Gust Adjust

Tony Collin's use of the "Gust Adjust" and his variation which was then dubbed the "Collin's Cleat" generated a lot of talk about legality and possiblity of DSQ. In the end his rig was modified and approved for the regatta and eventually for the class as a whole. Though it passed and became not too big of a deal I learned that I personally would not want to be in a position where I am using a rig of questionable legality.
 
The "Gust Adjust" may be left on the rig during storage. Means rig once and then forget about it. Also, the way Greg uses it for on the fly switches from jens to full and back and also the vang is the most sophisticated way of tying his version. The Gust Adust can be just cleated off and then the main halyard used for the vang. If one decided to drop the main to a jens, it would just be harder to raise it back up to a full.
 
Shaun: Can you please post the recommended length and diameter of the two lines used in the Gust-adjust system?
 
Shaun, thanks for posting the video. I think that I can now do the Gust Adjust.

I do have a few questions.

When in full Jens mode does the haylard restrict the upper spar from bending, and spilling less wind? My understanding of the Jens is that it allows the upper spar to bend, spilling the air and thus depowering the sail. If this is the case, then I guess it is a trade off of being able to Jens fast on the water.

My biggest concern would be that if you turtle the boat with the Jens full on the mast could come out of the boat. It looks like there may be enough loose haylard line to allow that, but the rig would stay with the boat. Hmm... have you seen this happen?
 
Cindy, It would seem that the halyard would not restrict any bending of the spars because it is slack when full jens is tied. Also the one may have the problem of the mast falling out, but as long as a vang is tied , the vang should sufficiently hold the mast to the deck.
 
I have watched two videos on the Gust Adjust (Jens) rig as well as read as many posts that I found on the subject. Unfortunately, I am still a tad confused, somewhat on how to do it but more so on how it works. Part of the problem is trying to properly envision what is going on at both the lower part of the mast and the top part of the mast in a clear manner. Kudos on trying to capture this in the video, and please do not take offense - I realize it is hard to get both ends of a mast on video. Further complicating this is the fact that I am a newbie on the matters of Gust Adjusts and racing sunfish (but not a newbie on sailing Sunfish – been doing that for almost 40 years now, and; Boy, are my arms tired. Sorry, could not resist;)). It is mostly my inability to visualize it not having seen a Jens Rig in real life.

Please comment on anything that I get wrong or do not describe accurately...

On the matter of "How it works"; If I understand things correctly, the intent of the Gust Adjust is to lower the sail closer to the deck in high winds in order to depower the sail and keep the boat from heeling as much, all while underway. The trick is doing this using only a traditional halyard and the Jens halyard, but no other pieces of line so as to comply with racing rules. Using only one traditional halyard (to also serve as a boom vang) and one Jens halyard to accomplish everything contributes to why this gets a tad complicated with loops and such.

If I understand the physics behind the Gust Adjust correctly, the loop (that is threaded through the mast cap and pulled to the backside of the mast) is intended to serve as an alternate hoist point for the Jens halyard such that when it is used the sail raises to that point rather than to the higher point at the top of the mast, which is the case when the traditional halyard is used through the mast cap.

Assuming that the above summary is accurate, I have to ask, if the objective is to lower the sail using a lower hoist point, why is the location where we attach the Jens halyard to the top spar (gaff) below the location where we attach the main halyard? It seems that the lower we attached any halyard to the gaff, the higher the sail will raise, so attaching the Jens halyard below the main halyard seemingly negates the effect of a lower hoist point (again if I am understanding everything correctly - which is a big IF).

Related questions:
1) In looking at Greg/Shaun's video, it is hard to detect any change from when the sail is at full Jens vs full rigged. What changed between full Jens and full rigged?
2) How much does the sail height change between full Jens and full rigged in terms of the distance between the boom and the deck?
3) Why would instead we not just use two halyards through the existing mast cap hole, with one attached at the traditional location on the gaff and the one attached above the traditional location that would be used to lower the rig? This seems too easy so I must be missing something.

Thank you in advance for any insight to help clarify what is going on mechanically with a Jens rig.
 

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