Laser 2 Jib Halyard Question

mmacintyre

New Member
I'm having some trouble when rigging the jib halyard, from reading all the rigging guides and trying to get as many pictures as possible, I understand the wire needs to go through the hound fitting, block and "skyhook" what I need clarity on is, does the tail (rope) go inside the mast and come out the bottom? Or does the halyard just fall beside it and cleat on the outside?

Obviously both main and spinnaker halyard's go through the mast.

Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
In the Laser 2s that I've seen (early 1990s boats, both builders of that time), all have had a simple internal jib halyard with a through block at the top, another at the bottom and a rack cleat. I don't know if earlier boats had something different, but an external halyard wouldn't work very well. On a Laser 2 the jib halyard tensions the whole rig against the shrouds, and you'd run into problems with the pre-bend if the tensioned wire were on the outside.

How old is your boat (what number)? What fittings does the mast have for the jib halyard? What do you mean with a "skyhook"? Could you post some pictures?
 
Hi,

Many thanks for the reply, I have attached a photo of what my mast looks like. As I previously mentioned I understand how to get the halyard in the block and sky hook, and I understand how to use the "hook" near the mast foot. What I don't know is what to do with the halyard in between... Let me know if you need more details and again many thanks for the help!

FYI: the boat is from 1981, 1774
Screen Shot 2016-05-12 at 4.19.35 PM.png
 
Interesting. So the early boats had a halyard lock instead of a rack. The pictures don't show how high it's located, but I assume it's much closer to the hounds than to the deck! In that case, the system makes perfect sense (though it's exceptional and was changed later). And yes, it's completely external and no part of it goes inside the mast.

If I read right the middle and bottom pictures on the right, the wire part comes close to the deck so the wire/rope joint doesn't need to go through the top block (this actually explains your earlier question about the main halyard - I was thinking later, "why doesn't he look how his jib halyard is done?") It also looks like there's a loop of elastic tied to the joint which goes under the hook to keep the slack part of the wire somewhat tight, and another one around the mast to keep the coiled tail there.

Another thing that doesn't show is if the halyard has multiple locking points (sleeves or balls), that is, is it adjustable or is it a one-rake-fits-all-conditions arrangement?
 
Thanks very much for the follow up and confirmation. You're right the "lock" is about 6 inches from the block, now I known Jib halyard stays on the outside.

It does sometimes get confusing with the different setups and trying to figure out what's right for what you have.

Cheers
 
Really interesting post, and ref to the Laser 2 manual. Is there a Pdf somewhere? I'd like to have it just to fill in a little history on my boat.
External halyard lock makes a lot of sense, simple and easier to use than the current setup, though I can see its problems as well.
All the boats with spinnakers including mine have shutes so it's interesting to see original ones had bags.
 

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