another option is buy McLube (SAILKOTE) and spray it on the bolt rope pretty liberally as you hoist (one person hoists, the other gets up in the bow pulpit and saturates the luff rope with the spray. We did this last week on a very tight luff rope on a J122...the boat is built in France to frenchist measurements while the sails were made by Max Skelley here in the US...so the luff rope didnt realy fit the foil too well....I went up and sprayed the crap out of the luff rope as it went up and it cout down the friction load by half.
I still like your idea of a DOWNHAUL though, wonder if it would be cheap and easy to just have your loack sailmaker install a grommet about 2/3s of the way up, small hole, just push a line thru it and tie a knot on the bitter end side (to keep it in the hole and not have to buy any ezpensive shackles and what-not, also saves weight and eliminates stuff aloft to chafe against your sail) and then down to a bullet block and back to your cockpit thru a couple of cheap/easy fairleads? tf > Tf, > > That makes sense...reducing the friction level should help. I ended up > spraying Teflon lubricant on the slides of the mainsail which probably cut > in half the effort needed to raise the sails. I wonder if that grease goo > stuff would leave a mess on my sails or if it would be like the Teflon > spray > and just dry and be more slippery. I will check that out at West Marine. > For the most part I like everything about this system except the fact that > the sail won't drop. My wife and I really aren't in to racing. We just > love to sail and I do like things to work well.....although I do have to > admit that I am happier when my boat is passing someone as opposed to them > passing me! > > Jim > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2008 8:21 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: catalina27-talk: Twin track thingy > > Jim, it's most likely a TuffLuffR and it's both a boon and a hassle > depending on how often you singlehand. Ideally there is a prefeeder about > 18" below the entry for the luff rope and that's help if you have your > main halyard running back to the cockpit. Dousing is an issue though and > it sounds like your instincts are spot-on when you tried installing a > downhaul...but as you mentioned, I'm not sure how effective it would be if > it's run all the way up to the jib's headboard. > > One thing that will make setting and dousing the jib easier would be to do > some maintenance on the luff foil (TuffLuff). West sells a jib foil > maintenance kit which is bascially a triangle of heavy sail cloth sewn on > to a fairly stiff piece of bolttope with provision to attach the jib > halyard and a downhaul (or messenger) to haul the thing back > down...included in the kit is a tube of greasy stuff that you apply to the > bolt-rope and then you systematically haul the contraption a few feet up > the jib foil, work it back and forth, remove it and re-apply a bit more of > the greasy-goo and do another section further up the luff foil. After you > do this your jib will drop out of the luff foil one heckuva lot easier... > > but you are right, unless you are changing headsails underway, the foil > doesn't offer much of an advantage to a singlehander, except ease of > swapping sails underway...it's faster to start the sail (no hoarde of > hanks to snap on when you're up front) but it's definitely more of an > issue to douse the sail without a jib downhauler. > > tf > > > > > not down the stay (because of >> the angle). That makes single handing pretty awkward (but not >> impossible). >> I picked up a length of rope to use as a down haul but it ended up too >> short >> so I couldn't use it. However after tying it on I wondered if it would >> work >> anyway since pulling on it would pull the top six inches that is not in >> that >> slide thing down over itself and probably hang up the thing anyway. I >> guess >> this is set up for racing since the previous owner seems to have >> installed >> everything he could with marking numbers everywhere and way more >> halyards >> than I will ever need! >> >> >> >> I don't have the money at this point to put on a furler unit which would >> be >> the obvious answer but I am curious if this is a racing set up how >> racers >> handle it. >> >> >> >> Jim >> >> >> >> Jim Bernstorf >> >> Jules Distribution >> >> 6025 Cloverland Drive >> >> Brentwood, TN 37027 >> >> 615.833.1848 >> >> >> >> > > > > > > > >
