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Raising the Mainsail

Wed, 20/01/2010 - 00:07 — David Brewer

 

1.    The wind conditions should deterrmine how you go about hoisting the sail. In quiet weather this can be done mainly on-shore, however in high winds for the sake of safety most of the work must be done after the dinghy has been launched and held bow to wind.  Start by unrolling the main sail from its storage and fold it evenly into the body of the dinghy.

   Tip: do not untie the main halyard until you are ready to haul up the sail otherwise you may inadvertently  pull it to the top of the mast out of reach or it will blow in the wind out of reach.

  2.       Hoist the mainsail from the port side of the mast. Attach the Head of the main sail to the Main Halyard using a loop and bobble fastening. Do not pull excessively on the Main Halyard bobble otherwise the loose end of the Main Halyard will be pulled out of the mast slot- use another bobble on the halyard end to prevent this..

3.       If required attach the masthead flotation pack to the top of the sail via the four eyelets at the top of the sail. See photo below. Each float supplies approx 3.7lbs buoyancy. The floats need to be securely tied otherwise the action of the wind will shake the knots loose. If two flotation packs are to be used (to prevent the dinghy from turtling ) fasten one on each side of the main sail. TIP: cut the ends of the float pack lines as short as possible to avoid these lines jamming in the sail track as the sail is being raised.

floatation device
4.       At this stage decide if the main sail is to be reefed. If so skip to stage 7 (Reefing).
  
5.       Hold the sail to the port side of the mast. Slot the Luff of the sail into the cut out in the lower section of the mast. Pull on the main halyard whilst feeding in the luff edge of the sail. Hold the sail to the port side to avoid the flotation pack from fouling the spreaders. Continue hoisting until the sail is near the top of the mast (subject to your decision on reefing). The sail should slide smoothly up the mast track. If it does not then do not apply more force but release the tension, drop the sail slightly and check that a) the sail and flotation pack have not fouled the shrouds and b) the sail is being fed vertically into its slot. If the boom Outhaul line has cleated this may also prevent the sail from sliding smoothly into the mast track. If the sail still requires undue effort to hoist consider whether the main halyard sheave needs to be serviced (See Maintenance section). Grit and mud will cause the sheave to bind.

6.       Continue as in 5. above until the sail is at its highest point. Sweat the main halyard (ie one hand pulls the rope through the cleat as far as possible and, without freeing the rope from the cleat, the other hand pulls the rope above the cleat at right angles to the mast, the resulting slack is then pulled through the cleat as before and the process repeated)  until it is as tight as possible – this is essential whether the sail is fully up or reefed. A slack halyard will cause the mainsail to twist and rest against the shrouds or the top of the sail will be reluctant to fill after a tack.

 

Strong winds and Reefing the Mainsail
7.       The Xenon dinghy has a single zip reefing system (ie a single panel only is reefable). It is neat and excellent when used ashore but reefing afloat may prove to be something of a challenge in windy conditions.
Tip 3: When in doubt reef! it is easier to remove the reef afloat if necessary. Dependent upon your skills reefing the sail should be considered when winds are much above 16 knots.
8.       To reef the sail before going afloat, hold the sail to the port side of the boom. Slot the Luff of the sail into the cut out in the lower section of the mast. Pull on the main halyard whilst feeding in the Luff edge of the sail. It should slide in fairly easily with only a modest pull on the halyard. If it does not pull smoothly check that the Outhaul line is fully uncleated. Cleat off when the upper zip is in line with the upper edge of the boom. Before rolling the sail, belly out the foot of the sail into the dinghy to remove creases and slot the slug adjacent to the upper zip into the rear of the boom.
9.       Straighten out the sail as it hangs down from the boom and commence tightly and evenly rolling the sail foot until the lower zip is in line with the upper zip. Connect the two zips by zipping from the rear of the boom. There will now be a neat roll of sail along the port side of the boom. See photo below.
Comment: The Xenon zip reefing has the advantage of being neater and more compact than that of many dinghies but it has the significant disadvantage that an emergency reef afloat is potentially very difficult if the boom is swinging about as you are attempting to roll the sail. Furthermore note that unless the roll is relatively tight then the two zip sections will not meet and the reefing process will need to be done again! – if there is the slightest doubt reef before going afloat. The Xenon has a powerful rig that can easily get out of hand in heavy winds. Letting out the reef afloat because you later decide the conditions do not need a reef is a simpler and safer option.
If the reefing task must be done afloat then lower the main sail sufficiently to avoid the boom swinging uncontrollably. As the sail is lowered fold it into the starboard side of the dinghy and start rolling the sail foot tightly into the port side. Attempting to leave the sail halfway up to gain more ‘roll’ space may encourage the boom to swing wildly in windy conditions creating extreme difficulty in rolling and zipping.

Ashore in very windy conditions the mainsail can be unfolded in the boat and the reefing roll made and zipped whilst leaving the bulk of the sail stored out of the wind in the boat. The boat can then be launched and turned head to wind after which the slug can be inserted into the boom and the mainsail hoisted as usual. After hoisting check that the slug has not slipped out of its slot before applying tension to the Outhaul line.