DaySailer.org Forum

On the headsail do I attach the down haul to the cable or the grommet? And what do I do with the one that doesn't get attached to the DH?

Also what are these for? Just forward of the chainplates, the black part is rubber.

Also made a tiller tamer of sorts. Basically a bungee looped from the rope cleats over the tiller. Then there is a SS screw with a brass bushing and a SS fender washer on top that the bungee can be wrapped around, two, three or four wraps, each wrap increases tension and friction, but can still be manually overridden and is quick and simple to remove. What do you think, will it work? Sea trials this weekend with my first overnighter out of a sailboat.

windwalker wrote:On the headsail do I attach the down haul to the cable or the grommet? And what do I do with the one that doesn't get attached to the DH?

You have what appears to be a jib with a wire luff. This can take the place of the forestay, and the tack cringle can be attached to the stemhead with a shackle. Luff tension would be provided by the halyard. TRW came with this type of jib setup, but it's been over 10 years, and I only used it for the first year, so the memories are a bit foggy at best ...

A downhaul would be attached somewhere near the head of the sail, led down to a block near the stemhead, then aft to a cleat near the cockpit, but I don't believe that this system works with a wire rope luff, only the hanked-on type.

windwalker wrote:Also what are these for? Just forward of the chainplates, the black part is rubber.

No idea - fairleads for something?

windwalker wrote:Also made a tiller tamer of sorts. Basically a bungee looped from the rope cleats over the tiller. Then there is a SS screw with a brass bushing and a SS fender washer on top that the bungee can be wrapped around, two, three or four wraps, each wrap increases tension and friction, but can still be manually overridden and is quick and simple to remove. What do you think, will it work? Sea trials this weekend with my first overnighter out of a sailboat.

Cool idea! Will it work? Guess you're about to find out! ;-P

TIM WEBB wrote:

windwalker wrote:On the headsail do I attach the down haul to the cable or the grommet? And what do I do with the one that doesn't get attached to the DH?

You have what appears to be a jib with a wire luff. This can take the place of the forestay, and the tack cringle can be attached to the stemhead with a shackle. Luff tension would be provided by the halyard. TRW came with this type of jib setup, but it's been over 10 years, and I only used it for the first year, so the memories are a bit foggy at best ...

A downhaul would be attached somewhere near the head of the sail, led down to a block near the stemhead, then aft to a cleat near the cockpit, but I don't believe that this system works with a wire rope luff, only the hanked-on type.

Thanks for the info, I continue to learn.

The Jib also has hanks. I have been attaching the jib via the hanks (leaving the cable free) to the forestay and the tack cringle (and here I thought it was just a plain old grommet, LOL) to the DH which is as you stated. Leaving the DH loose, pulling up the jib with the halyard, cleating, then tensioning with the DH. Does that seem right? If so then I guess the wire luff is of no use.

Hmmm ... if it has hanks, that's a new one on me. As I recall, TRW's old original jib had only the wire, with no hanks or cringles.

See, we all continue to learn! ;-P

windwalker wrote:On the headsail do I attach the down haul to the cable or the grommet? And what do I do with the one that doesn't get attached to the DH?

My sail has a wire luff. The wire gets attached to halyard (top) and stemhead fitting (bottom). Then you can tension it until you have the forestay tension that you want. (Among other things, it controls the level of sag in the luff of the jib).

Any hanks you have on the sail then only keep the original forestay in place rather than "hanging" the jib off the forestay. On my sail, the "hanks" have been replaced by simple webbing straps with snaps. Something that looked very insubstantial, until I realized that they were not intended to actually hold the sail.

The cringle for the downhaul allows you to set the tension in the luff fabric. My sailmaker shipped the jib with a "lashing", a series of loops of some thin rope that were threaded through the cringle and the eye that terminates the wire and then tied off. The effect is to set a fixed distance that can be adjusted by re-tying, if needed. As the wire gets tensioned by the halyard, so does the fabric in the front of the sail and the relative tension is controlled by the length of the lashing.

Unfortunately, I don't have any details on how to select the best length for the lashing. It looked good the way it came out of the bag and I've not changed the setup since.

windwalker wrote:Also what are these for? Just forward of the chainplates, the black part is rubber.

Those are fairleads (or Guy Hooks as labeled below) for the spinnaker sheets (sheet on one side, lazy guy on the other depending on which tack you're on). At least that's what I use them for on my boat. Probably means you have other spinnaker rigging hardware such as cheek blocks mounted on each stern quarter (labeled Dihghy Blocks in the diagram) and perhaps a bail on the front of your mast to attach the spinnaker pole or whisker pole. Now you just need the spinnaker and pole and you're ready to haul butt downwind.

See attached:

That diagram explains a lot. It surely seems like my boat is all set up for a spinnaker, that's cool.

Thanks for all the info guys, happy sailing.

Your wire luff doesn't exactly replace your forestay. It just takes the tension off the stay when the halyard is tight. The hanks go on the stay, and the sail has its own wire. Otherwise you couldn't pull the jib halyard tight enough without deforming or ripping the fabric.

Whatever you do, don't shackle the jib directly to that grommet at the tack. I was experimenting with height adjustment on a custom storm jib last week, and tried shackling to the grommet. As soon as I trimmed the jib, the grommet ripped right out of the fabric. Afterwards, I realized that on other jibs I have owned, that grommet has been tied into the wire eye that shackles to the stem head, usually with a thick bundle of heavy thread. It's function is to keep the fabric from creeping up the cable or (as I demonstrated) ripping away. That is how I set it up when I repaired the sail.

As talbot writes the grommet in the sail fabric needs a bit of distance from the bottom end of the luff wire. This is achieved by a lashing, the length of which is set (once) to give proper tension in the sail fabric when the wire luff is tensioned.

My jib does not have a luff wire. I tension the rig the way I want it with the fore stay, which is pretty tight. I use the halyard as a Cunningham and adjust it all the time. I raise the jib with moderate tension and then hook in my 3:1 tensioner which acts as the Cunningham.

KC:
Got it. I see how that works. But the grommet in the photo with this discussion does not look like it is reinforced. I don't think it was intended to take the full tension of the jib. The grommet I ripped out of my sail looked about the same.
--T.