As is, my rig is easy to use. I just coil the halyards and hang them on the side cleats when underway. Drop the coils and undo the cleats and down they come. The halyards are half wire, so while when hanging free in the breeze they may flop around a bit, they are not going anywhere. Same can't be said for the wire end. You only have to let go of that once and watch the wire end head for the masthead to learn that routine. You never let go of them. They are always hooked to something........either tied to a sail or clipped to the spinnaker ring on the front of the mast. But I am now curious how some snug tension in the jib halyard will affect pointing ability. With what I have, I can tie in butterfly knot (won't jam) above the cleats and use that as a trucker's hitch to gain some purchase. I've had the turning blocks leading to that sheet winch off the cabin top to re-bed them and I wouldn't put too much tension on them.......not what I could generate with a sheet winch if I cranked on it with the handle. Or what I suspect might be generated by heavily loaded 155 genny. Maybe I baby it too much? Also, I've never used a backstay adjuster. I'm generally content to simply crank up the tension a few turns for a race or if I didn't want to tack all day long to go somewhere. I don't leave it that way as I didn't think that much tension on a regular basis was good for things. On Jul 7, 2011, at 4:41 PM, Tom Smith wrote:
You're probably not giving up much, Howard, if anything (you don't have as much complexity--one turn vs three--in the setup you have vs using the winch, but of course the winch gives you good mechanical advantage).
You could be giving up a little convenience because with the winch you don't have to secure all that head sail halyard at the mast base (just coil it and hang it on the winch), and I have a clam cleat to lead the halyard to, so I don't have to fool with cleating with a horn cleat. Neither are big deals, obviously.
I don't suppose you run as big a risk of losing the halyard up the mast with the blocks/winch combination, but there are ways around that too.
It sounds cool to use the winch?
t
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