Jib Downhaul & Stowage ?

[Andrew Troup]

Andrew G

We crossposted just now. Thanks for your thoughtful commentary on my earlier post.

I was unclear about slugs, and about using it as a non-rotating, twin-groove headfoil.

By slugs I mean short, round slugs as often fitted to smaller cruising mainsails. In my case I plan to make my own out of titanium, hard-coat anodised, then nylon dipped. (To avoid electrolytic corrosion to the foil track from stainless slugs)

The idea of fitting slugs in lieu of a boltrope is that, as with hanks, the luff remains captive and under control when you drop a sail. This makes it feasible to change sails offshore, alone. I will fit a gate at the bottom end so they don't drop out until I want them to. The gate can be springloaded so you can snap them in, one handed, without them coming straight back out.

And if the rotation means should fail, I can simply revert to headsail changes and drops, in lieu of reefing and furling, as if it was a twin groove, fixed headfoil.

[charliehows]

my 2 bobs worth - i singlehand all the time, the only time some trixy system for wrapping the jib without going forward would be necessary is the time the wind will have picked out the 2 key parts of that system and wrapped them around the samson post or some other object on the foredeck rendering them useless. Even the bloody roller furler gets fouled occasionally in a blow. best tool ive found for dealing with these situations is a continuous stream of captain haddock style swearing while you stumble forward and sort it out.

[Andrew Troup]

What a great post - I'm wiping tears from my eyes ....

Our esteemed mate makes a telling point. Singlehanders should think hard about eliminating (if building) or fairing (if existing build) all toe-magnets and rope-catchers forrard of the shrouds - especially those of us who are not gifted with the linguistic depth of Tintin's seadog sidekick.

Sampson posts (for a new build, especially on a metal yacht) can drop roughly flush with the deck, and re-emerge from a blind socket - I thought this was an idea I cribbed from Nicolson, but the only reference I can find in any of his books is p85 in "Marinize your boat" where he shows a disappearing bollard emerging through a close-fitting deck plate: By his admission this would be appropriate only for a racing boat which hardly ever used the thing in anger (a case of 'never mind the bollards'?) because any wear would see it leaking.

Alternatively sampson posts and towing bollards can bolt onto a reinforced plinth, so they can be removed entirely before sessions of foredeck combat.

Failing that, horn cleats and sampson posts can be 'muffled' by a removable "cleat-defeater" consisting of a couple of wooden or foam shoes shaped to form a fairing for each horn while effectively swallowing it. A length of bungy cord each side will cause them to embrace the cleat.

Sometimes fixed fairing pieces can be provided for cleats, turning blocks, hatch lids or other potential traps, stood away (if necessary) JUST enough to get a rope in, in the case of cleats. If the 'moat' for rope insertion is curved, you have to be pretty unlucky for a random rope to find its way in and not be able to escape when needed.
Naturally these need to provide a smooth, negative overhang profile, all the way down to the deck, when viewed from any direction.

These will also alleviate the excruciating toe-stubbing propensities of all cleats, padeyes, etc etc.

Ventilator cowls need metal hoops over them of smooth profile from all directions, negative overhang as above. Often these are designed with insufficient angle (ie vertical uprights instead of sloping)

If this seems like too much trouble for a singlehander, better get practicing your French: as suggested above, you'll be needing it.

[Andrew Troup]

I remembered another thing which is easy to arrange with slab reefing headsails and impossible with a furler:

Ideally as you reef a sail down, the angle at the tack becomes more acute. In lighter winds, you want to capture wind trying to take a shortcut from the high pressure zone on the windward side to the lower pressure leeward side, by ducking under the foot of the sail.
In stronger winds, you're more concerned to allow the occasional green wavetop to duck under the foot of the sail.

These conflicting requirements cannot be resolved with a roller headsail: a sensible cruising roller headsail will err on the side of a high-cut foot, at some expense to light-air performance.

A slab-reefing headsail not only can change this angle as outlined above, but there's an important fringe benefit: the changing angles can easily be arranged so that the optimum sheeting angle remains the same for all reefs.

Hence there's no need to shift the lead block even when deep-reefing - something which is very difficult for any roller sail short of a true yankee (and even then tends to be a bit of a compromise)