Jib Halyard AND Roller Furling Jib - ditch the extra?

cptmoney

cptmoney

New Member
Hey guys -

I have a roller furling jib - AND the original jib halyard.

Can I 1) get rid of the original jib halyard to keep things a bit cleaner at the base of the mast? Thought it just may be that much more streamlined to get rid of it, especially since I'm not using it at all.

OR can I 2) use the jib halyard as some sort of home-brew topping lift? Something to keep the boom up when we've lowered sail and coming in to dock?

Thoughts on this? Bad idea? Good idea?
 
I have no jib halyard on my 1987 model. It has roller furling with a very small line that rolls up the jib when not in use.
 
Hey Greg -

I have the same setup; I think I'll ditch the extra halyard to clean things up a bit.

Does your roller furling line have a cleat for it? I seem to be missing one; my thin cord just strings out all over the place, and it makes me crazy. A small jam cleat (or something!) would be nice to hold the line out of the way and tidy things up a bit.

Wonder where I could order a small cleat for that Harken?
 
jib furler & jib halyard

I plan to try to use the jib halyard to hoist a zip-on sleeve/cover to protect the furled jib when stored with mast up. It may work better if I add a top sheave to the chain plate located above the forestay.
I installed a standard horn cleat in front of the mast to store both the bow line and the furling line while sailing. Be sure to locate out of the crew's way.
I also modified the tang/mast connection to allow easy switch from furling forestay to standard forestay and jib. Be sure to maintain proper forestay length for both.
RRE
 
I installed small black hard plastic cleat at the foot of the mast, for use when I have crew. I also installed a small jam cleat on the side of the samson post for use when sailing solo. When solo, the cleat at the foot of the mast is out of reach from the tiller.
 
Cptmoney, contact me direct at [email protected], I am willing to go to my local West Marine and buy the same thing I installed on my boat and send them to you if you don't have a West Marine store near you. Where on the Western slope do you live?
 
Topping lift... wasn't answered so here's my $0.02

I use a very light line (almost kite string in size) tied at the top of the mast, as a topping lift. The previous owner came up with it, and I love it. Makes taking sails down ON the water THAT much easier.

I leave the topping lift with lots of slack on it, on the boom the whole time I sail (slack so that downhaul/sheeting doesn't get impeded by it)... and then I can drop the mainsail at any time, and not drop the boom on my deck!

A boom kicker would be better I am sure, but for the $2 it cost me... my topping lift gives me what I need.

PS: The jib halyard won't really work for that, as it does not make it to the top of the mast, however, if you left it cleated (you know cleat to jibtop to cleat again), and just clipped it to the boom when you needed it.. it should work fine.
 
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