Mainsheet tamer?

V

Vic Roy

Member
Okay folks, remember I'm a novice. The mainsheet line between the boom block over the barney post and the boom block at the aft end of the boom sags when tacking and gets hung up on my hat, sunglasses, or worse, my neck. I'm thinking about adding a fairlead or eye strap on the underside of the boom between those two blocks to hold the sagging line up. Seems like an obvious fix, but a couple of my "obvious fixes" so far (like adding the extra cleat on the front of the mast) have been less than fixes. Any thoughts, pro or con?

Thanks,

Vic
 
An easy cheap fix

Well, I don't happen to have that problem, but I remember when I raced Lido 14's that some people had a simple loop of duct tape hanging down. I assume they taped the inside of the loop with a second layer with the shinny side out so the line didn't stick.
 
Thanks, Jim, I'll give that a try before getting further into it. How come you don't have the poblem? Am I doing something wrong?

Vic
 
Mainsheet tamer

No, I don' think you are doing anything wrong. It seems to me that if you are close hauled and keep the sheet cleated through the tack that there is enough tension on it to keep it from drooping down. I know not everyone wants to keep it cleated for safety reasons. On a jibe (also spelt gybe by the British) the sheet is loose, but I generally am reaching up and grabbing a hand full of sheet between the cleat and the boom to help pull the boom over to the other side. BTW, the proper way to jibe IMHO is to head straight down wind for a few seconds, manually pull the main over to the other side, and (if you want to add a certain degree of sophistication) head a few degrees to leeward on the new tack just as the boom comes across center. That final touch just keeps the boom from hitting the shrouds hard and possibly damaging them over time. I have a knot near the end of my mainsheet so there is a bit of tension on the mainsheet before it hits the shrouds when played all the way out to the knot.
 
I haven't had this problem, I sit adjacent to or even forward of the barney post. The boat seems like like weight forward. Even when I sail with crew, I have them sit as far forward as they can in the boat. While healing, I will stand on the barney post or use the forward hiking strap.

Also, your mainsheet could be too heavy/thick, causing it to droop between the blocks on the boom.

-Robert
1989 Capri 14.2
1984 Catalina 22
 
Tacking 101

Don't waste your time trying to strap the main sheet to the boom.... you will just create a new set of problems. The issue is in your tacking technique. Once you make the decision to tack and just before initiating the maneuver pull in 2 - 3 inches of main, position your helm to leeward, reposition your movable ballast (thats you), set your course, and then trim your sails. Practice the maneuver in that sequence and you will find the problem of main sheet slack solved.
 
Thanks, Joe. As I slowly gain a little more experience this was starting to dawn on me - inaction causes the slack.....just move quickly and it all seems to fall into place.

We had a strong cold front blow through South Louisiana this past weekend and I ventured out to try my hand in some 25 knot + winds. Nah, dumb idea.....after a couple of lame attmepts to raise the main, I threw the tiller over and executed the world's safest maneuver, a 180.

Vic
 
I found that some of the best decisions are when you decide not to go out. Digging the top of the mast out of the mud, or turtling unexpectedly, and struggling to get back into the boat are the times when you wished you had left the boat on the trailer.

I sailed my Catalina 22 this past Saturday in a long distance race. I think this was my 2nd time since 2005 (when I bought the boat), that I decided to step down to my smaller jib and flew my 120 instead of my 150. I didn't win the race, but I was able to control the boat and not have any big knockdowns like I saw other boats do during the race. My GPS told me I sailed 21 miles and made 41 tacks on the way out. The return was downwind nearly the whole trip, so I did fly my 150 and motored some of the trip. My whisker pole folded in half in a big gust. This was lake sailing and we saw some whitecaps and assumed 20-25 mph gusts during the day.

Garmin GPS Tracks

-Robert
1989 Capri 14.2
1984 Catalina 22
 
Vic Roy said:
Thanks, Joe. As I slowly gain a little more experience this was starting to dawn on me - inaction causes the slack.....just move quickly and it all seems to fall into place.

We had a strong cold front blow through South Louisiana this past weekend and I ventured out to try my hand in some 25 knot + winds. Nah, dumb idea.....after a couple of lame attmepts to raise the main, I threw the tiller over and executed the world's safest maneuver, a 180.

Vic
Click to expand...
Get a boomkicker and you will find hoisting the main in any wind much easier. As for sailing in winds >20kts you have to have the tacking maneuver down pat or be well rehearsed for righting the boat. Keep in mind that the maneuver mentioned above is for tacking from a close hulled course to a close hulled course. If you tack from a close to a broad, such as rounding a weather mark, the maneuver changes slightly in that you must play out your main as soon as the wind crosses the centerline. Otherwise you are likely to get knocked down or forced to make an uncontroled turn to avoid being knocked down.
 
Thanks, guys, I'm on the learning curve, just gonna take this ole powerboat Cajun a while to get it right. I had a flight instructor teach me the 180 back in my distant youth and its probably saved me untold times. Down here on the bayou its usually "hold my beer and watch this".....

I looked into the boom kicker and decided to rig my own "top haul" which works very well in holding the boom up while raising the main. I'm sailing in a pretty narrow river and usually I can motor out into the river from our canal and find a lee shore where the wind is blocked by the trees & raise the sail there, but his weekend the wind was blowing dead down that strech of river, so I chose the weenie route.

The GPS plot ought to be shown in Sailing 101 to illustrate how sailboats work....really slick.

Vic
 
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