Swopping Halyards About...

Little Rascal,

on my slightly larger version of your boat, the halliard winch - just outboard of the main hatch, to starboard - is most definitely for the foresail halliard.

The main halliard is pulled up tight as poss' manually, then if necessary tensioned further by pulling down the boom on the gooseneck track; it's not unknown for light crew to sit their weight on the boom at the tack end for this, but really no great effort should be required.

Check your halliards are 'pre-stretched' stuff, essential !

If at all possible, use ball bearing blocks for everything remotely suitable, especially reefing lines and halliards; for the latter, if led aft double ball bearing blocks with the line running inbetween are great, cutting out friction or chafe.

Spinlock clutches for the headsail & main halliards are jolly nice to have, like all such kit requiring good backing pads with bolts & wood then penny washers, but one has to hold one's breath and close eyes when paying...still it's only once and would otherwise be wasted on taking the girlfriend out for soon forgotten meal/s, or a couple of tanks of petrol...
 
Last edited:
Giblets said:
Was reading with tongue firmly in cheek as well! :D
Click to expand...

Probably always a good idea when reading the MMS catalogue....

Ok so:
I have a nice small spinlock jammer for one of the halyards (starboard), and the winch and a standard cleat for the other (port). It's a bit odd but the winch is ahead of the cleat on the hunters so you have to leave the halyard on the winch and cleat it off, meaning that the winch can only be used for one thing.

I will look into sorting the friction in the luff groove. I think it's mostly that, although the halyard thickness is possibly a bit oversize.

I can (by swapping the halyards at the mast base) choose whether to winch the foresail or mainsail halyard. I'm not sure which will be best for sail shape. I think the luff of the main does need more tension - the draft is aft! I haven't looked closely at the genoa shape recently - perhaps that would benefit from the winch more?

The photo below shows the set up the boat came with... I believe the winch position is original - it's the same on most of the Europas.
 
Last edited:
Little Rascal,

how about a cunningham tackle on the main ? I think Millets still do eyelet kits, so no need for the cost & delay of taking it to a sailmaker...I'm certain the foresail will need the winch, quite possibly a backstay tensioner too.
 
Seajet said:
how about a cunningham tackle on the main ?
Click to expand...

Yep I have that - a temporary one at the moment, not led aft. The problem is that the boom tends to slant down into the cockpit too much - it's not horizontal. So I think I need to solve that first.

Seajet said:
possibly a backstay tensioner too.
Click to expand...

Yep got that sorted at the end of last year.
 
Last edited:
Hmmm,

maybe a flattening reef ?

Otherwise sounds like an expensive phone call to the sailmakers; Westaways also have secondhand sails graded marks out of 10 by quality & condition - 01752 892560.

Are you a member of the yahoo forum run by Toby Roberts ? They often discuss sails ( I get the mails as I met Toby when he fancied a new build Anderson ) - though it's usually people asking where they can get cheap sails !
 
I think Phil's right, the bolt rope is pretty 'rucked'.

It's only sewn in to the last 4" at the tack though. How easy is it to sort do you reckon?
 
Last edited:
Seajet said:
Little Rascal,

how about a cunningham tackle on the main ? I think Millets still do eyelet kits, so no need for the cost & delay of taking it to a sailmaker...I'm certain the foresail will need the winch, quite possibly a backstay tensioner too.
Click to expand...

The main cunningham on my Squib is a small single Seasure block sewn onto the luff, very simple; small rope throuh it tied to somewhere suitable then other end down & through a turining block then little clam cleat; 2:1 purchase - more than enough. ;)
 
Last edited:
BAtoo said:
The main cunningham on my Squib is a small single Seasure block sewn onto the luff, very simple small; rope throuh it tied to somewhere suitable then other end down & through a block; 2:1 purchase - more than enough. ;)
Click to expand...

BAtoo,

that's spiffing, but in post #26 Little Rascal mentions he already has one, so not the magic answer I was hoping.
 
Little Rascal said:
I think Phil's right, the bolt rope is pretty 'rucked'.

It's only sewn in to the last 4" at the tack though. How easy is it to sort do you reckon?
Click to expand...
Whilst the rest are going on about cunninghams and stuff ........ yes, that is shrunk. Unpick the stitching and extend the luff envelope to get rid of the rucks. You'll probably find that the bolt rope is about 6" or so short.
We do have a sailmaker on here so they could probably tell you how to overcome this. I'd just shove a length of rope down the empty pocket and stitch that and the existing rope in. It's only to stop the luff pulling out of the groove. The tension is in the sail material.
A new luff tape is probably the better answer, or a new sail.
 
Thanks Lakie, the luff groove opening is about 12" above the boom anyway, so I might get away without putting a new section in? Although I probably will anyway... (I'm afraid a new sail is out of the question at the moment... :()

I would appreciate any advice/input from sailmakers or anyone else for that matter...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top