Stupid Newbie F**k Up #1: Jib/Halyard

[sentientcj]

For those who haven't noticed my utter lack of seamanship/boating sense in my previous posts, I've just bought and am attempting to make sea-worthy a 1987 36' BR designed one off ketch.

So the lady friend and I want to check the sails, sail covers, etc. Even though we're still on the hard I say what the heck, it is after all much more fun than cleaning out a black/oily foot of water and floating roaches in the bilge that's been sitting there for two years.

We put on the mizzen, looks good, cover it, great.

We put on the main, looks good, cover it, great.

We get to the furling jib. Now I've chartered boats up to 46' with these and I've never had any problem. But I've never taken them off or put them back on, and the J-22s I summer on don't furl. But instead of being a wise chap with a head on his shoulders I assume I can figure out the simple thing, get the sail up, furl it and be done (the sail bags were taking up a ton of room below deck).

I take the jib halyard in my left hand in the pic below and connect it to the jib and start hoisting the beast up the furling tube, all the while having taken a picture of the two big things in the foreground of the picture so as to come back here and say "what are these and how do they fit in with the roller-furler?"

The jib raises nicely to about ten feet from the top of the furling tube. Assuming it to be weight, I grab a winch handle for the resistance. After cranking away for another five feet I hear a little pop and look up. I see the jib halyard twisted around the furling tube a couple times and all of a sudden it dawns on me! ****, those things in the foreground of the picture are to keep THIS EXACT THING from happening, I was supposed to connect the jib to the lower one and the halyard to the upper one.

Okay, no problem right? I'll just lower the jib and start over. Wrong. That pop was the f*&%$ng halyard being forced off track by my winching and the pressure of the twist (I assume). Sunuvabitch won't come down!

Long story short, it takes ALL of my 205 pounds of *muscle* to wrench that thing down over the span of about forty minutes, inch by inch. At about ten inches from where I can grab it I rip the sail (almost brand new, by the way) about an foot down the luff edge.

So now I've got a ripped jib and a jib halyard that I can neither raise nor lower...

So do I:

Gorilla glue the end of the luff edge and hoist the lady friend up in the bosun's chair in hopes of re-tracking the halyard or...?

On the plus side, I've been working on this boat for a whopping three days and have managed to make it this long without messing things up this badly, so I've got that going for me.

[Nicholson58]

No pictures.

Take the sail to a sailmaker for repair.

Look around the yard for another boat with the same furler and seek assistance.

Go to the web site of the manufacturer of the furler and get the manual and videos

Go to YouTube and find a video

Does your yard have a rigger on staff? Ask for help. Don't break anything else.

The halyard runns free. It is attaced to the slide. The slide runs on the furling tube and the head of the sail attaches to the lower side. The tac of the sail attaches to the top of the furling drum. There may also be a stop-wrap at the top of the stay to prevent the halyard from twisting around the fixed stay.

Here is ProFurl. tac attaches to the shackle top center of the drum.



http://www.profurl.com/images/info_p...-light-101.pdf

Follow the link. You will see the drum; above that is a feeder to direct the bolt rope into the track and above that is the slide. Head attaches to the lower shackle and halyard to the upper. Rotating the drum rotates the entire tube including the slide. The goofy looking thing above the slide is at the very top just above the top end of the furler tube - stop wrap. Other furlers are different. Find yours. THere are similar mechanisms on the in-mast main and mizzen furlers. If you didn't run these corectly you will camage those sails too.

[rebel heart]

Yeah I use a wire and some hanks with my anchor snubber as a downhaul.

For something so "easy" there sure are a lot of people having issues with roller furlers. An unpopular opinion, I know.

[DeepFrz]

And get some dry lube (McLube Sailcote) to lube the bolt rope as you feed it into the track.

[donradcliffe]

If you hoisted the sails on the hard, you're damn lucky you didn't knock the boat over--that will usually bring the yard manager on the run.

[cwyckham]

The reason the sail popped out of the foil wasn't that you didn't attach the top swivel. You can hoist it directly no problem. The problem was that you didn't look up first. Always look up before you attach a halyard. You would have seen that the halyard was already wrapped around the forestay before you even started.

You do need to get the sail the rest of the way down. I can't help with the best way to do that. The force needs to be on the luff rope and not on the sail. The fix will be easy and relatively cheap. You could have done a lot worse. In fact, you will do a lot worse. We all do.

[CapnJSparrow]

Thanks sentientcj for your brave admission of fail-ness so that us other newbies can avoid making same newbie f**k ups!

[Dockhead]

That's nothing compared what would have happened if you had caught a gust and toppled the boat off her props! Tip: better put sails up when the boat is in the water, not on the hard

We all break (scratch, crush, smash) stuff from time to time. Don't feel bad! It's less pleasant when you don't have being a beginner as an excuse! Later you end up having to admit to being an old fool who really should have known better, like the rest of us!

[Teknav]

...now imagine yourself having to hoist all them sails on a square rigger like Bounty!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, CapnJSparrow.

[jmackay]

Sit back, take a deep breath and tell yourself " this is as good as it gets".

[Nicholson58]

Sorry I didn't exude the empathy I should have. As the others have noted, we all have screwed up from time-to-time. "Any landing is a good landing if you can walk away".

Lube the track is a good idea. I use a Teflon in white grease. I looks like petroleum jelly. THe stuff persists FOREVER. Rub a little into th ebolt ropes and the sail glides up and down the track.

I always put my sails up on a windless spring day, on the jack stands. It lets you sort out what is wrong in safety.

[Boracay]

Having a rigger go up your mast is expensive, but it's as safe as possible and the job will be done properly.

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by Boracay

Having a rigger go up your mast is expensive, but it's as safe as possible and the job will be done properly.

It sounds like the sail is most of the way down. Nobody needs to go up the mast, I don't think.

[rtbates]

we all make mistakes. Learn from them. And I certainly hope you're kidding about sending your lady friend aloft in the bosun chair. Death can occur IF you mess up. Get a professional or at the least an experienced friend to go aloft.