Well we managed to finish our first race of the season in 2nd place and everything went smoothly, with a nice downwind leg back to the finish line during which we hoisted our Cruising Chute and furled the headsail and whizzed across the line. That was when our problems started!
You see, when we let go the Cruising Chute halyard, nothing happened, it was jammed, so what should we do?
We headed up in to the wind to deflate the sail and tried pulling hard on the sheets, but it still wouldn’t budge.
As we had finished the race we decided on the following which I think makes a great Sailing Tip:
We pulled the sheets ends back through their blocks and then proceeded to wrap the Cruising Chute around the forestay to prevent it filling until we were happy it was secure. This meant we could not use the headsail again until we had sorted the problem.
Then we headed back to the marina and moored up.
Now we were in a better position to sort the problem out in our own time, without worrying about other issues.
Once the yacht was secured alongside we unfurled the Cruising Chute from around the forestay and with several people ashore, the sheets attached to the Clew, along with another line attached to the Tack, were passed ashore and then walked along the pontoon some way to get a better angle of pull on the Halyard block at the top of the mast. The halyard was again released and after several hard tugs, it came free and the Sail was lowered, removed and repacked.
So what caused the problem? The end of the halyard which connects to the Head of the sail has a plastic ring around it to prevent the splice from entering the block and jamming it – this had failed to do its job and had slid along the splice exposing a thicker rope taper, which could then jam itself in the mast head roller block.
It’s worth remembering that winching up a Spinnaker or Chute halyard like this too hard can cause what happened to us. So it’s best to be aware of this and try and get the sail up fast by hand before the wind fills it, and thus prevent having to resort to a winch and over tension it.
What would you have done in the above situation?
What if you were at sea and couldn't go back alongside to sort the problem out?
If at sea or anchored and reasonably calm, then it's probably a case of getting out the Bosun's Chair and somebody going aloft, probably hoisted by the Mainsail Halyard to identify the cause of the problem and then secure a line on the Chute Halyard quick release coupling. Once that is done you could probably feed that down haul line through a block, secured up forward somewhere, and fed back to a winch and pull down to release the jamm, with the halyard released but under control. That should clear the problem.
Hope that helps in some way
Martin
P.S. Next up is the Triangle Race (Plymouth/Flamouth/Fowey/Plymouth).
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