dousing a hanked jib

[dimwit]

Headman has the most seaman-like advice, and if I were rigged for cruising or had an obstructed foredeck, that''s what I''d do. But we daysailors can get by with something a bit less. . .
I''ve had a snag or two with a downhaul, but it''s always been from me being in a hurry to get out of the slip and not preparing it properly.
I have a small boat and no lifelines, so if I don''t get my sail on the foredeck, it gets wet and I look clumsy. I go with the downhaul. Even if your halyard is at the mast (not run to the c-pit), you don''t have to go very far away from the cockpit for any length of time.
Being hove-to lets you forget about the tiller AND provides the tight windward jibsheet necessary to keep your sail from going over the lee rail. And the downhaul makes sure that the head of the sail doesn''t catch wind and lift up, so you don''t have to go all the way forward to wrestle with it.
Then, do as much housekeeping on the foredeck as you''re comfortable with as your boat short-tacks back and forth. Plenty of room, and no traffic? tie the sail down or stuff it. Tight quarters? Let''er lay, and get back to the tiller.

[billmac26]

I sail by myself a lot. Last year I used a downhaul and was happy with it, but I have this idea that the downhaul and the halyard could be spliced into a continuous loop. When the downhaul goes up the halyard is coming down and vise versa. This would eliminate having to deal with the tails of these lines. The only problem I see is making a splice between the 3/8" halyard and 1/4" downhaul that would run smoothly through a couple of fairleads going to the bow. I''m going to rig it up this winter and give it a try next season.

[flicker]

terryny,
I rigged a down haul on my Macgregor 26. The downhaul runs through the hanks and I haven''t had it hang up or wind around the head stay. When I tighten both jib sheets to bring the jibfoot to the centerline, drop the jib and tighten the halyard shackle down with the downhaul, my jib doesn''t go anywhere. If it starts to inflate in a strong wind, I confess I do go forward and throw a bungee cord or two around it, but this is not usually necessary.
The jib downhaul leading back to the cockpit does roll awkwardly underfoot sometimes and I''ve considered making a continuous loop halyard/downhaul just to control the ends and keep the downhaul from running back across the deck to the cockpit. But I''ve never felt there was much need to get that intricate.
I suppose what I might do is lower the jib and mark the halyard below the cleated end, then raise the jib and bring the end of the downhaul back to the halyard cleat and mark that, you could simply tie the two ends together in a suare knot and cut off the excess. That would give you the minimum amount of linefor your loop, then (instead of running the excess loop back through fairleads to a cleat at the **** pit) I would just coil the extra line and hang it from the halyard cleat.
Billmac26, let me know how you do with your loop downhaul.

Chas.

[SloopSailor]

Modified jib down haul. If you want more control of the jib. Instead of just a downhaul that pulls the jib to the deck. You can run the down haul line up to a turning ring mounted at the perependicular point from the jib clew to the forestay. The line goes out to a small turning block attached to the clew and back to the ring where it continues on up the forestay to the head of the jib.

You then have options. If you want you can bunch the jib onto the forestay by pulling in the dousing line without releasing the halyard. If you release the halyard the dousing line will ball up the jib at the base of the forestay. Just make sure you leave enough line so the dousing line does not interfere with the operation of the jib.

[Jeff_H]

Have you ever actually done that? It would seem like it would really be hell on the sail but also one of the key things about a downhaul is that the sail needs to be free to ''flag'' or there is too much friction on the hanks for the sail to come down easily. I think that a brailed sail, which is what you are loosely describing would be next to imposible to drag to the deck.

Jeff

[SloopSailor]

I only use a down haul. Mine is not rigged to brail the sail. The person who suggested the change does it all time. He claims once the sail is pulled in it comes down quite nicely and balls up loosely on the foredeck.

I have no idea what shape his sails are in, but is it really that much tighter than it would be stuffing the sail into a foredeck bag.

[billmac26]

I tried this Quick braile idea last year and it just seemed to create too much friction to work for me. Maybe it would work better on a smaller sail, or maybe some tinkering would make it work, but I gave up on it pretty quickly.

[msl]

My Catalina 25 has CDI roller furling. Works great. We do love it.