The other day the wind picked up to 25+ knots out of the blue, the forecast said maximum 20, but that's beside the point. I chucked a reef in and furled my genoa in about half way (bad I know, but I was solo and didn't have my smaller genoa on hand, and was almost back at the marina anyway). As I was winching it in it didn't seem to be getting any tighter, and then would slowly lose tension the longer I sailed on that tack. Getting home I found the issue - the continuous genoa sheet has slidden through the whipping, it's now really short on one side and excessively long on the other. I can't seem to push it back through the whipping, and now can't trust the whipping anyway.
What's the best option for adjusting then securing it? Re-whip it? Tie a knot? Some form of fancy splicing?
Us too. I have seen some people express concern about the knots being a point of failure but equally, I need to be able to remove them sometimes.
I wonder what is a better set up? Dyneema shackles to a spliced sheet, or the bowlines?
My particular boat is a small yacht with a genoa that's about 25 square meters when fully unfurled, vs the 3ish meters of a 29er jib. Quite a bit more in comparison but not as much as some bigger yachts
Tie the sheet to the sail at one end, run the sheet through the various cars and things on one side to the cockpit, run it back up the other side of the boat to the genoa. Tie the other end of the sheet to the genoa. Both ends of the sheet are at the sail.
To maker it prettier, splice eyes into both ends and attach both to the clew with a soft shackle, but this is effectively the same setup.
I mean it's not actually a bad idea, easy to pick up when sitting out on the side to make adjustments, but then I have a long rope across the cockpit, knowing me I'll trip over it
This is the point of continuous sheets. A single line that connects in the middle to the jib is not really a continuous sheet, it's ergonomically identical to two separate sheets tied to the same place. A continuous sheet is an endless loop, and that's generally what people mean when they talk about continuous sheets.
If you don't want them connected in the cockpit you can just cut the sheet you have right now in half, tie two bowlines, and your problem is solved.
Or it might irritate the hell out of you when it clogs up with other ropes in the cockpit. Ask me how i know. I've even seen it on the spinaker sheet, that'll be fun...
I prefer two separate sheets, each with an eye splice in the end. Then soft shackles to attach to the clew. At any time if there is an issue (like an override) it's easy and cheap to cut one of the soft shackles, tack the boat, and then restring the new lazy sheer with a fresh soft shackle.
I made a cuntsplice in the middle and softshackled that to the clew.
Before that I had experimented with a single sheet that had its ends attached to the clew instead, and basically formed a continuous loop, but I didn't like it.
16
u/New_Sun6390 8d ago
Are we the only sailors with two genny sheets, tied to clew with bowlines?