Hoisting the sail

W

wgipson

New Member
I own a pre-1972 Sunfish. My daughter is eleven, and is having a hard time pulling up the sail, and then untying it from the cleat before she goes under the bridge. Does anyone know of an easier contraption such as maybe a quick release mechanism? You know, maybe something like when you pull up your blinds in your house by the string, and it locks?
Thanks.
 
Although I do not know of a system that you could purchase right off the shelf, it would be possible to reduce the amount of effort required to lift the sail by using a series of 2 pulleys on the mast in conjunction with the halyard line. At least in theory this would be practical.

Of course the 2 pulley wheels would need to be different diameters to make this work properly. Sorry.......this may not be the answer you're looking for but it is one way to achieve what you want and shouldn't be that hard to accomplish.

Good luck!
 
I really don't have an idea about how to make raising it easier, but as for a quick release, you could put a clam cleat instead of a figure 8 cleat. That will make it easier to release it. I've seen it done before and it seems to work really well. You can even put it on the mast if you think it would get pulled out in the middle of sailing the boat, then put it on the figure 8 as well to keep the mast and sail to the boat if it capsized. Then there wouldn't be a lot of tension on the cleat to release it either. Hope that didn't just confuse you more.
 
If you push up on the boom while raising the sail it's much easier.
If you ease the tension on the cleat by pulling down on the sheet, that's much easier too.

Fred
 
I put a Spinlock SLPX03081 on the deck where the cleat is and a standup block just in front of the Spinlock. I run the halyard through the block first and then through the Spinlock. This enables you to raise and lower the sail from the cockpit. It makes it a little eaiser to raise, but it really helps with lowering.

Happy Sailing!
 
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