Hunter 170 Jib Line with rolling furler sail

[tschwab]

Pardon my lack of sailing terms: I have a new Jib for my hunter 170 and it appears to be a little too long on the main line up to the pigtail.

Q1 - Is there a way to tighten this up without loosing the rolling furler? It clipped to the most front hole on the bow with the rolling furler.
Q2 - Can the pigtail on the mast be replaced with a shorter one without damaging the mast?

Thanks in advance....

 

[rgranger]

Pictures would help. Not sure what you mean by a "pigtail". I've seen the term used to describe a power cord adapter and for something called a "soft shackle" If you mean a short piece of line that runs from the bottom of the sail (tack) to an attachment point, then that is called a pendant. And yes.... you can shorten that without a problem. If you are talking about something at the top of the sail (head), then the answer is also yes. You can shorten that.

Learning all of the sailing terms can be a daunting task. Here are some tricks that might help.

The top corner of a sail is called the head and I remember that because a head is at the top. For the jib the corner that you "tack" to the boat is called the tack. The corner you "claw" away from the front of the boat using ropes is called the "clew". I just imagine that someone with a thick British accent said claw with the accent sounded like clew..

When you talk about the edges of a sail, the bottom edge is called the foot... and that makes sense because a foot is at the bottom. The leading edge is called the luff and this one is harder to remember because when a sail flaps in the wind, it is called luffing and the luffing is more pronounced at the trailing edge. So I remember luff because it is a strange word and the remembergram is also weird. The trailing edge is called a roach and I don't have a good one for that.

Regarding the ropes. On a boat, a rope is only a rope until you give it a purpose then it becomes a line. I don't know why but that is the rule.

The mainline you mention.... I'm not sure if you are talking about the wire that holds the mast up or the "rope" you used to pull the sail up. If it is the wire... it is called a fore stay. If it is the "rope" it is called a jib halyard.

Lines use to raise sails are called halyards. The term comes from old square shaped sails. The top "pole" was called a yard and the rope you used to haul it up was the haul-yard rope. It got shortened to the halyard line. Lines use to control a sail after it is raised are called sheet lines and those are the lines used to control the "sheets" (a.k.a. sails).

Hope this helps.

 

[Hunter216]

Pardon my lack of sailing terms: I have a new Jib for my hunter 170 and it appears to be a little too long on the main line up to the pigtail.

Q1 - Is there a way to tighten this up without loosing the rolling furler? It clipped to the most front hole on the bow with the rolling furler.
Q2 - Can the pigtail on the mast be replaced with a shorter one without damaging the mast?

Thanks in advance....

Welcome to the SBO forums.

The original jib on the 170 is integrated with the forestay. The forestay is designed to swivel at the top via the pigtail and the bottom at the furler drum.

The forestay is tensioned via the shrouds on the standard B&R rig.

If you still have the original jib/forestay I would suggest you confirm the length of your new one is identical in length to the old one.

If the new one is substantially different I’m not sure it will work properly.

BTW they sell replacement sails and other items here at SBO. Perhaps @Dave Groshong could help you out.

 

[BobbyFunn]

Can you modify the stays to take up the slack?

 

[dlochner]

The trailing edge is called a roach and I don't have a good one for that.

And even experienced sailors argue about nomenclature.

The trailing edge of a sail is called the leech. Roach is related to leech, but it defines the shape of the leech. We tend to think of sails as simple triangles, however they are not simple. All three sides have a curve to them. Roach is the shape of the leech as compared to a straight line from the head to the clew.

Roach is important because most of the driving force of a sail is at the leech, if the leech can be made larger then the sail is more powerful.

Hunter often uses a B and R rig, which does not have a backstay. With out the back stay the roach can be much larger, giving more power to the sail.

The latest iteration is a Fat Head sail. The sail is shaped like a trapezoid with a flat head, such as found on the old gaff rigged boats. The fat head adds more sail area.

Sail had a recent article about sail shape and parts. Worth the read, of course it deals with mainsails and the OP's question was about jibs, but it is still worth knowing.

Know How: All About Mainsails

It used to be simple. In the old days, your sailmaker offered you one kind of mainsail, and sailors were generally happy with the result. You got a sail with a

www.sailmagazine.com

 

[DrJudyB]

Does your furler look like this picture from the manual? Is the furler the OEM equipment, without modification?

If your boat has this furler installed without modification, and the new sail it's too long to hoist up fully, then the sail is the wrong size for your boat. The sail was made to the wrong size for the hardware on your boat.

Did anybody measure the rig before the sail was made?