Spinnaker Halyard.

Scott T-Bird · Jul 25, 2022

That is halyard wrap and the only way to prevent it is to keep the halyard away from the halyard swivel at the top of the forestay. It can occur with the genoa halyard and it can occur with the spinnaker halyard. Since it is your spinnaker halyard, it is drapped too loosely and in close proximity to the swivel. You have to secure the bottom end in a location and with enough tension to keep the line away from the swivel. If it is actually the genoa halyard that wraps (that's not what you describe), you need to install a restrainer above the swivel to keep the halyard at precisely the correct angle.

Can't tell you why the sail won't come all the way out ... need more observations. But if you let the sail out too rapidly, the line can snarl in the furling drum and make it very difficult to pull it either one way or the other. You have to learn how to let the sail out in a controlled manner (without burning your hands on the line as it is coming out).

dlochner · Jul 25, 2022

Paulam said:
I was out the other day - let out the Genoa but the didn't come out all the way looked liked a couple of turns to go. When time to furl back up couldn't. The spinnaker halyard was wrapped around at the top. Got back into marina where we tied up at the public dock and got the halyard un-wrapped. Question this is the first time this has happened. Any thoughts on how to make sure it doesn't happen again?
thanks

Spin halyards are often hung from a crane at the mast top and may not be centered. Make sure the halyard is one side of the forestay and does not cross over. Then bring the halyard to the mast and secure at the base or some fitting. If the halyard block is centered, the halyard should go down both sides, so the forestay is between the 2 sections of halyard. Again, secured the halyard shackle at the mast not forward on the pulpit.

Scott T-Bird · Jul 25, 2022

dlochner said:
Spin halyards are often hung from a crane at the mast top and may not be centered. Make sure the halyard is one side of the forestay and does not cross over. Then bring the halyard to the mast and secure at the base or some fitting. If the halyard block is centered, the halyard should go down both sides, so the forestay is between the 2 sections of halyard. Again, secured the halyard shackle at the mast not forward on the pulpit.

Based on my observations of Catalina mastheads, I think his probably does not have a masthead crane. It may have a masthead with the spinnaker sheaves out above and just in front of the genoa sheaves, like mine (6 sheaves altogether, 2 aft, 2 genoa forward and 2 spin halyards a little more forward and above the genoa halyards - I have an empty genoa sheave and an empty spin sheave) . I have to admit that with the masthead crane on my Starwind, the only way I could keep the spinnaker halyard from wrapping was to secure it out at the end of the pulpit otherwise it crossed the stay. I couldn't position it to the rail or the mast base without having halyard wrap.

Based on that, I've been attaching the spin halyard to the pulpit but I have a problem if I don't have enough tension and it sags just a bit. Since the sheave is more inboard on my boat, I will try placing it at the mast base. That requires moving it at anchor to keep it from slapping the mast (a noise that I detest

). In both my cases, the tail end of the spin halyard was inside the mast and exited at the base.

dlochner · Jul 25, 2022

Scott T-Bird said:
Based on that, I've been attaching the spin halyard to the pulpit but I have a problem if I don't have enough tension and it sags just a bit. Since the sheave is more inboard on my boat, I will try placing it at the mast base. That requires moving it at anchor to keep it from slapping the mast (a noise that I detest ). In both my cases, the tail end of the spin halyard was inside the mast and exited at the base.

When I'm sailing, the halyard is at the mast base. When I'm on board trying to sleep, the halyard is at the pulpit. The key is to keep it from going over the forestay, it needs to stay on the same side of the forestay as it exits from the masthead or the crane.