[Rhodes22-list] Another Screw-Up; Another Question

[Leland]

At my age you'd think that I would have learned that showing off can get you
into trouble.

I'm motoring out of the channel yesterday while seven big cruisers are
motoring in to anchor together in a popular gunkhole.  I decide to shut-off
my engine and quickly deploy my main in an effort to impress the seasoned
sailors that I have a furling main and don't need no stinkin' motor, even in
a narrow channel.

I pull the main about half way out and it gets stuck.  Just forward of the
clew on the sail's foot is a hole where a cord hangs down in a loop.  The
loop had caught on my forward cleat on the boom.  By the time I had realized
what had happened, the boat was no longer turned into the wind and there was
so much pressure on the little half mainsail that I couldn't furl it back in
to get it unhooked from the cleat.  I don't think the cruisers understood
why I was doing a 180 in a narrow channel so close to their beautiful boats. 
Fortunately once the pressure was off the main I could furl it back in and
quickly start the motor and get out of everyone's way, but the whole thing
just wasn't very pretty.

So what the heck is that hangy down cord?  Some mainsails have a leech
line/cord you can use to tighten the leech.  Is this a foot cord?  It looks
like it might run the length of the sail's foot.  I have new Doyle sails
with the R22 proudly printed on it.  Not so proudly yesterday.

Speaking of hangy down cords about a foot in from the clew, I've got one on
the Genoa too.  This one looks like it ties the hard plastic clip onto the
foot of the sail.  What's that all about?  And what's that plastic clip
doing there anyway?  Some many questions; so little knowledge.

On a happier note, it was a wonderful day of sailing.

Lee
1986 Rhodes22  At Ease
Crab Alley (Kent Island, MD)
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