1 point to you Doug.

The local Star sailors here still do it.
I've never done it myself, I usually start
with the bitter end and let it fall randomly,
and only had one easly to clear snag using
that method.

I might consider it in fresh water. I'd
prefer to keep my lines clean and dry.

Have you ever used that method?

Bart

DSK wrote

N1EE wrote:
What do some sailboat racers throw overboard
just before the leeward mark?

The tail of the spinnaker halyard.

Bart, you may be showing your age (and mine) here. This was failry
common about 40 years ago, and I don't recall seeing anybody do it for
about 20. The idea was to shake the tangle out and control the speed of
the douse.

Fresh Breezes
Doug King

N1EE wrote:
1 point to you Doug.

The local Star sailors here still do it.
I've never done it myself, I usually start
with the bitter end and let it fall randomly,
and only had one easly to clear snag using
that method.

On a boat with a mast head rig, the spinnaker halyard can be long
relative to the cockpit & working area. Something's gotta be done! On
big boats there are a lot of people sitting around with nothing else to
do, so one of them carefully flakes the spi halyard tail into a line
bag. On hotter boats, it's too busy, but you can still have a line bag
with a large opening that it's easy for the skipper or middle man to
drop the tail into and it usually comes out OK.

The first boat I raced seriously was a 470 with a 1:2 spinnaker halyard
led to a squirrel cage (a reel for taking up slack line). This was
considered ultra-modern after the next most recent innovation, the
continuous spinnaker halyard (which actually is very handy and the idea
survives in the A-sail boats with the take-down line led to the middle
of the chute). This was in the 1970s.


I might consider it in fresh water. I'd
prefer to keep my lines clean and dry.

Have you ever used that method?

When I was learning, some people used to throw the sheet into the water
ahead of the boat, to get the line fed around the forestay for the
hoist. Now that's rather old-school, as Oz says.

I'd rather keep lines out of the water myself. It's not good for them
and if another boat snags the line, it's a foul on you. Of course you
could try tying different knots trailing a line as you did 720s... do
they give trophies for that?

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

My old 5o5 had the haylard attached to the
center of the chute. I liked it.

I like continuous lines in general. My jib
sheets are rigged that way. Eventually, I'll
put a fine jib adjustment on HOOT and the
tails will be exposed. Right now they
terminate under the deck. So the jib trimmer
can grab the upwind side of the jib sheet,
take up the slack and trim the jib, without
going to leeward if he drops the sheet.

My twings work the same way, each side with
it's own cleat on the console and sharing a
single long line. Nothing on the boat requires
a crew to go to leeward, at most you have to lean
in slightly to reach the console.

I also use a line to connect both whale gusher
pump handles, and they are fed though a bullseye
so either or both can be pumped by pulling on one
line.

I color coded my running rigging, red, white, and
blue, and went fore to aft that way. Jib lines
red, in the middle, the vang, is white, and the
main sheet blue. I picked green for the spinnaker.
One nice thing about re-rigging an old boat, you
can set things up any way you want both color
coding, or with continous lines.

Bart

Why do you like continuous lines for jib sheets?

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"N1EE" wrote in message
om...
My old 5o5 had the haylard attached to the
center of the chute. I liked it.

I like continuous lines in general. My jib
sheets are rigged that way. Eventually, I'll
put a fine jib adjustment on HOOT and the
tails will be exposed. Right now they
terminate under the deck. So the jib trimmer
can grab the upwind side of the jib sheet,
take up the slack and trim the jib, without
going to leeward if he drops the sheet.

My twings work the same way, each side with
it's own cleat on the console and sharing a
single long line. Nothing on the boat requires
a crew to go to leeward, at most you have to lean
in slightly to reach the console.

I also use a line to connect both whale gusher
pump handles, and they are fed though a bullseye
so either or both can be pumped by pulling on one
line.

I color coded my running rigging, red, white, and
blue, and went fore to aft that way. Jib lines
red, in the middle, the vang, is white, and the
main sheet blue. I picked green for the spinnaker.
One nice thing about re-rigging an old boat, you
can set things up any way you want both color
coding, or with continous lines.

Bart

Gawd,
We gave that up when we went to braided halyards.
I hadn't thought about it, but the chutes are so light and the boats so
fast these days - you might have to Pull it down with a tail fling.
It also made life interesting at the winches when that wet line
whiplashed accross the cockpit.
Matt Colie



DSK wrote:

N1EE wrote:

What do some sailboat racers throw overboard just before the leeward
mark?


The tail of the spinnaker halyard.

Bart, you may be showing your age (and mine) here. This was failry
common about 40 years ago, and I don't recall seeing anybody do it for
about 20. The idea was to shake the tangle out and control the speed of
the douse.

Fresh Breezes
Doug King

We used to call it an "asshole" when the spinnaker
halyard or some other line would get a round turned
jammed in a block or something. I can remember it
happening a few times during spinnaker takedowns
when I raced as Etchells crew in SF. It never
caused a series probelm there.

On an Express 37, a round trun ground into a cheek
block put us in serious trouble. Everyone else was
on the high side, the boat was flat on it's ear, and
I was the only man on the low side. I managed to
clear it, but was seriously thinking about cutting it.

Thinking back on it now, it is kind of funny when
a couple guys are yelling "ASSHOLE" "ASSHOLE" over
and over again. Anyone not in on the term would
be confused.

Does anyone else use that term in that manner?

Bart



Matt Colie wrote

Gawd,
We gave that up when we went to braided halyards.
I hadn't thought about it, but the chutes are so light and the boats so
fast these days - you might have to Pull it down with a tail fling.
It also made life interesting at the winches when that wet line
whiplashed accross the cockpit.
Matt Colie



DSK wrote:

N1EE wrote:

What do some sailboat racers throw overboard just before the leeward
mark?


The tail of the spinnaker halyard.

Bart, you may be showing your age (and mine) here. This was failry
common about 40 years ago, and I don't recall seeing anybody do it for
about 20. The idea was to shake the tangle out and control the speed of
the douse.

Fresh Breezes
Doug King

Bart,

I have know that label for both that little turn that
jams the line at a block and the little puckers(?) that
the yarns of a laid line form when it is coiled backward
and run free a couple of times (does this make any sense?).

More description: The three individual yarns of a laid line
can be made to each stick out of the lay and roll a half turn
each causing three little lumps sticking out of the lay
usually at the same location along the line, but each at
its own yarn location.

Matt

N1EE wrote:

We used to call it an "asshole" when the spinnaker
halyard or some other line would get a round turned
jammed in a block or something. I can remember it
happening a few times during spinnaker takedowns
when I raced as Etchells crew in SF. It never
caused a series probelm there.

On an Express 37, a round trun ground into a cheek
block put us in serious trouble. Everyone else was
on the high side, the boat was flat on it's ear, and
I was the only man on the low side. I managed to
clear it, but was seriously thinking about cutting it.

Thinking back on it now, it is kind of funny when
a couple guys are yelling "ASSHOLE" "ASSHOLE" over
and over again. Anyone not in on the term would
be confused.

Does anyone else use that term in that manner?

Bart



Matt Colie wrote


Gawd,
We gave that up when we went to braided halyards.
I hadn't thought about it, but the chutes are so light and the boats so
fast these days - you might have to Pull it down with a tail fling.
It also made life interesting at the winches when that wet line
whiplashed accross the cockpit.
Matt Colie



DSK wrote:


N1EE wrote:


What do some sailboat racers throw overboard just before the leeward
mark?


The tail of the spinnaker halyard.

Bart, you may be showing your age (and mine) here. This was failry
common about 40 years ago, and I don't recall seeing anybody do it for
about 20. The idea was to shake the tangle out and control the speed of
the douse.

Fresh Breezes
Doug King

I believe its called a " hockle"

On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 09:07:26 -0400, Matt Colie
wrote:

Bart,

I have know that label for both that little turn that
jams the line at a block and the little puckers(?) that
the yarns of a laid line form when it is coiled backward
and run free a couple of times (does this make any sense?).

More description: The three individual yarns of a laid line
can be made to each stick out of the lay and roll a half turn
each causing three little lumps sticking out of the lay
usually at the same location along the line, but each at
its own yarn location.

Matt

N1EE wrote:

We used to call it an "asshole" when the spinnaker
halyard or some other line would get a round turned
jammed in a block or something. I can remember it
happening a few times during spinnaker takedowns
when I raced as Etchells crew in SF. It never
caused a series probelm there.

On an Express 37, a round trun ground into a cheek
block put us in serious trouble. Everyone else was
on the high side, the boat was flat on it's ear, and
I was the only man on the low side. I managed to
clear it, but was seriously thinking about cutting it.

Thinking back on it now, it is kind of funny when
a couple guys are yelling "ASSHOLE" "ASSHOLE" over
and over again. Anyone not in on the term would
be confused.

Does anyone else use that term in that manner?

Bart



Matt Colie wrote


Gawd,
We gave that up when we went to braided halyards.
I hadn't thought about it, but the chutes are so light and the boats so
fast these days - you might have to Pull it down with a tail fling.
It also made life interesting at the winches when that wet line
whiplashed accross the cockpit.
Matt Colie



DSK wrote:


N1EE wrote:


What do some sailboat racers throw overboard just before the leeward
mark?


The tail of the spinnaker halyard.

Bart, you may be showing your age (and mine) here. This was failry
common about 40 years ago, and I don't recall seeing anybody do it for
about 20. The idea was to shake the tangle out and control the speed of
the douse.

Fresh Breezes
Doug King

I had an instructor a long time ago who used it
when someone would coil a sheet correctly. He'd
say something like you've put assholes in my sheets.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"N1EE" wrote in message
om...
We used to call it an "asshole" when the spinnaker
halyard or some other line would get a round turned
jammed in a block or something. I can remember it
happening a few times during spinnaker takedowns
when I raced as Etchells crew in SF. It never
caused a series probelm there.

On an Express 37, a round trun ground into a cheek
block put us in serious trouble. Everyone else was
on the high side, the boat was flat on it's ear, and
I was the only man on the low side. I managed to
clear it, but was seriously thinking about cutting it.

Thinking back on it now, it is kind of funny when
a couple guys are yelling "ASSHOLE" "ASSHOLE" over
and over again. Anyone not in on the term would
be confused.

Does anyone else use that term in that manner?

Bart



Matt Colie wrote

Gawd,
We gave that up when we went to braided halyards.
I hadn't thought about it, but the chutes are so light and the boats so
fast these days - you might have to Pull it down with a tail fling.
It also made life interesting at the winches when that wet line
whiplashed accross the cockpit.
Matt Colie



DSK wrote:

N1EE wrote:

What do some sailboat racers throw overboard just before the leeward
mark?


The tail of the spinnaker halyard.

Bart, you may be showing your age (and mine) here. This was failry
common about 40 years ago, and I don't recall seeing anybody do it for
about 20. The idea was to shake the tangle out and control the speed
of
the douse.

Fresh Breezes
Doug King

I guess that is ok as long as he doesn't sleep in
them.

Bart

Jonathan Ganz wrote

I had an instructor a long time ago who used it
when someone would coil a sheet correctly. He'd
say something like you've put assholes in my sheets.