Before I installed my Harken roller furler, I had thought I would sail, for
a while, with a hanked on head sail. The jib halyard had the usual quick
change piston release shackle with a fancy lanyard for pulling the piston
pin when my fingers are numb.

When I installed the roller furler, I just attached the halyard with this
same shackle to the top of the furler swivel.

In retrospect, I should have taken that fancy little lanyard off.

While trying to unfurl my working jib today, that %$#@%*+! lanyard got
snagged on something, pulled the shackle piston pin and released the furler
swivel.

Down came the sail, fortunately but the halyard is lost, until I climb the
mast and retrieve it.

And to think, I have gone aloft with one of those piston type shackles
snapped into my safety harness.

I'm going back to standard halyard shackles.

Now to find a "mast monkey" to climb the mast or someone reliable to tend
the safety line while I go aloft.

Lesson learned.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Steve wrote:

Before I installed my Harken roller furler, I had thought I would sail, for
a while, with a hanked on head sail. The jib halyard had the usual quick
change piston release shackle with a fancy lanyard for pulling the piston
pin when my fingers are numb.

Always a mistake. Halyard shackles should always be the positive locking
and captured type, and always checked a second or third time for proper
"lock" before hoisting. Had one go "sprong" on me on the last boat.
Luckily, the mast was easily dropped on that boat and the error corrected.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

While at the dock, a kid came by, wanting to shoot the breeze about boat. I
recruited him as my "mast monkey" for $20.

While I had him up the mast (in a safety harness of course), I had him reave
a couple signal halyards on the spreader..

When I offered him the $20, he said if would do it for nothing if I would
let him dive off the spreaders. I told him that was why I had him in the
harness, cause I knew he would want to dive from the mast.

I wonder if I wasn't opening myself up to some major liability, having a
minor (12 yo) going up my mast.

Oh Well! His grandmother just waved to him when he yelled to her from the
top of the mast.

Now to find the perfect halyard shackle. Captured pin, etc.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Why spend the money? A bowline is cheaper.

Seriously, on our circumnav on Swee****er, a Swan 57, we found that
halyard shackles (except the main) were more nuisance than they were
worth, as they tended to chafe through the halyard. We just tossed
them in the spares bin and used bowlines on the jib (roller furling),
forestaysail (hanked), and spinnaker (neither).

By the time we were done, I don't think we had any snap shackles in
use on the boat except for the forestaysail tack and three for the
reef tacks (reef hooks are really OK only in good weather....) The
main halyard was a typical screw pin and the roller jib tack a screw
pin dee shackle.

A bowline can be a little bulkier than a shackle, so you want to be
careful that it doesn't catch on the headstay when rolling up the sail
-- a little tape on the tail doesn't hurt.

Jim Woodward
www.mvfintry.com



"Steve" wrote in message ...
While at the dock, a kid came by, wanting to shoot the breeze about boat. I
recruited him as my "mast monkey" for $20.

While I had him up the mast (in a safety harness of course), I had him reave
a couple signal halyards on the spreader..

When I offered him the $20, he said if would do it for nothing if I would
let him dive off the spreaders. I told him that was why I had him in the
harness, cause I knew he would want to dive from the mast.

I wonder if I wasn't opening myself up to some major liability, having a
minor (12 yo) going up my mast.

Oh Well! His grandmother just waved to him when he yelled to her from the
top of the mast.

Now to find the perfect halyard shackle. Captured pin, etc.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions