Had the opportunity to use it the other day. Have always found the last few feet very hard to get in (I may be to fussy).

 

The line comes out the boom rises to the turning block on the sail then down to an eye on the mast before going to the foot through a turning block back to the cockpit.

 

I noticed that with the block at the boom the pull is not on the block but on the eye so there is a lot of friction.

 

I could of course not drop the block so far but there is still a slight misalignment.

 

My question is has any one missed out the eye on the mast and just gone from the block on the luff to the block on the bottom of the mast.

 

If so did it help ?

 

Regards

John

 

 

 

In theory you should not let the halyard off so much that the block touches the aligner. (difficult to see the block because of the lazy cover). If you cannot get the sail down far enough at that point you might see if you can shorten the spectacle on the sail (if you have webbing spectacles)

If you find that the luff is low enough with the block just clear of the mast aligner then the jamming problem is because you have let the halyard off too much in the first place whilst setting the reef. The block has to be just above the aligner so that the line feeds through neatly

To prevent this put the reef (on a light wind day in the marina) in with the block just clear of the aligner & the halyard fully tensioned. Then note where the lowest batten comes against the mast. At this point place some coloured tape (I use some red spinnaker repair tape 50mm wide) on the mast either side of the luff groove.

Do not bother with marks on the halyard if you have a stretchy halyard as it will be different every time even with dynema. This is because the distance from a halyard mark to the block would be 30 metres & liable to a variety of stretch, but the distance from the batten to the block is 1 metre so less liable to differing stretch; hence more consistency

Then as you tension the reef lines when doing the reef in anger do not release too much halyard at once but release it in stages with the kicking strap eased. When the batten is about 150mm above the mark (how much will be determined by experience) you can really harden in the reef line which will get the leech in tight & the block will not catch on the mast aligner. Then if the halyard has not already stretched (ie if you have dynema) you can ease it the last little bit until the batten & tape line up. This will stop the problem of pulley jamming on the aligner- It should also stop the aligner cutting into the rope.

In my opinion you do need the aligner if you want to tension the outhaul properly

You can cobble ways round it but they are not so neat

If you find that  the corners of the aligners dig into the reef line you may find that if you can find a shackle to fit into the aligner then let the rope run through the shackle rather than the aligner the rope will not actually catch into the sharp corners

 

I can see the sense in it and will try

Cheers

I was teaching some beginners dinghy sailing last week and when they got frustrated at their rate of progress, I said that one thing about sailing is that there is always something new to learn.  You either gladly accept the challenge or you will give up in frustration.   I will try a couple of your little tips, even though the first thing I did on our yacht was to install dyneema halyards.

Thanks

Today in the marina I just did what Samuel suggests , tape in the mast, and it works great!