Cockpit led halyards

[Janice Collins]

I want to raise and lower my jib from the cockpit and have decided to keep my hanked on sails rather than a furlilng system. My question to you all:
Do you think the cabin top is strong enough to place the hardware to do this. for example the winch (Just to the side of the companionway hatch?) Anyone else do this ?

[Tony G]

Janice
113 has a cabin top mounted winch. As a matter of fact it's the small South Coast that came off of the mast. If you look back in the archives here to Bill's posts regarding rigid boom vang installation on 76 there's a picture of his cabin top sporting deck organizers, rope clutches and a winch. Of course the important thing to remember is to protect the core material from water intrusion and also spread the shearing load out with a backing plate.

[Janice Collins]

Thanks for replying. Do you use yours for the jib or main halyard?

[Bill]

Here's the photo to which Tony was referring:

[Bill]

On the preceding photo: The controls are duplicated on the port side. As noted, use the "best practices" for drilling and filling holes through the balsa core. (Next newsletter will repeat the information.)

Ed (Pathfinder) is installing a ss bridge over the companionway hatch for attaching line controls. Saves on drilling more holes. We will post a photo of his setup as soon as we can.

Raising a sail is pretty straight forward, just pull the line. Getting the sail down is another matter. For the main, we use the reefing system to pull it down. The jib will require a downhaul, which we don't yet have installed.

The winches are needed to get the sails up and down in windy conditions. Blocks placed in the main and jib halyard, to increase leverage, will really ease the effort needed to raise or lower the sail.

[Theis]

My thought is that for any fitting that is subject to stress, make sure there is a backing plate inside the cabin top. I haven't had cabin top fittings pull out (I don't have much there), but I have had the tracks pull out of the deck without backing plates.

[Bill]

Our cabin side backing plates (teak) are just as heavy as those on the deck -- 3/4" on the clutches and 1" on the winches. The grab rails are backed by duplicate grab rails on the inside. The whole lot is overkill, but sure looks impressive :)

[Janice Collins]

Thanks for the photos and info. Appreciate your opinions as usual.

I want to place grab rails on the underside also, not much to grab on to belowwhen the sail is rough. Been wanting to do that for a long time.

Bill, why is getting the sail DOWN another matter? Is it more involved than my original setup?

Would like to check out Ed's system before I start this project. Which I hope will begin in Feb. A major haulout for Wayward Star. I'm actually looking forward to it....

:cool:

[Bill]

"Bill, why is getting the sail DOWN another matter? Is it more involved than my original setup?"

Not that I know of. The only point was that you needed a system for pulling down the sail as well as for raising the sail.

[mrgnstrn]

Bill, could you take a picture of, or get a close-up of the attachment of the blocks on the mast (up-stream of the deck organizers and rope clutches) i only have the main halyard led there right now (via PO) and want to upgrade to full beer-belly lazy and put a few more there.
especially interested in your selection of block types and obviously attachment.
thanks a million-
-km#3

[Bill]

km#3,

Sorry, but I don't seem to have any usable photos of the block arrangement on the mast. I will get some pics next time I'm at the boat and then post them here. It's supposed to rain this weekend, so it may be awhile.

[commanderpete]

Bill posted another picture showing how the lines come off the mast.

[commanderpete]

It looks like the original halyard cheekbocks have been replaced by swivel blocks attached to eye straps (or pad eyes) screwed into the mast. That so?

As you can see from the photo below, the Commander doesn't have the raised cabin trunk the Ariel does. The halyards come off the cheeckblocks on the mast at a bad angle.

On my boat, the main halyard cheekblock has become bent and the sheave cracked from the strain.

Maybe a swivel block like Bill has would do the trick.

[commanderpete]

This photo might show it better.

[Bill]

Didn't know that photo was so good:)

Yes, the blocks are attached to the mast with Eyestraps. All the blocks are swivel shackle types. The largest block is for the main. The smaller blocks handle the reefing lines (2), outhaul, Cunningham and vang. The extra clutches are for future headsail halyards and dousers.

The raised cabin trunk does require some innovation to keep the lines level with the organizers and clutches. The Commander, with it's level cabin top can use one of those mast base ss organizers for holding the blocks and avoid the eyestraps on the mast (although, I've not seen them advertised recently).

[commanderpete]

Now that I think about it, a swivel block in the same location is not the optimum solution. It's best to get the halyard down to the level of the deck and around the companionway hatch runners.

Otherwise, the halyard is led to the winch from above and produces riding turns on the winch.

Then again, I really don't need to use the cabintop winches very often.