Topping Lift

[LONG_KEELER]

Quite so. We used to do it on the Broads for practice and fun but I have never done it since. For manoeuvring under sail I would be more likely to drop the main and use the jib furler to control the speed.

I found it useful when I had hank on jibs with a small main (masthead rig) .

Furling jibs changed quite a few things.

 

[Daydream believer]

Kukri has a loose footed bermudian mainsail - I could trice up the tack!

Your picture does show a boom, so one assumes!!! ( & we all know the definition of assumption, so apologies now) the clew is held to the boom, either by a lashing, or by a slug in the track.
Difficult to tell in the picture as it looks as if you have been playing cats cradle in your "bored" moments
Only joking
Are you are referring to "trice up the tack" ( a term, I admit, I have never heard before) as being to let of the clew & Pulling it up in the general direction of the spreader, thus sacandalising the mainsail?
If you are then one assumes that you would need a rope to the clew, from somewhere near the spreader sheaved on the aft side of the mast & taken down to the base of the mast. Whilst pulling this the clew fixing & outhaul would need releasing & the outhaul line would need to be fairly long.
Surely you were not considering faffing with that on a bermudian rig.
Or have I missunderstood the term "Trice"

 

[Daydream believer]

deleted

 

[Poignard]

Practical Boat Owner

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Trice up, to
Robert Melotti

Robert Melotti January 10, 2010

Trice up, to

Or to ‘truss up’, can be used in much the same way as a farmwife talks of trussing up a chicken. You can trice up almost anything with cord or rope, but in practice this old term lives on mainly in gaff-rigged boats which have loose-footed mainsails. Such craft will have a tricing line attached to the Tack of the sail, running through a block at the Gaff jaws, and down to the deck. The tack of the sail can thus be hauled up to reduce the sail area and spoil its shape so that the boat moves slowly. The sail is then half-way to being Scandalised.

 

[Daydream believer]

Thanks for putting me right on that one. As I said I had never heard the term, having never sailed a gaff rigged cruising boat.

 

[Poignard]

 

[Poignard]

I started a thread about tricing many years ago;

Tricing up the mainsail

 

[LONG_KEELER]

I bought a boat once that had a bight of shock chord spliced into the topping lift line fairly near the boom end.

The idea being you never had to adjust the TL putting the main up and down. It stayed there for about 10 years.

 

[Poignard]

 

[The Q]

I see scandalised mains every weekend at our sailing club, that's when they finish a race and need to come in without blocking the finish line by stopping to lower the main.
Lazy jack systems are not popular as we sail very close to each other, about 6 inches is a good distance apart, and also heeling into the trees lining the river bank, extra loose ropes near branches are not a good Idea. The stays are bad enough..

I'm having an interesting time at the moment with my little sailing boat 16ft sit in facing forward like an International 2.4mR, i need to design a lazy jack / topping lift system , so I can drop the main before heading for the club house, without it all landing on my head.. The problem being the boom with sail will be stored inside the hull when not in use, so I don't want a lazy jack system that takes ages to remove. The lazy jack system will also need to take the place of the topping lift as some don't.

 

[doug748]

Another use of the topping lift is to scandalise the main. Very useful at times. Easy, but noisy, way to lose drive in a hurry.

It's possibly most handy when picking up or leaving a mooring under sail or anchoring under sail and getting away. Especially where the wind is fitful or the tide has marginal ascendancy. People who don't sail like that may say they can't see the point

I use relatively light three strand for the topping lift and am not fussed if it is a bit stretchy. As others have said, it has a number of other potential uses and I would never want to sail without one, ever.

.

 

[Lightwave395]

8mm dyneema for me, it's white with a fleck but I know which one it is as I've pulled it enough times (it also says so on the clutch)

 

[Graham_Wright]

I forgot to mention.
The topping lift is also useful to improve head clearance when the main is stowed.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

A decent topping lift enables the mainsheet and boom to be used to bring heavy loads aboard, such as an MOB. I am replacing my topping lift with 7mm this month

And I have used it to scandalise the main when trying to get drive off in blustery conditions. OK so I had too much canvas up, but scandalising got me half out of the mess

A vang does some of the same but puts a bending strain on the boom and may not have enough reach to lift the boom enough to be effective

 

[Graham_Wright]

A decent topping lift enables the mainsheet and boom to be used to bring heavy loads aboard, such as an MOB.

Forgot that one although I am now persuaded (for a MOB) that a masthead line is better to clear the hull and comes (probably) with an available winch.

 

[johnalison]

I was told that a topping lift was essential when hoisting the main to avoid stressing and stretching the leach. I always did this on our last boat but with the boom strut I don't need to currently as there is no weight on the leach except for the last few inches.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Forgot that one although I am now persuaded (for a MOB) that a masthead line is better to clear the hull and comes (probably) with an available winch.

Indeed. I have a 6:1 handy billy that I can attach part way up spinaker halliard, as halliard winch in itself didnt enable Navigator to lift 16st "victim" on board. But I can manage with the 4:1 mainsheet system and thats a lot quicker to unclip and set up

 

[Stemar]

i need to design a lazy jack / topping lift system , so I can drop the main before heading for the club house, without it all landing on my head.. The problem being the boom with sail will be stored inside the hull when not in use, so I don't want a lazy jack system that takes ages to remove. The lazy jack system will also need to take the place of the topping lift as some don't.

A cheek block high on the mast and a cleat near the bottom would allow you to lower the LJs. A small snapshackle at the top of the "fan" of lines would allow you to disconnect the fan from the lazyjack halyard and roll them away with the sail. I had a similar arrangement on Jissel as the boom needed to be raised when not under sail or it would brain us.

 

[The Q]

A cheek block high on the mast and a cleat near the bottom would allow you to lower the LJs. A small snapshackle at the top of the "fan" of lines would allow you to disconnect the fan from the lazyjack halyard and roll them away with the sail. I had a similar arrangement on Jissel as the boom needed to be raised when not under sail or it would brain us.

Thanks, that is the way It's looking at the moment, but I'm also looking at some method of getting the lazy jacks and halyard to stow against the mast and boom while sailing . This having to be done while I'm sat in the seat. I've just seen a system using bungies that pull them to the mast at boom level which you pull against with the topping lift, I'm playing with drawings to see if that will work with my boats dimensions..