Concerning Halyards: On J/Express #3784 all halyards are cleated at the mast. We have tied a short piece of Bungee/shock cord around the mast below the goose neck. The tails for the main and genoa are then simply stowed by pulling the bungee out a bit and shoving all the line between the mast and the bungee. When you need the line to run, simply pull the all the line out of the bungee (in the same direction that you shoved it in) and let it run free. Our experience has been it is better not to coil the line, but just collect it and then stow it. Hope this helps.

Eric, Thanks for the info. If you could send a diagram to better allow me to visualize this, I would appreciate it. I would like to get started on this while the boat is out of the water, although the setup does not sound tremendously involved. Thanks again for the info. John

John,

On the genoa, 20 cm something from the foot, there is a small eyelet.

I put a hook in the eyelet, a block on the deck(You can use harken hk113 or ronstan).

A small rope coming from the hook passes through this first block, and is this to another block. (harken or ronstan. Ronstan is ordinary cheaper in France or Hong Kong)

A line is inside this second block, with a Harken 225 or similar ronstan on each end.

A line is ied on each of these blocks, goes through another block (harken 292 or similar ronstan)fixed on the stantion, back through the 225, and then to a cleat.

Looks complicate, but I may send you a design if you like, English is not my mother and father langage!!

On my boat, where we are always short of crew, It is the middle man who is in charge of it. I think that if you are five on the boat, the second person from the front should do the job. It is easy with a line on both sides.

The genoa cunningham is very efficient to depower this big sail, making it flat.

Good luck, Happy sailing,

Eric
Taranis

Perhaps this is a bit off the subject, but I have a question about the genoa cunningham. The boat I bought had never been raced. It used a sail track instead of hanks. I've removed the sail track and purchased new sails with hanks, but I'm not familar with the genoa cunningham or it's setup. I understand the purpose of the cunningham in affecting the draft position of the sail, but until now I adjusted the draft position using the halyard tension. How do I setup the genoa cunningham and who usually adjusts it during the race? Thanks, John Mulligan "Flat Top" #4356

For the main halyard, once the mainsail is fully hoisted, and the halyard is tied off at the cleat on the deck, we coil the halyard up like you would to store a line. We have a piece of bungie cord (shock cord) that runs between two eyes on the deck, about a foot (.3 meter) behind the mast. The coiled main halyard is tucked under the bungie cord so that it does not move around.

The genoa halyard that we use is naked technora, with a cover spliced on where it is cleated. We have two Harken cam cleats on the mast. The tail is arranged by the bowman under the bungie cord so that it will (hopefully) not tangle when the genoa comes down. He has found it best to literally arrange the tail of the genoa halyard on the deck under the bungie cord rather than coil or hand over hand flake it.

That part of the Genoa is the foot. The grommet you are referring to is used for a "tacking line" or "skirting line", which is a small diameter line about 8' (?) long that the foredeck crew takes across while tacking. Pulling on the line allows him/her to "skirt" the genoa while staying on the high side.

As for the Halyards, on Free Bowl of Soup we tuck the Main halyard back under itself. The genoa and spinnaker halyards are led to the cabin. Believe it or not, in 10+ years of sailing, they rarely, if ever, have caught on anything. Some people throw the tails overboard just prior to a mark rounding. This is a suprising effective way of relieving any tangles.

Good luck. I'm sure different crews have other ways of dealing with this stuff.

Eric Hopper
USA3837
Free Bowl of Soup
Portland, OR <

You clip them on the mast, and then, what do you do with the long spaghettis? Do you fold them, and tie them to the mast, in order to allow the genoa to jam when tacking, or do you bring them back to the cabin, where they are happy to mix themselves together and with eveything available?

The base of my genoa (there is certainly a better word in English, I mean the part which is sweeping the deck)has a small eyelet in the middle. Does anybody knows for what it is usefull?

Thank you for your advices,

Eric Bouveron
Taranis