to.
In addition, we don't need to maintain a complex system of clutches, jammers, blocks and sheaves. We have the front of the cockpit for sitting in. The space where you have jammers and winches, we locate the chartplotter under the sprayhood as we don't spend much time behind the wheel. When we are on night watch, it is much easier to see the plotter. It also keeps it out of the weather and we can stay dry under our large sprayhood.
None of this may be relevant to you but it does explain why we don't all have the same view of lines leading back to the cockpit
 
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johnalison

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We have no fear of going on deck. We do all the adjustment we need at the mast. We recently sailed Azores to Ireland in 7 days. Antigua to Azores in May was 15 days, so yes, we do adjust. Both of these were fast passsges. Just me and my wife onboard, so we are single handed sailing in shifts.
We are likely doing quite different sailing to you so our boat is set up for what suits us best. It's not a money thing. We see no advantage to lines in the cockpit when we can do it all so easily at the mast with far less complexity. It may not be so easy on other boats that have complex deck shapes that provide difficult footing, low guardwires, light boats with an aggressive motion. We have a totally uncluttered flat deck, with large granny bars and 5 winches on the mast. We can put a reef in very quickly and both of us are quite happy to be on deck in +30kts at night without waking the other crew. It's what you get used to.
In addition, we don't need to maintain a complex system of clutches, jammers, blocks and sheaves. We have the front of the cockpit for sitting in. The space where you have jammers and winches, we locate the chartplotter under the sprayhood as we don't spend much time behind the wheel. When we are on night watch, it is much easier to see the plotter. It also keeps it out of the weather and we can stay dry under our large sprayhood.
None of this may be relevant to you but it does explain why we don't all have the same view of lines leading back to the cockpit
Yes. The important thing is that we all have differing boats, different styles and areas of sailing, and especially different physical attributes. Although I have lines back to the cockpit, none of the lines sit in the cockpit. Most of them, such as spinnaker halyard and clew outhaul have short tails, but the long tails such as jib halyard are simply put into secure coils and kept forwards. It is not especially tidy but tangles don't seem to occur and colour-coding makes selection straightforward. My plotter is inside but some sister-ships have one under the sprayhood on a bracket clear of the clutches. I don't see this as a complication so much as a simplification of use.
 
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