Posted by Gerry Hull (209.255.31.116) on May 31, 2000 at 18:59:42:
Thanks to the smart previous owner, my 42 #415 was fitted with a halyard winch on the mast. Without all the extra paraphernalia associated with bringing the halyard back to the cockpit I can raise the sail by hand and use the winch for the final tensioning. It's quick, easy, and being in that position I have a clear view of what is happening during the hoist. I'm about to add another winch on the other side for the spinnaker halyd. The halyd. is coiled and hung from the winch which results in less line in the cockpit. Same for the spinnaker halyd.The reefing lines, outhaul, mainsheet and jib halyd still come back to the cockpit through the deck organizers BUT I have replaced the old organizers with new Harken ball bearing ones which also have a taller shiv which greatly reduces the additional friction the original equipment was inducing. Note: the fiberglass pad under the organizers needed to be lengthened about an inch or so but it was not very hard to do and it all works much easier now.
Sometime the designers should have their pencils taken away and be given a winch to grind to understand all the friction loads they create when they make cruising "a breeze" by re- routing all these lines.
Posted by Nick Wigen (216.26.63.40) on May 31, 2000 at 20:39:23:
I'm curious to hear others' comments about the spaghetti in the cockpit. Our previous boat (Cal 31) didn't have anything led aft except the mainsheet which had the traveller in the cockpit. The mainsheet, jibsheet and spinnaker halyards were at the mast with a winch on each side and some cleats. The reefing lines came out the front of the boom. OK, so I had to go forward to reef. All in all I think the hazards and exposures are less than might come with the possibility of getting one of the 6 lines currently led aft tangled up when having to make some sail changes.. If the autohelm won't steer I'd have a hard time trying to reef single-handed from the cockpit anyway. There might be some advantage to haveing the jib sheet to the cockpit so if you have to pull the jib down in rough conditions (assuming a roller-furling failure) then a person in the cockpit can steer while easing down the halyard. What are your opinions based on more experience than we've had with this arrangement?
SINGLE-LINE REEFING:
The single-line reefing arrangement is a bit of a mystery to me. It works and I know the layout with the travelling double block in the boom is a standard installation but I honestly don't understand why it's there. The forward line comes from the front of the boom, around the travelling block, back to the front of the boom an over a sheave, up through the reefing cringle then back to the cockpit via a block and deck organizer. This gives a 2:1 purchase on the travelling block. The clew reefing line starts around the boom near the aft end, through the cringle, to the aft end of the boom then forward to the travelling block and back to the aft end of the boom when it ends. This results in a 1:2 purchase or half the force on the travelling block being transferred to the aft reefing line. Discounting friction losses from the travelling block that means the force on the aft reefing line is equal to that on the forward line. Am I missing something or is there some other reason for this arrangement? The only reason I can think of if the reefing line isn't pulled tight and both cringles are only half-way pulled to the boom and it were possible to force the travelling block inside the boom either forward or aft then you could see-saw the positions of the cringles. I doubt there's a reason to do this but I've been using that logic to try and understand the purpose of the arrangement.
On my other boats we looped the aft reefing line around the mast just about directly under the position of the cringle when reefed. The other part went through the sheave at the boom end so the resultant force was on an angle to about 1/3 to 1/2 the luff up from the gooseneck. Our 42 uses a bolt-rope in the mainsail foot so we can't do this and both parts of the reefing line come from the aft end of the boom. I'm thinking about installing some slugs on the mainsail foot so we can get the line around the boom. Any comments?Posted by Capt Rick (199.46.200.232) on June 01, 2000 at 12:22:26:
Based on my limited experience, I think it's very valuable to reef from the cockpit-especially at night in rough conditions. My 42 has the
"new" boom from Charlston Spars and it has a track under the boom in which two eyes run. I secured one slightly aft the 1st reef point so the line
would pull down and back to keep the foot tight. Ditto for the 2nd eye for 2nd reef. The line runs from the aft cringle to the eye where it's tied off so
no need to wrap around the boom. There's a lot of friction when reefing so I periodically haul down on the line between the cringle and eye to help things
along. Only problem is you have to release the topping lift and watch that the Dutchman doesn't get too abused in the process. Basically have to flake the
sail prior to tightening down the reef. As far as lines led aft, I think a few line organizer bags on the cockpit bulkhead help a lot. They don't look
pretty though.
Posted by Captain Norm (208.236.251.83) on June 01, 2000 at 17:03:33:
It's a mystery to me too. I've tried figuring what the butterfly block does, but haven't. While at the Annapolis boat show, Charleston Spars were there, so I asked them. They don't recommend that system any more as it doesn't do anything but increase friction. They offered to mill out a few notches in my gooseneck fitting so the lines could run right thru the gooseneck, the way it's done on current boats. Their cost was just under $100.
After the show, I checked out my gooseneck to find the milled holes are already there. I've been studying the situation to find I'd need about 75' 3/8 line to re-do the entire reefing setup. So far I'm undecided if I'll do it, don't really want to spend the $$$ for a slightly better system that I probably use less than 5 times/year.
Posted by Ernie April (156.111.63.233) on June 06, 2000 at 09:50:12:
I find that the first and second reef lines work rather well. I agree that with the Dutchman some the tension on the topping lift and vang are critical.
On my former boat, I used the Harken single-line systems for both 1str and 2nd reefs. Friction was minimized by having blocks at the cringle locations and there were no butterfly blocks - just one long line that looped through the reef clue than through the reef tack and lead back to the cockpit.
Either way, with locator marks on the main halyard, topping lift and vang, I can reduce sail in about a minute.
Ernie AprilWindCatcher (618)
