Twistig jib halyards

[Seagreen]

I put a general post up on this topic on the PBO forum, but I'll add more detail here. The PBO bermudan sailors will not understand so well.

My jib halyard is a typical gaffer arrangement. It is double ended, running through cheek blocks at the hounds and the block attached to the head of the jib. One end is the main part, and the other end has yet another block with a single whip as a tensioning system at the other end.

The problem is, though this halyard is braided not 3 strand rope, it still twists like 'eck when hoisting the sail. I have swivels where possible but it still twists. Can anyone suggest a good twist resistant rope to try? I'd rather not go to wire.

 

[chart5011]

As counter intuitive as it sounds I think that you need to remove some, if not all of the swivel blocks from your system and replace them with standard blocks. I had a similar problem on a previous gaffer I owned, the halyard twisted between two swivel blocks making it impossible to get good luff tension and hard to lower the jib.

The fixed blocks won't allow the twisting to take place.

My first thought was also to change the halyard but that was not the answer.

A very frustrating problem.
Good luck.

 

[Seagreen]

As counter intuitive as it sounds I think that you need to remove some, if not all of the swivel blocks from your system and replace them with standard blocks. I had a similar problem on a previous gaffer I owned, the halyard twisted between two swivel blocks making it impossible to get good luff tension and hard to lower the jib.

The fixed blocks won't allow the twisting to take place.

My first thought was also to change the halyard but that was not the answer.

A very frustrating problem.
Good luck.

Thats certainly an easy one to try so that'll be my next move. I have tried unroving the whole thing, getting as much of the twist out and also removing the wickham martin gear (I thought that was the issue) but still no joy. Preventing the sail from twisting as its hoisted may well help, though very difficult to do in practice.

 

[cliffordpope]

That's an excellent suggestion I think.
You need to visualise what is going on, in slow motion as you apply tension. The rope wants to twist. If you have a fixed block, then the rope is constrained and is induced to relieve that twist as it runs over the sheeve, so by the time the sail is hoisted the twist has run through the block and is all now safely on the other side, and cannot twist up because a) the rope is long, and b) it is under tension.

Contrast that with a swiveling block and the twist is discouraged from feeding through out of the way, and gradually becomes concentrated in an ever shortening section where it is free to cause mischief.

 

[Romeo]

Thats certainly an easy one to try so that'll be my next move. I have tried unroving the whole thing, getting as much of the twist out and also removing the wickham martin gear (I thought that was the issue) but still no joy. Preventing the sail from twisting as its hoisted may well help, though very difficult to do in practice.

There is an article somewehre, it might be in this month's CB, suggesting clipping to top swivel of your WM gear onto the forestay with a caribina. Whether that is practical or handy will depend on your boat.

 

[mikeinkwazi]

As counter intuitive as it sounds I think that you need to remove some, if not all of the swivel blocks from your system and replace them with standard blocks. I had a similar problem on a previous gaffer I owned, the halyard twisted between two swivel blocks making it impossible to get good luff tension and hard to lower the jib.

The fixed blocks won't allow the twisting to take place.

My first thought was also to change the halyard but that was not the answer.

A very frustrating problem.
Good luck.

I agree, remove all the swivel blocks you can. I had this problem on the throat halyard (twisting so much the gaff refused to come down!) till I replaced with fixed blocks.