Sail-raising (and lowering) techniques

[Joe Myerson]

Okay everybody, the weather here on Buzzards Bay is not conducive to sailing, so I thought I'd ask a simple question: What is your favorite technique for keeping your boat headed into the wind while raising the mainsail? And as corollary: What do you do when lowering the main to keep the boat headed into the wind?

I know there have been other threads on this subject, but I'm curious about what other CD sailors--especially singlehanders--do.

So, those of you who aren't on the water today, feel free to contribute your tips and favorite techniques.

Thanks, as always

--Joe

[Oswego John]

Joe,

As a rule, I don't raise the sails in the slip. I motor out to an open area and then raise the sails. With the engine set at a fast idle, I nose into the wind and lock the tiller dead center before raising the mainsail.

When on a mooring, it is so much easier. The mooring holds the nose to the wind. Just hoist the mainsail.

No matter what sail rig the ship has, I try to raise the main, aft sail first and then work foreward to the wind with the rest of the sails.

When lowering the sails, while nosing into the wind, I lower the fore sails first and work my way backward aft.

Best regards,
O J

[Dick Barthel]

OJ

I was wondering if you follow the same ordering rules when you take out the 85 foot OMF Ontario?

Ann and I had a great time in Oswego and I'm personally delighted to have met you in the flesh.

Dick

[Steve Laume]

like OJ says, sailing off a mooring makes it very easy to deal with sail raising. I have had an occasion when sailing onto the mooring and then lowering the sails that was rather interesting. I made a near perfect retrieve and attachment of the pennant to the bow cleat. The boat then took off on a starboard tack heading straight towards my very close neighbor who was a board at the time. The mooring caught up before impact but I promised I would not sail onto the mooring in such windy conditions again. It would help a lot if the moorings were evenly spaced and a bit further apart. What makes dealing with raising and lowering sails while single handing simple is to switch on the auto pilot and head her just off the wind so the boom lies to port of the center line. I never would have made an auto pilot a priority item on my boat but the boat came with it and it makes single handing a joy, Steve.

[Neil Gordon]

I prefer not to have the motor in gear when I'm out of the cockpit and so I usually avoid the temptaion of using the auto pilot.

Preferred method is to motor out to safe (i.e., limited traffic) water, head into the wind, cut the throttle and walk to the mast and raise the main. Forward momentum keeps the boat's head up long enough. Once the main is up, I tidy up whatever dock lines, fenders, etc., I couldn't get to before leaving the slip.

Method #2, which works about as well but takes more winching of the main halyard is to let the boat lie ahull. The bow falls off but so what. I raise the main a bit, which tends to drive the boat and put the pointy end upwind again. The more main I raise, the more it heads upwind for me.

Down is easy. Find the same safe patch of water, let go of the tiller and sheet the main in as the boat heads up. Go forward on the windward side and when the main luffs, I drop it. Bring a sail tie or two and you're done. If it's breezy, I'll haul in the jiffy reef to control some of the sail area.

The genoa is on a furler.

[Gary M]

I've been sailing in and out of my slip with no need to raise or lower the sails except while still in the slip.

My problem has been that the wind has been clocking around so when I'm sailing toward my slip I can't dump the wind by letting the main sheet go like I would like, there fore I'm coming into the slip much too fast.

Soooooo, I want to lower the main away from the slip and sail the rest of the way under jib alone.

I'll let you know how I do, and while I'm practicing I'll also be thinking of installing some lazy jacks.

Gary

[Oswego John]

Hi Dick,

Which to answer first?

I'll save the best for last.

Yes, that's basically the order. Before raising the main mast mainsail (aft mast), we undo a line that keeps the boom centered when not sailing. We also free up the boom support crotch.

It takes four deck hands, two teams, to raise a mainsail. One team raises the topping lift (gaff boom) as well as the mainsail. The other team hoists the gaff boom crotch, which wraps around the main mast. This also helps to raise the weight of the foreward portion of the mainsail.

As I told you last Saturday, there are no winches to raise the canvas. All lifting is done with Swedish Steam. One half of the team hauls the halyard while the other tails for him. When the going gets tough, one deck hand pumps the halyard out from the mast and the second takes a wrap around a belaying pin and takes up the slack. We have a 4:1 set of blocks on each halyard. After the main mast mainsail is secured, we move forward and set the foremast mainsail in the same order.

Still nosing into the wind we next set the four foresails. Firs the clubfooted staysail, then the inner staysail, then the outer staysail, lastly the flying jib. When going on a long journey, the topsails above the gaff booms would be set. Since this is quite a hassle, we don't set the topsails on our local training cruises.

And train, we do. There are so many lines involved, things and techniques to remember. The captain, (a REAL captain) wants each deck person (we do have some gals on the crew) to know and understand all the activities involved. Should a circumstance arise, he wants us to react instinctively to any command, in any area, knowing what to do and spring into action without hesitation.

As I said earlier, I'll save the best for last.

Yes, it was great to meet you and your lovely wife Ann. I think that one of the greatest things that I enjoy about sail-ins is in meeting other members for the first time. After reading posts written by a person, your mind's eye perceives a mental vision of what a person looks like. And when you meet that person for the first time, it usually blows my mind. Very often the person resembles nothing that you suspected.

I'm not just blowing smoke when I say that the members that I have met in the CDSOA are some of the most cordial group of people, and the most civil, too.

Heave-ho, me hearties,
O J

[tim]

I pre load the sails ....and have them bungied to keep them from getting a mind of their own while i motor out into open water to give myself some drifing room ,,,, head the boat up into the wind ,,, raise the jib ,, then back it... and tie the tiller to put the boat into a hove to situation...... then raise the main. The typhoon is small ,,, its pretty easy. backing the jib and crossing up the tiller keeps the sails from flapping themselves to death while i do the deed of raising the main. rat

[Boyd]

Hi All:

I single hand, even with crew aboard. My sail raising proceedure relies on heaving to prefferably on the Stb tack as I work the main from the stb side.

It goes something like this. I motor out of the inlet and take a headding so the wind is off the port side. I unfurl the roller furled jib and winch it in to a good guestimate. I then immediately turn into the wind and backwind the jib. Immiediately turn the helm hard into the wind and set the Edson brake to hold the helm hard over. After the boat settles down. I ease the main sheet till the boom weather cocks. to directly behind the jib. In effect putting the boom in the wind shadow created by the jib. I leasurely go forward and untie the main, connect the halyard, and hoist the main. The boom may swing due to boat roll but since I am at the mast end and leaning on the shrouds it not particularly scarry. The main is now up and luffing. I then go back to the helm and tighten the main sheet a bit. Then I release the break and complete the tack, releasing the upwind jib sheet at the appropriate time. I have the wind coming from the stb side. I adjust the sheets and away I go.

To drop sail I do the reverse. I heave to on the same stb tack, ease the main sheet so the main is luffing. Go forward, drop the main and secure it. I then go back to the helm, tighten the main sheet to center the boom, complete the tack and roll in the jib. I will typically have the motor idleing before I heave to so its ready to take over at the appropriate time.

When Hove to the boat settles down into a very stable and predictible motion, conducive to calm and patient work.

I use a Autohelm 3000 to steer while I straighten up the boat. As a plan B when conditions are not too windy I can have the Autohelm steer into the wind while I hoist the main. Its not too reliable so heaving to is the way to go.

Boyd
s/v Tern
CD30 MkII
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

[Photo Chief]

I'm a new sailor (bought my boat in Oct 05) and today was first time that I singlehanded. After reading and evaluating various techniques to get the sails up I decided to use the method on page 73 of the march issue of 'good old boat'. seem logical and was cheap.

If you don't have the mag the essence is this:1. slowly motor into the wind. 2. connect a bungee from rear of boom to tiller. 3. free main sheet so boom can freely swing. 4. put on pfd. 5. address the mast squarely and raise mainsail. bungee keeps stem into wind by turning tiller when boom swings either way. 6. raise jib. 7. return to cockpit, remove bungee and sheet in, stop motor.

Worked like a charm in 10 kts of wind. I was apprehensive with newby jitters but all went well. my boat is a 27 ft bristol. looking forward to trying it on a windy day. BTW, I did not want to drill a hole in my newly refinished tiller to attach the bungee so i wrapped some turns of small line around the tiller and included a small loop to pick up the bungee.

I also tried 'hoving to' as discussed on this site and it also work like a charm.

rich collins
s/v capn papa

[rtbates]

Be very cautious with tying off the tiller AND letting the motor run in gear while you leave the cockpit IF you are single handing. Obviously if you go over the side the boat will leave you. Because of this concern I use the method as described by Boyd. In doing so I discovered it's actually much easier to accomplish. And in big winds your sails won't flog nearly as much.

Happy sailing and congrats on your new boat

[Photo Chief]

Randy,

Thanks for the advice. I'll try Boyd's method next time and compare the pros and cons. Admittedly keeping the engine in gear adds another element of risk and if Boyd's method works just as well I'll use it instead. I do have a question. Doesn't Boyd's assume you have a roller furled jib? My working jib is "roller furled" but not like the ones made today. It is apparently one of the earliest types that furled around its own wire and then can be stowed below like a hank on sail. My 150 jib is a hank on however. So the question arises that the bungee method works with any type of jib. Yes? Comments?

Rich Collins
s/v Capn Papa

[rtbates]

you wrote

Doesn't Boyd's assume you have a roller furled jib?

Probably so, I do have and use the roller jib by unrolling just a tad of sail IF the wind is relatively light. In a good bit of wind I heave to w/o any sail. So, try heaving to w/o any sail. You may be surprised. I know Seraph will heave to w/o a stitch of sail. She does tend to sit further off the wind w/o any main, but if that's the sail you're trying to raise it's not up yet anyway and all any headsail tends to do is drive the bow further off the wind.

[Russell]

Well, I guess I cheat, I use my autopilot. I turn the boat directly into the wind then once there I adjust the throttle so the boat is going just fast enough to keep steerage into the wind, then I set the autopilot and give it a moment to make sure its holding course ok, then I go forward and raise the main. I have also used my monitor windvane for this with good results. A few folks mentioned the danger of going forward while the engine is in gear, as a single hander I always am clipped on, even in very calm conditions.

[Oswego John]

Russell and all,

I mentioned earlier in the thread that I keep my motor on idle, in
forward. I have no argument with those who choose to kill their engines. It's probably safer that way.

I sail a Ty, which has an outboard for power. I too, keep clipped on. On top of that I have a lanyard that is attached to the engine kill switch and myself. My Ty is like so many other CDs. Because of the cutaway bow, the slightest deviation from dead into the wind causes it to slough around off the wind.

I find that with the least bit or urging ahead by the engine, I can maintain a dead-to-wind direction to raise the sails.

Heaving to is great for me. I just started to heave to last year. However, you can't heave to while raising the first of the sails. As I said earlier, I raise my most aft sail first, the main.

My jib is a hank on. I do prepare the jib before leaving the slip, ready to raise when it is time. This way, I never have to go f'ward of the mast. I can raise and belay the jib from the cockpit. I think that the next project will be to devise a way to raise the mains'l from the cockpit, also. Any ideas?

I really like the idea of securing the tiller to the boom. I learn something every day.

Take a kid sailing.
O J
PS: Randy, I read your post after I sent this in. I was unaware that you could heave to with bare sticks. I'm gonna give that a try.
All the best.
O J