[Rhodes22-list] MAINSAIL HALYARD

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Diane,
 
I'm just a newbee so take this with a grain of salt.
 
Re the mainsail: Is your mainsail furled smoothly?  I've notice with  ours 
that if the aft end of the boom is not sufficiently down when the mainsail  is 
furled the sail will not wrap smoothly, the "crinkles" take up  space in the 
mast, and I think it makes it harder to pull out and harder to  furl.  You might 
check that - we commonly have had the problem when the  topping lift was not 
letting the end boom down sufficiently.  In fact,  sometimes I weight down the 
end of the boom with one arm while hauling in  the furling arm with the 
other.  I think getting a smooth wrap is important  in terms of hauling in or out.
 
Re letting your sails in and out: I find that it's usually not important to  
head into the wind to let either the head sail out, or the main sail out.   If 
you start to deploy either sail and the wind catches it,  it will help  you 
pull the sail out - in fact a good wind can pull either sail out very  quickly 
with a lot of force so you'd better be able to handle the  furling line unless 
you want to let the sail fully out.  Be  careful in using the wind to help 
take your sails out, it can get out of hand  quickly, but it can also make 
hauling out the sails easy once you've  started.  Taking the sail in is a different 
matter, if there is wind  against the sail it's harder to retrieve, so turn 
into the wind to de-power the  sail and you have to haul it in (no aid from the 
wind). 
 
If you're focused on the boom, what I think you are calling "the  car" is 
supposed to slide it up to your mainsail, when it's furled or when  it's let out. 
 I think you have to do that by hand.
 
Where are you located?  If you're near someone you might be able to  drop 
over to see how we're set up.
 
Dave



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