Jib Sheet Clew Attachment Poll

[upstateny]

Interesting there were 9 of you that said you used soft shackle. Some sort of spliced eye(s) seem to be the preferred method when using soft shackle, which obviously reduces weight.

For R/F folks the lark's head / cow hitch makes perfect sense with the least weight and simple knot.

The alpine butterfly does not seem to be very popular.

Only one of you mentioned a metal shackle, used for racing, which could hurt you when flopping around.

One of you mentioned a potential problem of loosing the soft shackle when the weather is at its worst.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

[Ziggy]

Originally Posted by Knotical

One sheet with cow hitch directly on the clew.

Some posters use soft shackle with bowline etc., why wouldn’t you tie bowline directly to the clew?

I found bowlines are fine, except they can catch on shrouds when tacking. I use dedicated sheets for each head sail, attached with cow hitches directly to the clew rings.


Very early in my sailing career I had a jib sheet snap shackle open up, resulting in a shredded jib in a matter of seconds! There's also risk of injury. Snap shackles are a very poor choice.

[HeinSdL]

Another vote for the metal quick release J-clips. I think their advantage is that they don't tend to catch on anything, are quick to apply and take of which is handy when racing and the downside of them hitting you on the head is manageable: they're quite light weight and once one hits you on the head the clew will follow soon thereafter which is at least as dangerous if not more so. In other words, keep clear of the clew regardless of how the sheets are connected.

When I bought my boat it came with a No1 and No3 which were hoisted via a double luff forestay. But the No1 was old and worn out and useful in only the lightest winds and more use was the No4 which was added later. But handling those sails obviously is a bit more involved so with the family on board I furl.

It's a compromise, I don't really like the airgap between deck and foot of the (108%) furling genoa nor do I like the fact that the tack is not connected to the deck directly, but handling it is great, so for cruising into and out of bays, not too bad.

[Don C L]

I've tried other variations but for my hanked-on headsails 2 sheets with bowlines has been the easiest. I don't have trouble with them hanging up on shrouds. Once when I was very young and very foolish I thought I'd try speeding things up by putting snap shackles on the sheets. That lasted about five minutes after I got whacked by the flogging clew. I think you can only survive those dumb mistakes when you are young and you can recover more quickly!

[fxykty]

We have a self tacking jib with a traveler track and it is controlled by a single sheet, which goes from the cockpit through a block on the traveler then up around a block attached to the clew then back down to a second block on the traveler and tied off at the other end of the track. Effectively 2:1 purchase, which allows us to use a smaller winch.

We attach the block to the clew with a soft shackle. The eye of the shackle is quite small and we have no worries about it flogging off.

We change headsails and use the same sheet, so the soft shackle is easiest to use.

[Loon]

Originally Posted by Calif.Ted

Furler, one sheet, larkshead/cowhitch

I use a larks head knot then stitch a suncover ,anti chafe covering over about a one foot area. Works great.

[MickMeck]

I have a roller furling Genoa with two separate sheets with spliced eyes and a soft shackle.

[edexter]

We have a small sailboat with a CTS furler and a 170 genoa, so a single sheet works well. We use a cow hitch in the middle of the sheet so both tails are of equal length, figured that would be stronger and less problematic than any other way. We take the sheet off at the end of season when we drop the mast so we can inspect it.

For fenders we have a couple of different setups: we have some plastic clips that snap onto the hand rails and taffrail, which works at the stern and amidships where there are rails; and we have some with lines tied to both ends of the fender forming a loop that we can hang on the winches, aft cleats, and other projections. Since the boat is small, we usually hang them immediately below the side deck since our deck is generally lower than our friends' vessels, and lots of fixed docks.

[donradcliffe]

There are two sides to a bowline, and if you use the right side, they are much less likely to hang up on shrouds, etc. When I used a cow hitch on a smaller boat, it was always a PITA to get the knot apart after it had been under load. I used the J-hooks as a bowman on raceboats, and am lucky I still have all my teeth.

[SV Coronado]

Just curious, for those of you that use spliced eyes in your sheets, are you not periodically swapping your sheets end-to-end to distribute wear? (...or do you have a spliced eye in both ends?)

[Charliesierra23]

I'm a new sailer with a small boat (Catalina 22), so just learning and largely maintained whatever the previous owner had. That said, I have a hank on jib, use a single sheet with larks head at the clew and a snap shackle at the tack; though after reading the replies I will probably switch to a soft shackle at the tack.

[upstateny]

Originally Posted by Charliesierra23

I'm a new sailer with a small boat (Catalina 22), so just learning and largely maintained whatever the previous owner had. That said, I have a hank on jib, use a single sheet with larks head at the clew and a snap shackle at the tack; though after reading the replies I will probably switch to a soft shackle at the tack.

Charlie welcome. I don't think anyone here is using soft shackle for the tack. I would keep the snap shackle at the tack. It's the metal shackle in the clew that can hurt yah.

[IanTrail]

We got fed up with UV eating our roller genoas (even with UV strips) so my wife made a genoa cover than we can haul and zip up over the sail. It worked OK except for getting it past the two bowlines half-way up the forestay. Now we use a double length sheet with a bowline on the bight in the middle; it lies much flatter on the sail when furled and you can guarantee that it won't come undone. StuM suggests an Alpine Butterfly (which I had to look up). Same idea.

Tying a bowline on the bight through a clew thimble is a real game pulling yards of rope through. So for our non-furling sails we use two sheets with normal bowlines. For security, I leave long ends and poke them back through the clew thimble if possible (if there is enough room for 4 ropes through the thimble).

[Smokeys Kitchen]

Roller furler, 2 separate sheets, bowline in each end directly to clew.

[Spot]

Hanked-on head sail, two head sail sheets, some sort of shackle through the clew, two bowlines to the shackle. I am guessing I found the sail with the shackle in the clew otherwise I would probably have just tied off the sheets to the clew.