Jib Head Attachment

[Jonathan]

Just got my new main and genoa yesterday from Airforce. They look great BTW. Anyways, I noticed that the old genoa had a 2ft wire leader crimped at one end to the head of the sail with a loop and at the other end had another crimped loop to attach the halyard. I am curious if other 34 Neil Pryde sails have this, or if it a addition by the last owner. I can make one of these up pretty easily, but what benefit would it serve? All I can see is that it allows less exposed halyard at the masthead... anything else?Thanks,JonathanChicago, IL

 

[Doug T.]

Pennants

Those wires above the head and below the tack called pennants. The tack pennant is typically used to raise the sail up off the deck so that the foot will clear the lifelines. It isn't necessarily needed at all. The head pennant is used so that the roller furling head fitting is as close to the halyard sheave as possible. For roller furlers, you want to minimize the lenngth of the halyard that's exposed. If it's too long, it tends to wrap around the stay when you furl. This is not a good thing.Be careful that you don't have the furler head fitting TOO close to the mast though, or it may interfere with the spinnaker block (if you have one). Rather than using wire, you can use some high-tech rope and play around with the lengths of the pennants until you're happy with everything. You can then replace the rope pennants with wire pennants... or simply leave the ropes in place.

 

[Jonathan]

Pennants

Thanks... your explanation makes a lot of sense. I had the new genoa made to have more deck clearance than the previous sail, so maybe that will make a difference. I will have to run it up and see what happens. Thanks again.JonathanChicago, IL

 

[jim oursler]

with roller furling, need sail head close to top

hiWith roller furling, need head of sail very close to top of mast, or you will get inadvertent wraps, which screw up everything, so distance from top is more critical than distance off deck.. consult your furler maker.