Attaching Jib Sheets

[SaucySailoress]

We use bowlines attached to clips. Bloody strong clips, mind, but they never come undone due to somebody tying them wrong!

[sailr69]

Originally Posted by Joli

We use bowlines and end for end on a regular basis to get more even wear. We have had sheets part that looked fine so I prefer two seperate sheets tied by bowlines. Girth hitches and Brummels are fine for smaller boats with minimum load but not a good way to go when getting into a larger boat.

My $.02

sheets parting? get something better then clothes line. how much load can there be on sheets? unless you are on 60+ race boats. I would assume most sailors have sheets much stronger then they need for the reason of comfort for trimming. I know I do. never seen wear on a sheet's bowline. if there was, cut off the end and start over. is this a stupid issue or not?

no offence. sorry

[sailr69]

Originally Posted by SaucySailoress

We use bowlines attached to clips. Bloody strong clips, mind, but they never come undone due to somebody tying them wrong!

if you are tying bowlines, what are the clips for?

[Wanderlust]

Originally Posted by SaucySailoress

We use bowlines attached to clips.

I don't like the thought of a hard metal object (or two) being flapped around in a strong breeze and ready to hit me in the mouth. Double bowlines would hurt enough.

I use a single line, passing the doubled middle of the rope through the clew, and then each end through the loop that is formed. The downside is that it's harder to undo than a bowline, but I leave it attached permanently.

[sv-Mystique]

Originally Posted by Cotemar

2 Bowlines to the clew. One to port and one to Starboard.

BoatUS Magazine - Tying It All Together | Aug - Sept 2012

The only way to do it!

[Caribsailors]

Bowlines on the headsail have never failed me in 42 years of sailing....I'm to old to change...well not really, always looking to work easy Mon.
Cheers

[Jim Cate]

Well, here's a different opinion... one that works for us:

With our Solent rig, the genoa must slide between the staysail and the forestay when tacking, and that is a challenge at best. So, reducing the number if things that can hang it up is important to us. I've settled upon small eye splices in the ends of the sheets and a bow shackle through the clew ring. Helps sliding through somewhat and is easy to undo when required.

The issue of getting whacked seems a bit overworked to me. On our genoa, the clew ring is a s/s ring made of 3/8 inch diameter stock, along with a straight reinforcing bar across the ring. Weighs a lot more than a shackle. This is webbed into the sail. IMO, the addition of a shackle does not really change very much the nature of getting whacked... bad news either way!

Further, on boats of modern design and of > around 40 feet, the clew is often well above head height, so the problem goes away.

So, I don't agree that bowlines are "the only way to do it"

Cheers,

Jim

[Andrew Troup]

I like soft shackles.

Nothing wakes you up like a wee tap from a D-shackle the size of a boy's fist. I only say that because my first long ocean passage (in nineteeneightymumble) was on a boat with alloy steel wire cables (not stainless - not strong or durable enough...) for headsail sheets.
The sheet loads were routinely around 8000kg - similar to the displacement of a modern 40 footer.

These were spliced to dacron tails, but when hard on the wind, the wire was the right length to make the first couple of turns round the winch drum, because the dacron couldn't handle the peak loads you only get on that point of sail.

I was told a 16mm D shackle was the only strong enough connection (as a concession to modernity, it did have a recessed hex drive to the shackle pin) >

I was surprised that no Sparcraft or similar snapshackles could handle the loads, and by way of an answer I was shown a couple which quite clearly hadn't....

It's hard to tie bowlines with wire sheets... (they're also a proper bugger to coil down...)

Mercifully modern materials like Spectra, Amsteel, Dynex Dux etc have superseded this even on big boats.

[s/v Jedi]

There was a time before jib furlers and we used a soft shackle for the jib sheet then. To lower the sail you have to work the foredeck and I've been hit with that soft shackle multiple times, mostly on my fore arms and one time on the head, which brought me down to sit for a moment or two. Imagine what a stainless shackle would do...

Now we use furlers and don't need to go there so often anymore. Still, it's important to keep it as safe as possible because we might need to work there in case of trouble. A stainless ring sewn into a sail is one thing, shackles whipping about another. The bowline knots will hurt enough...

[tamicatana]

In that I have a furling jib, I'm using a single piece of line with an eye spliced in the middle, cow-hitched/luggage-tagged to the jib clew.

My setup is low profile and doesn't snag on things. I find that bowlines do hang on lots of things. Besides, as has been mentioned, knots reduce line strength considerably.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by tamicatana

Very nice, good looking rope too

[Group9]

I use bowlines, too. I don't think I would like the idea of having to go foward and deal with a problem with a jib with a big chunck of metal flying around that could hit me.

Metal shackles to attach sheets to jibs being one of those, "looks good, works bad" solutions.