My CDI roller furling has its own halyard that runs in a notch via a
slider up to the top and back down to pull up the headsail. A few
weeks ago, I dropped the jib to tighten my forestay and did not have
time to put the sail back on (it goes into a slide) so I tied a piece
of cord to the halyard and tied the end of the cord to a cleat.
UNFORTUNATELY, my knot came undone (or was untied) and so the end of
the halyard was waaaaaaaay up there.
My son wanting to impress his GF said he would volunteer to get
hoisted up so I tied a Swiss Seat and chest harness for him telling
him that I really didn't expect him to go up the mast but he
insisted. Fortunately, he was smart enough that once he got as high
as the spreaders he decided the seat was hurting him and we brought
him back down.
Now what? I decided that I could use the original jib halyard and get
a small line and tie a loop through its (the halyard) end and then
around the forestay and hoist it up so the loop could snag the metal
slider and pull it all back down with the small line. We used binocs
to view the top of the furler and many times nearly got it. THEN, the
top of the furler got pulled offf by the loop in the small line and
got between the furler extrusion and the top of the furler. Couldnt
go up or down. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, now I have my jib halyard stuck too.
It is 98 degrees, 98% humidity and I am looking right into the sun for
all of this nearly passing out while standing on that hot deck looking
up and basically couldnt think clearly with all that sweat dripping in
my eyes.
Being dehydrated and suffering heatstroke, I went to poorly thought
out Plan B or was it C, I dunno. I decided to remove the forestay to
take off the furling extrusion. At least I knew I had to replace the
forestay with something. I stood behind the mast trying to throw a
line over the spreaders. I'd get it almost done and then I'd be
blinded by sweat and start slipping off the cabin top. After an hour
of nearly going insane trying, I got a rope over each spreader but
then one of them wrapped round my small line that went up to the stuck
halyard and I coudnt get it down either.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Survival took precedence over stubborness and I staggered into the
swimming pool nearly drowning but cooling off at last. With my brain
cooled somewhat, I could think again and was able to more easily throw
a line over the spreader. I then tied the two lines so they went
round the spreader and tied one to the forward cleat. I used my jib
blocks to make a double purchase system and pulled it tight to hold up
the mast for when I took off the Forestay. Then I went back to the
pool to cool my brain again.
Loosened the forestay at bottom and pulled off the furling extrusion
then back to the pool to cool off again. After that, it went easy.
The upper furler part came down with all my lines and I re-attached
the forestay. Back to the pool.
We did NOT get the furler put back on, I'll wait for another day.
The learning experience in all this? No matter how stubborn you are,
standing on a hot deck sweating and staring into the sun will frie yer
brayne.

wrote in message
...
My CDI roller furling has its own halyard that runs in a notch via a
slider up to the top and back down to pull up the headsail. A few
weeks ago, I dropped the jib to tighten my forestay and did not have
time to put the sail back on (it goes into a slide) so I tied a piece
of cord to the halyard and tied the end of the cord to a cleat.
UNFORTUNATELY, my knot came undone (or was untied) and so the end of
the halyard was waaaaaaaay up there.
My son wanting to impress his GF said he would volunteer to get
hoisted up so I tied a Swiss Seat and chest harness for him telling
him that I really didn't expect him to go up the mast but he
insisted. Fortunately, he was smart enough that once he got as high
as the spreaders he decided the seat was hurting him and we brought
him back down.
Now what? I decided that I could use the original jib halyard and get
a small line and tie a loop through its (the halyard) end and then
around the forestay and hoist it up so the loop could snag the metal
slider and pull it all back down with the small line. We used binocs
to view the top of the furler and many times nearly got it. THEN, the
top of the furler got pulled offf by the loop in the small line and
got between the furler extrusion and the top of the furler. Couldnt
go up or down. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, now I have my jib halyard stuck too.
It is 98 degrees, 98% humidity and I am looking right into the sun for
all of this nearly passing out while standing on that hot deck looking
up and basically couldnt think clearly with all that sweat dripping in
my eyes.
Being dehydrated and suffering heatstroke, I went to poorly thought
out Plan B or was it C, I dunno. I decided to remove the forestay to
take off the furling extrusion. At least I knew I had to replace the
forestay with something. I stood behind the mast trying to throw a
line over the spreaders. I'd get it almost done and then I'd be
blinded by sweat and start slipping off the cabin top. After an hour
of nearly going insane trying, I got a rope over each spreader but
then one of them wrapped round my small line that went up to the stuck
halyard and I coudnt get it down either.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Survival took precedence over stubborness and I staggered into the
swimming pool nearly drowning but cooling off at last. With my brain
cooled somewhat, I could think again and was able to more easily throw
a line over the spreader. I then tied the two lines so they went
round the spreader and tied one to the forward cleat. I used my jib
blocks to make a double purchase system and pulled it tight to hold up
the mast for when I took off the Forestay. Then I went back to the
pool to cool my brain again.
Loosened the forestay at bottom and pulled off the furling extrusion
then back to the pool to cool off again. After that, it went easy.
The upper furler part came down with all my lines and I re-attached
the forestay. Back to the pool.
We did NOT get the furler put back on, I'll wait for another day.
The learning experience in all this? No matter how stubborn you are,
standing on a hot deck sweating and staring into the sun will frie yer
brayne.


Nice post. I'm sure we've all done something similar.


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

Roger Long wrote:
Just think how much pleasanter it would have been doing that in Maine.

--
Roger Long

Florida is "lost halyard" territory. The state pastime in Maine is
diving for lobsta pots wrapped on propellers.

In article lutions,
"Capt. JG" wrote:

wrote in message
...
My CDI roller furling has its own halyard that runs in a notch via a
slider up to the top and back down to pull up the headsail. A few
weeks ago, I dropped the jib

snip tale of woe

The learning experience in all this? No matter how stubborn you are,
standing on a hot deck sweating and staring into the sun will frie yer
brayne.


Nice post. I'm sure we've all done something similar.

Here is my tale of woe:

Trying on my new (spare, secondhand) mainsail for fit before the
sailmakers cut it to size. Think; 'measure twice, cut once'.

Anyway I was waiting for a no-wind day and this morning looked
promising, so off I set.

The mainsail is 50' high, 20' wide at the foot and is heavy dacron.
Dunno how much it weighs. Lots tho, and 'difficult' as it's such a
handful and slippy.

Luckily I had bought a collapsible hand truck which made moving it from
car to boat wasn't too much of a problem.

Wheeled it down the jetty and hauled it on board.

Attached the top ring of the sail to the mainsail haul (rope going
upwards) and started pulling. Normally this would be easy, but I
discovered another effect from the bridge-meeting I had - the top wheel
(or bearing) is bent and won't go round very well. Anyway, I hauled and
hauled to get the sail up to the top. And up it went.

Did I mention it's 33C (or 90+F)?

Soon I was out of my T-shirt and also my shorts. Sweat running
everywhere!

The mast/sail connection is with 'slugs' - tied to the sail and inserted
into a channel in the mast.

Did measuring and marked the sail where it needs to be cut.

Had a sit down and a cuppa tea.

Tried to pull the sail down. Stuck.

So I slackened off the rope and went for another sit down.

The wind did its job and the sail began to move down in stops and starts.

By this time my knees are trembling and I am dizzy with exertion.

And I have a huge heap of dacron on the deck.

Sod the tea - just drinking great gulps of bottled water.

I am annoyed with myself cos its such a simple task and I just don't
have the physical strength to wrap up the sail and get it off the boat.

Huge effort and its on the jetty and I'm walking along this thin wooden
deck toward the hard. I can't see where I'm going as the sail is kinda
all over me with bits trailing! LOL

Get it onto the hard (which is about 5' wide) and find the foot of the
sail. (I was actually taught how to fold a sail by the sailmaker) and
it's normally a 2 man job. However, I do it and wrap it up with bungee
cords.

Back on the boat for a sit and drink.

Notice the dodger has a split seam.

Take down the dodger and roll it up - childs' play after that fugging
sail!

Roll everything down to the car and fill up the trunk. AC on - ahhh..

It sounds like a fairly simple task, and that's what I thought it'd be,
until I started to do it.

So here I am at home in more AC and I'm quite pleased with myself for
actually doing it despite the quad bypass four years ago!

--
Molesworth

wrote in message
...

snipped totally unnecessary and lame tale of woe

The lesson you should learn is get rid of that roll up crap. Your post
illustrates just one of the many problems roll ups have over simple and
reliable hanked on head sails.

Wilbur Hubbard

wrote in message
...
On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 05:37:14 -0400, "Roger Long"
wrote:

Just think how much pleasanter it would have been doing that in Maine.

In Maine you could just tie a retrieval line on a mosquito and tell it to
"fetch".




They must be the smaller cousins of the Alaskan (eagle-size) tribe.

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

"jeff" wrote in message
. ..
Roger Long wrote:
Just think how much pleasanter it would have been doing that in Maine.

--
Roger Long

Florida is "lost halyard" territory. The state pastime in Maine is diving
for lobsta pots wrapped on propellers.



The SF bay is kiteboarding snag on the masthead capital, which I almost
experienced last year.

There we were.... sailing on a starboard reach and here come the
kiteboarders. We're leeward, sailing in 20+ kts of the SF city front (just
past Crissy Field), but drove off even deeper to try and avoid their path.
One is heading right for us, all of us waving our arms, which he sees but is
basically out of control. I figure I'm not too concerned about the masthead
(other than the damage), but what if the foooker lands on the boat? What if
he lands on one of the people on the boat? All this is racing through my
mind with no time to do anything or get people below. He'll hit the
masthead, wrap the kite lines, and do the yo-yo as he spirals into the
deck... 200 lbs of flying butthead, plus the board of course. Here he
comes... whoosh... just misses the masthead by about two feet. I think he
looked even more frightened than we did. When he landed, he did a big splat
on the water, but we were long gone.

Then there's my removal mast on my Windrider adventure... but that's an old
story....

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

wrote in message
...
On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 10:04:52 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

wrote in message
. ..
On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 05:37:14 -0400, "Roger Long"
wrote:

Just think how much pleasanter it would have been doing that in Maine.

In Maine you could just tie a retrieval line on a mosquito and tell it
to
"fetch".




They must be the smaller cousins of the Alaskan (eagle-size) tribe.

In Maine, the mosquitos park at the airport.




Heh.... in Alaska, they have free towing service.

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

Molesworth wrote:
In article lutions,
....

It sounds like a fairly simple task, and that's what I thought it'd be,
until I started to do it.


I go through at least one such episode every year...

So here I am at home in more AC and I'm quite pleased with myself for
actually doing it despite the quad bypass four years ago!

Part of the reason I've resisted getting A/C for the boat - I would
probably get 10 minutes into a job, then give up and retreat below.

My Tale of Woe (for today) was really a simple brain-fart that could
have been a disaster. I was taking my brother out for a spin around
the harbor. We're on the end of the dock, so leaving is just a matter
of removing the lines in the proper sequence, and then, if necessary,
springing off. The only real problem is that from my helm seat, I'm 15
feet from the dock, so its hard to work lines and engines at the same
time. I calmly gave my brother the whole sequence, removed lines, hopped
on, and headed out. Only one problem: I had forgotten the shorepower
cable! Of course, my brother was not familiar with the workings of the
cable, and then when he finally got it off, he tossed it in the water!
Fortunately, I was back to back up to the dock so he could flip the
power switch and retrieve the cable.

On Jun 3, 7:58 pm, jeff wrote:
Molesworth wrote:
In article lutions,
...

It sounds like a fairly simple task, and that's what I thought it'd be,
until I started to do it.

I go through at least one such episode every year...

So here I am at home in more AC and I'm quite pleased with myself for
actually doing it despite the quad bypass four years ago!

Part of the reason I've resisted getting A/C for the boat - I would
probably get 10 minutes into a job, then give up and retreat below.

My Tale of Woe (for today) was really a simple brain-fart that could
have been a disaster. I was taking my brother out for a spin around
the harbor. We're on the end of the dock, so leaving is just a matter
of removing the lines in the proper sequence, and then, if necessary,
springing off. The only real problem is that from my helm seat, I'm 15
feet from the dock, so its hard to work lines and engines at the same
time. I calmly gave my brother the whole sequence, removed lines, hopped
on, and headed out. Only one problem: I had forgotten the shorepower
cable! Of course, my brother was not familiar with the workings of the
cable, and then when he finally got it off, he tossed it in the water!
Fortunately, I was back to back up to the dock so he could flip the
power switch and retrieve the cable.

Around here the radar caint see the skeeters due to the clutter caused
by the flying cockroaches. I always wondered why we didnt have mice
like they do up north till I saw a roach run across the yard carrying
a dead mouse.