Missing You.
Went out to visit Southwind after a week of absence. She's good. We had some quiet time together.
One of the troubles we had while cruising was going from sail to motor as quickly as possible when approaching a dock. A lot of things have to happen in a short time. One of those things is someone running forward to douse the jib sail. It's can be dangerous to try to do in a hurry. I would avoid it if possible. Jib furlers solve this but they run to $500.
So I rigged a Gerr downhaul - the poor man's furler.
One line runs back to the cockpit. Ease the jib halyard and pull on the downhaul. It both douses the jib sail and gathers it into a ball at the same time, keeping it from flying due to an unexpected gust.
It also means that, when we want to raise the jib again, we still don't have to go forward to detach some tie-down. Just let fly the downhaul line.
Awesome!
One of the troubles we had while cruising was going from sail to motor as quickly as possible when approaching a dock. A lot of things have to happen in a short time. One of those things is someone running forward to douse the jib sail. It's can be dangerous to try to do in a hurry. I would avoid it if possible. Jib furlers solve this but they run to $500.
So I rigged a Gerr downhaul - the poor man's furler.
One line runs back to the cockpit. Ease the jib halyard and pull on the downhaul. It both douses the jib sail and gathers it into a ball at the same time, keeping it from flying due to an unexpected gust.
It also means that, when we want to raise the jib again, we still don't have to go forward to detach some tie-down. Just let fly the downhaul line.
Awesome!