Jib Hanks - Repairing

[ShockValue]

Hi Sailnet folks! I'm new to sailing (done a lot of reading, but not much tiller time) but have recently bought a C-Lark 14' to get some experience.

For the age of the boat, it's in pretty good condition, but there are a couple of must-fix items, one of which being the hanks on the headsail.

Currently it uses snap system in which on one side of the luff is the male end of snap, then a small piece of material wraps around the headstay and snaps to the female side on the other side of the luff. On a 25+ year old boat, of course this material is in really ragged shape, so I need to replace it.

I'm open to ideas, but the requirements of this repair is that it has to be inexpensive, and I have to be able to do it myself.

What I'm thinking, is that since there are small holes where the snaps are currently, i could put in grommets instead, and then use a snap hook to go through the grommet and around the stay. Does this sound like an OK idea?

P.S. I tried to use the correct terminology, please feel free to ask for clarification if i flubbed something

[sailingdog]

If you reinforced the existing hole, i don't see any problem with using a piston hank on the sail. You should measure to make sure the piston hank will be the same distance from the hole to the stay or replace them all.

[ShockValue]

Hey SailingDog thanks for the reply! Just so happens I work with a lady who did quite a bit of sail repair in the past. So she just unloaded a case of tools for doing grommets and snaps etc on me (to borrow). I'm going to go ahead and re-do all the hanks since I have the tools available to me right now.

Off to search for some small piston hanks

[sailingdog]

Good enuf...