[gstraub]

The way I was taught to "heave to" was to tack but leave the leeward sheet (now becoming the windward sheet) cleated. Now I have the jib backwinded. The problem is that the jib sheet is laying across the windward shrouds and putting a lot of sideways pull on the shroud, not to mention the tendency to chafe.

How do others handle this?

Gerhard

[tsenator]

gstraub,

You definitely have to keep an eye on that sheet after you tacked. I have seen this addressed in a great cruising book I have just seen (Handbook of Offshore Cruising by Jim Howard).

In one of the illustrations he shows putting some material on the shrouds (Tied rag, etc) to prevent unwanted chafe.

[Jeff_H]

To some extent the answer lies with the boat and the sail in question. On traditional boat with the shrouds outboard and using a non-overlapping jib, the answer is easy because the sheet lead is usually inboard of the shrouds. With a genoa, traditional boats would rig baggywringles to minimize chafe on the sail. That chafe can be serious and can quickly damage stitching and fabric and can be especially pronounced if you are not using low stretch sheets.

On more modern boats, with inboard shrouds, with non-overlapping sails the solution is usually the same, in otherwords the sheet lead is generally inboard or abeam of the shrouds. Where that is not the case, a snatchblock is often placed at the rail abeam of the shrouds to provide a clear lead for the sheet when hove to. It is not a good idea to allow the sheet to exert point load pressures against the shrouds for long periods of time as this will shorten the life of the swage and shroud by repetitive flexure. Of course in the case of an overlapping genoa, the same advise about baggywrinkles and low stretch sheets still apply.

(This brings up one of the reasons that I advocate in favor of fractional rigs for offshore use because they are not as dependent on overlapping headsails.)

Regards
Jeff

[gstraub]

Jeff,

Yes, I had considered the snatch block idea as one possible solution. I love fractional rigged boats and my last boat was fractional rigged. Nice small headsails and when you get lazy, just drop the jib and you have a "catboat". Just push the tiller over to tack for a lazy sail.

Gerhard

[joub]

comment deleted