rigging

We had the jib off, so I just replaced all the standard Harken shackles our new furler came with with Wichard self-locking ones.

We have been using these things for decades in places where wiring the shackle is not a good idea (spinnakers are expensive) and never had one back out on us. Highly recommended and really nicely made.

That said, on an offshore voyaging boat, I would add a drop of Loctite Blue.

You can see how they work in the closeup below.

On a lot of boats with a roller-furling foil, and particularly with no sail rolled on it, the headstay will start to pump once the wind gets up, sometimes to the point it gets quite alarming.

Not only that, all that pumping can do real damage to the rig if left long enough.

But there’s a hack that stops it every time, at least for a boat swinging to the wind on a mooring or anchor.

Set up a spinnaker halyard just forward of the headstay as shown in the shot above. That’s it? Yup.

I guess the halyard causes turbulence that breaks up the laminar flow on the headstay foil…or something.

Anyway, we have been doing this for years and it works.

Thanks to Deborah Shapiro and Rolf Bjelke, as I read the tip years ago in one of their excellent books.

My friend Hans, who advised me while I was writing the article on the tragedy aboard Escape, took me out on his Farr 56 for a demo of hoisting, reefing, and furling, using his in-boom automated mainsail-handling system.

Hans is an incredible resource, since he has owned boats with slab, in-mast, and in-boom furling, as well as being a deeply experienced ocean sailor, including countless trips to and from the Caribbean over decades, and five trans-Atlantics in the last few years—two with slab reefing, two with in-mast, one with in-boom.

I will be sharing his wisdom on all three systems and how to choose which is best for each of us, in an in-depth article.

With fractional rigs we are way more interested in how much pumping the adjuster down has shortened the backstay and bent the mast than we are the reading on the pressure gauge (within reason). That’s why the marked batten.

Click on images to enlarge

You see people taping messenger lines to halyards, but that can lead to tears when the messenger comes off inside the mast.

So way better to put a flemish eye, sometimes known as a reaving eye, in the bitter end of all halyards and internal reefing lines.

The key to success is that the eye should have no bigger diameter than the rope, so a normal splice does not work.

Or, if you suck at rope work as much as I do, get a good rigger to do it for you.

When shortening a line, it’s way easier if we put on two sailmakers whippings and then cut the line between them. Whipping how-to. (Scroll down to #6)

or at least extended by installing spectra chafe sleeve. Love the stuff. More here.

Not a permanent fix. That will take unstepping and some very tricky work.

After just three day sails our main halyard is mangled. Turns out @sparcraft jammed the wiring conduit right up under the sheave on our brand new mast so it deflects the halyard and chafes it. Looked like end of season. We were gutted. No way to fix without unstep, but see next tip.