Sweating up the main halyard

[pcatterall]

We have two little winches on our mast ( 33 foot ketch) but often just hoist the main by sweating it up round one of the cleats and making it fast and leaving the winch clear.
It seems to work fine in terms of luff tension ( as far as my eye can tell.... vertical wrinkles just starting) Am I doing it wrong?

Similarly if we use the winch for the genoa halyard could we run it through a jamming cleat on the mast above the winch and ( again ) free the winch?

 

[johnalison]

Not many things to do with sailing are absolutely right or wrong - just that some ways work better than others. On my 22' boat I used to sweat the main up with a snubbing-winch, and at the time I thought that was OK, but with larger boats and greater forces involved I have sought more control. As the wind increases, the shape of the main will inevitably change, usually for the worse, and it will lose its aerofoil shape. This will give less drive and cause more drage, ie, the boat will go slower and heel more. Most of us increase the main halyard tension as the wind increases so that the aerofoil stays about the same, typically with the greatest flow about 1/3 way back from the luff.

I see no reason why you shouldn't free the winch with a jamming-cleat, which is what boats with lines led aft do on the coachroof. The jamming cleat needs to be very securely fastened to take the load.

 

[lw395]

You could try adding a downhaul or cunningham tackle if you feel the need to try a bit more luff tension.
If you can sweat the halliard up with no leach tension, and the halliard does not stretch much, there may be little gain in winching it.
But not all sails are the same. Some need lots of luff tension to keep the draft forwards, others do not.
Every boat I've reefed has wanted the halliard winching with a reef in though. Maybe that could be got around with some proper calibration and a good downhaul?

 

[Poignard]

My boat has its gooseneck mounted on a slide with a tackle downhaul. The mainsail can be hauled up all the way by hand and then the luff is easily tensioned with the downhaul (assisted by gravity ).

 

[ashtead]

Not quite certain why you don't use the winches on mast but I imagine what's fine in F2 might not be so good on sails in F5 say so our approach is rather dependent on weather you chose to sail in surely and the muscle which you have to sweat up the halyard

 

[BabaYaga]

Similarly if we use the winch for the genoa halyard could we run it through a jamming cleat on the mast above the winch and ( again ) free the winch?

This photo shows how it can be done. Although, is this case the genoa halyard exists from the mast base, so reversed compared to what you intend. But the principle remains the same and the winch (out of the frame, 30 cm up) is free other tasks, in my case for tightening the halyard of the storm jib on the inner forestay.