Self tacking – layout of rope/lines.

n a 311 the sheet goes to the turning block at the base of the mast, up the mast & out about halfway up, then back down to a block on the car, then out to the jib. Some terminate there & some have a block on the jib & return to the block on the car. Personally I favour the block on the jib as it reduce load on teh sheave up the mast & elsewhere.

On older boats Hanse often take the sheet from the turning block back to the winch on the cabin top but I have a block mounted on a strop on the toe rail just before the genoa winch so i can operate it from the helm position. Plus I can keep the cabin winch free for other lines. So my sheet goes from the turning block to the toe rail then to the genoa winch

G Beav,

An option if you cannot get the sheet through the mast would be to take the sheet along the deck to a block fixed to the forestay fitting just below the furler. I have a spare hole here but you could rig a dynema strop if nothing to fit a pulley to. You would then go to a block on the track & then to a pulley on the sail then back to the block on the track. The sheet would sweep the deck when tacking so a crew on the fore deck would have to do a little jig over the sheet but it gets you out of trouble

empip wrote: Hi On my 301 the jib sheet comes from the sail to the self tacker block, then forward to a turning block on the deck just aft of the anchor locker,then to a clutch on the cabin top if that helps.

Yes, well said. OP please note that this is the correct way to rig the self-tacking sheet on the 301 and NOT the 'up and down the mast' style recommended earlier in the thread.

bowline your single self-tacking sheet to the clew of the jib and then run the sheet through the turning block on the self-tacking track. Take it forward to the small deck-mounted block which you'll find just aft of the anchor locker lid and then run it back, down whichever side of the boat, to the cockpit. I bring mine direct across the coachroof port-side to a clutch and winch. You could also do as Sam suggests and bring it via a snatch block on the rail to the primary winches on one side or the other.

Re. the earlier suggestion that you rig up and down the mast. You can do this- it works and this is how the ST sheet was rigged when I bought the boat. However I found that it created much more friction. If you do this you will soon find yourself a) wondering what the funny little turning block aft of the anchor locker is supposed to be for, and b) when you hoist a running sail you'll wonder why Z-Spars didn't think to provide the mast with sheaves for a pole-lift (guess what the slot half way up is really for!).

I've managed to find a pic of the front end of my boat with the line rigged for guidance (in the pic it passes through the block on the ST track and is tied off on the spinny ring as we normally run a genoa with twin sheets).

It can interfere with opening the fwd hatch as it runs right over it. Slack the sheet off before opening the hatch.

Hope this helps

As a new member to this forum, I am extremely impressed with all the rapid and extensive help I have been given.