Is a barber hauler the only way for me to get rid of the hook in my jib on beam reach?

[danstanford]

We have our jib tracks on the coach roof which allows nice tight sheeting angles for pointing, but when breezes are light and on the beam, the jib hooks really badly and seems to backwind the main. There is certainly no way to make a good slot and so I end up with the main not out far enough to really be well trimmed. For such a fat little boat, she does pretty well in light breezes on every other point of sail. Do I need to rig some kind of barber hauler or is there some other way to shape that jib?
I am really enjoying getting great trim now that I have all my rigging set properly and I would like to do as well as I can here too. A new sail will not likely be bought till we get a new boat!

Dan

 

[Jackdaw]

You can also rig a set of 'reaching sheets' that are blocked out at the toe rail. That's what we do. You can leave both sets rigged, or only have one and set it up when needed.

Blogged it a while back here:

http://rarerarebird.blogspot.com/2014/10/260-mod-reaching-sheets.html

 

[danstanford]

Thanks Jackdaw, I will give that a try.

This makes me think of those rings they are using on the newer boats where you can adjust that angle.

 

[Joe]

You certainly have room to install a set of Genoa tracks to allow for wider sheeting angles. If jackdaw's suggestion, or clipping a block to a stanchion base to rig a barber hauler, proves beneficial you might consider the more permanent, and costly, solution.

 

[glaufman]

How about a whisker pole?

 

[normofthenorth]

My DW recently bought the same boat (H290), and I sail and race Albacore dinghies. On the Albacores, we used to use whisker poles on runs and Barber haulers on reaches. Then - with help from some international class rules amendments! - we all switched to "flyaway jib sticks" that we use on the windward side on runs and on the leeward side on reaches.
It's an aluminum whisker pole (usually full max legal length) with a control line running through it. Its aft end is suspended on a long bungee cord that runs through a block near the spreaders.
The aft end of the control line is at a cleat in the cockpit, and the fore end is attached to the clew of the jib. When we sail close-hauled, the line is loose and the pole hangs from the spreaders. (We pad them with "pool noodles" where they hit mast and boom. A few sailors have used small pieces of Velcro to hold the pole to the mast when it's idle.)
For running, the helm pulls on the windward jibsheet while the crew pulls the pole line all the way in and cleats it. The line runs through the whisker pole ring at the front of the mast, so it pulls the aft end of the pole down to that ring for running.
For reaching, we extend it only part way, at an angle that optimizes the shape of the reaching jib. At the broadest reaching angle, we can still easily get a lovely jib shape with the clew well outboard of the gunwale - impossible with a Barber hauler or a block on a toerail.
In both cases, when we want the jibstick to go away, we just uncleat and release the line, and the bungee pulls it up to its resting place. (Ideally, the jib end of the pole line is manually pulled out of the pole so it doesn't hook the clew like a tensioned lazy sheet. But that's pretty small stuff.)
We've only had the H290 since May, and lots of other jobs have had higher priority than perfecting the shape of our reaching jib. But I may try to transfer this great technology to the Hunter. (I've considered 2 lines rather than a line and a bungee.)
Of course, a more conventional telescoping whisker pole (or a spinnaker pole on a mast slide) would do the same job manually. But the flyaway version could all be led back to the cockpit.

 

[Jackdaw]

My DW recently bought the same boat (H290), and I sail and race Albacore dinghies. On the Albacores, we used to use whisker poles on runs and Barber haulers on reaches. Then - with help from some international class rules amendments! - we all switched to "flyaway jib sticks" that we use on the windward side on runs and on the leeward side on reaches.
It's an aluminum whisker pole (usually full max legal length) with a control line running through it. Its aft end is suspended on a long bungee cord that runs through a block near the spreaders.
The aft end of the control line is at a cleat in the cockpit, and the fore end is attached to the clew of the jib. When we sail close-hauled, the line is loose and the pole hangs from the spreaders. (We pad them with "pool noodles" where they hit mast and boom. A few sailors have used small pieces of Velcro to hold the pole to the mast when it's idle.)
For running, the helm pulls on the windward jibsheet while the crew pulls the pole line all the way in and cleats it. The line runs through the whisker pole ring at the front of the mast, so it pulls the aft end of the pole down to that ring for running.
For reaching, we extend it only part way, at an angle that optimizes the shape of the reaching jib. At the broadest reaching angle, we can still easily get a lovely jib shape with the clew well outboard of the gunwale - impossible with a Barber hauler or a block on a toerail.
In both cases, when we want the jibstick to go away, we just uncleat and release the line, and the bungee pulls it up to its resting place. (Ideally, the jib end of the pole line is manually pulled out of the pole so it doesn't hook the clew like a tensioned lazy sheet. But that's pretty small stuff.)
We've only had the H290 since May, and lots of other jobs have had higher priority than perfecting the shape of our reaching jib. But I may try to transfer this great technology to the Hunter. (I've considered 2 lines rather than a line and a bungee.)
Of course, a more conventional telescoping whisker pole (or a spinnaker pole on a mast slide) would do the same job manually. But the flyaway version could all be led back to the cockpit.

That's very clever! But maybe a solution for small boats only; the jib on an Albacore is very small, even for a boat of that size. On a bigger boat I'd hate to have the much larger pole banging around in the rig. But I love the concept. FYI for everyone else, here's a video of the stick in action.

 

[Meriachee]

Of course it's innovative. It's a Canadian boat.

 

[normofthenorth]

Thanks, Jackdaw! I suspect there are some detailed images online that also might have saved me 1000 words!

 

[normofthenorth]

Of course it's innovative. It's a Canadian boat.

The boat in the photo is Canadian owned, but the Albacore is a British boat. I think the flyaway whisker pole was "borrowed" from the 505 class by American Albacore champ Barney Harris, who has raced successfully in both classes.

 

[normofthenorth]

That's very clever! But maybe a solution for small boats only; the jib on an Albacore is very small, even for a boat of that size. On a bigger boat I'd hate to have the much larger pole banging around in the rig. But I love the concept.

You may be right, especially for masthead rigged boats with monster Genoas. But the H290's proportions aren't that different from the Albacore's. I was thinking of a light pole, either thin-walled Al or maybe PVC or ABS. Mostly for lighter winds, and if it breaks or bends, no big deal?

 

[Meriachee]

The boat in the photo is Canadian owned, but the Albacore is a British boat.

That may be, however, the cup, as it were, is not going to be sent to Buckingham in this case.....

 

[Jackdaw]

You may be right, especially for masthead rigged boats with monster Genoas. But the H290's proportions aren't that different from the Albacore's. I was thinking of a light pole, either thin-walled Al or maybe PVC or ABS. Mostly for lighter winds, and if it breaks or bends, no big deal?

Well, some truth for sure! But the 290 is 7/8th fractional, while the albacore is closer to 5/8ths. And the absolute sail size factors.... the albacore jib is only 35 square feet.... a small tablecloth! The jib on a 280 is 5 times larger. This pole (and loads) will be much bigger.