Attaching to the dock

STRESS-FREE SAILING

I have started using a very lazy technique to hoist the main: I use my electric windlass. Being a horizontal windlass this works. Certain vertical windlasses will also work, but those that are housed in foredeck lockers will not, as the main halyard needs to run from the winch at the mast to the windlass and the angle it makes with certain windlasses means that it will slip off.

•If you’re on starboard tack you’re in the ascendancy over port tackers and those under engine (I said ‘in the ascendancy’ because there is no right of way in the collision regulations). • You save money by using less diesel.

There are some boats for which raising the main under headsail is not possible because the boom needs to be in line with the mast, otherwise the sliders and batten cars can jam in the main track. Southern Cross, a Rustler 36, mentioned this being a problem.

Fully battened sails and lazy jacks

If you just have lazy jacks on their own keeping them out of the way when raising the main and setting them when handing it is the order of the day. You can’t do this with a stack pack as lazy jacks have to be set the whole time and these invariably catch a top batten as the sail is raised. Loosening the lazy jacks makes things worse and so tight lazy jacks with stack packs is generally best. One thing I notice with lazy jacks and stack packs is that the lazy jacks are often set very high and very

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TOP TIP

Jib halyards and sheets are usually blue, spinnaker halyards and sheets red, but here’s some neat colour coding on an in-mast furling system. Green for ‘go’ for the outhaul and red for ‘stop’ for the furler.

SAILING, HEAVING TO & REEFING

close in. If you can lower them the chances of catching a batten as you raise the sail are reduced significantly. The same applies if you can take them further apart, say, along the spreader. Partially battened or battenless sails don’t suffer from this, of course.

In-mast furling mainsails

In-mast furling mainsails are a great invention for general sailing, although some people still treat them with suspicion: ‘the potential for jamming’, ‘all that weight up the mast when furled’, etc. Apparently, we have the flotilla sailors in the Med to thank for in-mast furling as it was developed to make life easy for them. When pulling out the sail it is best to be slightly on the wind, rather than directly head-to. This allows the wind to draw the sail

Snag-free sheets

When I tie the jib sheets to the clew with bowlines I tie them in such a way that the smooth side of the bowline of each sheet faces the shrouds and stays so there is less to snag. You can also use one long line for the sheets and attach it to the clew with a cow hitch. It doesn’t slip and there’s even less to snag on shrouds and stays.

out. When furling in, being on the wind keeps a little pressure in the sail for a nice tight wrap. A beam reach on port with the boom eased out worked well when we tested this on a Beneteau Oceanis 393.

Unfurling the headsail

When hauling in on the sheet and allowing a furling headsail to unfurl, keep a little tension on the furling line. Occasionally if there is no tension and the sail unfurls in a hurry you can end up with a riding turn on the furler as the furling line reels in quickly. This presents a problem as you cannot either furl or unfurl the headsail using the furling line and you will need to unwrap the headsail around the forestay until it is fully out and you can then bring it down off the foil (unless you are able to take the drum apart and sort out the riding turn). Not easy. So part of the preparation for setting the headsail is to take the sheet round one winch and the furling line round another to be able to control the speed at which it unfurls.

Wire–rope combinations sometimes only have enough room on the drum for the wire and perhaps a couple of turns of the rope. I change headsails from No 1 genoa to No 2 quite regularly and I need to make sure I have set the furling line correctly each time. I adjust it so the furling line goes from rope to wire just before it arrives at the drum when the sail is unfurled. It’s worth checking the system to make sure that the sail will unfurl and furl with ease.

p When attaching a headsail to the foil and furling system make sure that there is enough room on the drum to take all the rope or wire and rope combination when the sail is unfurled