Topping Lift

leob1

Member
Has anyone put a topping lift on their sail? From spar to spar or boom to lower spar. I've been playing with the idea, maybe to keep the lower from sagging. Just wanted to see if anybody else had the idea, and if it was ever done, and the result.
 
I personally have not seen it done, as generally the only purpose of the topping lift is to hold the boom up when the sail is not hoisted. With the Sunfish, typically laying the spars on the deck isn't an issue. However, if you felt like floating and sunbathing...with the sail hoisted and the deck uncluttered, I'd think it would be easy to run a 2nd halyard, but rather than attaching it to the upper spar, attach it on the aft end of the lower. Then you lower the upper spar using your main halyard and keep things off the deck. You'd need some sail ties to gather the sail to the lower boom now, (and the lowered, upper spar) just like you would on a larger boat, to contain the sail from falling overboard or defeating the purpose of keeping the deck clear. Shoot... a small, custom tarp could even be rigged with the boom slightly raised, to go over the lower spar and provide some shade. Not a lot of space, but maybe enough to keep the ice cream from melting.

BTW, the lower spar shouldn't sag, if the sail is properly hoisted and things are correctly rigged.
 

Back
Top