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#11
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Cannibal
Wilbur, Wilbur...
Jessica must have made you go soft. The below is nothing as compared to some of your earlier works. Wilbur, I thought I knew ye... It's so insipid I can't even give you the usual satire points, let alone riposte your egregious mistakes in your encyclopedic knowledge of us and our fine home.. Who are you, and what have you done with Wilbur??? L8R Skip, disappointed in your failure to deliver on your earlier promise :{)) PS I apologize, but as of tomorrow morning I'll be in work mode, so I may not visit very often, computer time being reserved for after-hours only... -- Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog "Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing about in boats-or *with* boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not." "Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message anews.com... Now, you're gonna get it since I have some typing time . . . "Flying Pig" wrote in message ... Hi, again :{)) "Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message anews.com... Wrong, Dumbo! You show what type of sailor YOU are with the above dunderheadedness. (Can you say 'fair weather sailor') It just so happens some us sail in gale or near gale conditions. Under those conditions external halyards are slapping all over the freaking place when sails are raised. It becomes even more of a whipfest when lowering the sails and you know, Bruce, what goes up must come down. Duh! Everybody with those pile of junk triangular mast loops will end up with a halyard tangled in them when dousing sail. And, they will be stuck at the worst time with flogging, flailing, out of control sails when they least want or need it. This will require a trip up the mast CAUSED BY THE VERY STEPS that are supposed to make it less likely that one will need to ascend the mast under emergency conditions. Dumb, stupid, lame and bordering on the pathetic, I say. Speaking of pathetic... I have well over 100# of mainsail. It's heavy enough that even jumping I can't pull up the last foot or so; I winch it before cleating off, rather than just tensioning the halyard. I CONTROL the line as I flake the sail. That means I let it slip through my (bare) hand while I have my hand on the sail to control how it falls. There is NO slack in the halyard, let alone enough to go around a step. It sounds to me like you need to lubricate the sail slugs or the sail track. It shouldn't be that difficult to raise the mainsail. And, here's a trick for you since you apparently have not learned it yourself. Raise the mainsail as far as you can by strength alone - do not jump up and down. Then take a wrap or two around the cleat and PULL OUT on the halyard. This will leverage it up to the top (provided the boom goose neck isn't fixed). Then cleat off the halyard, and push down on the boom at the gooseneck and tie and cleat the downhaul line. Your method of lowering the mainsail and letting the halyard slide through your fingers will result in a significant belly in the halyard that in any kind of a stiff wind will be flopping all over the place due to wind and seas and this belly is what gets tangled in the crappy mast steps you have installed. And, you've not been paying attention, either. I only want _1_ more, so I can stand at the top of the mast. If the conditions were so severe as to cause my otherwise-taut (I keep it taut when I've lowered the sail, and the weight of the sail keeps it reasonably taut as I'm lowering it) halyard to managed to navigate a 5" (not counting the half-depth mast) step to foul on it, at (you work out the math; the step will be about 2.5' down from the pulley exit, which is about 1" off center, and the mast has an 8" cross section) a reasonably broad angle. Carry that angle down even half (considering the possibility of "catenary" due to the wind, which would have to be abeam [thus providing a gravity equivalent so that the theory is similar when turned 90*], unlikely when stowing sails), and it is probably close to the shroud. Ain't gonna happen :{)) It will foul eventually - don't be so naive. And, when it fouls there's gonna be hell to pay. BELIEVE IT. If something bad can happen, it will happen. That's Murphy's law. So much discussion about the proposed TOP mast step when you have a series of lower ones that will give you nothing but trouble. Boy, Skippy, you need to look at the whole picture. So, I conclude that the massive sail on that yacht of yours is more than you can handle by controlling the halyard, and so you use folding steps that only a child's shod foot can fit within (never mind the lack of a means of not sliding off the side if you got the least bit of lift causing that pitiful little edge on the plate they give you for safety to be meangless). My mast steps are 6" wide. Measure your foot, not length-wise but sideways. If your foot is over six inches wide then you're a freak. As for my foot slipping off the outer end, it's never happened and it's never come close to happening. And, even if it should happen, a wise climber NEVER allows himself to be supported by one appendage only. Maybe Jessica would come sail with you and handle that chore for you, and you'd have this lovely, flaked, sail without burgeoning your tender little hands.... Duh! Another sign that you are clueless. When anchoring under sail one doesn't waste time flaking the mainsail when dousing it. One lets it fall down on and around the boom any way it wishes to fall. Only after other necessary anchoring chores are completed does the captain or crew return to the mast and flake the sail adding gaskets as he flakes the sail from the outer end of the boom to the inner end. You, obviously don't quite have sail handling down to an art yet. Practice some more and come back when you have it down, please. L8R Skip, down from the top of the mast today, stopping in the middle just for fun (to measure how far that halyard would have to fly to get around my step, of course!) As he ignores in his arrogance the pile of junk steps he's used to get up to the top. LOL! Skippy, you're a real hoot. Wilbur Hubbard |