John Maher,
We had the same problem of the spinnaker halyard catching and
winding, when we replaced our furling device with a new one, 2 years
ago. Once, I had to go up the mast to free it.
So last year took it to the rigger. His standard solution was one
also recommended by the manufacturer of the furler. It might work
for you if you have a little space to play around with on your jib
halyard.
A simple fitting goes on the front of the mast, about a hand's
breadth below the place where jib halyard comes off its block. The
fitting is really just a smooth fairlead. The halyard comes off its
block but then goes down the mast vertically, a hand's breadth to the
fitting. Then the halyard goes out from the mast at an angle, to
take the furler and sail. This gets the halyard, and the top of the
sail, out of the way of the spinnaker halyard. It worked for us
because our sail did not occupy the whole space, we just set it a
little lower.
Also, when sailing normally on the genoa (furling), we flip both ends
of the spinnaker halyard over, and around behind the upper shroud.
When I went to the rigger, I had the idea that some sort of fitting
could be put on the top of the mast, to run forward, so that the
block for the spinnaker halyard could be well forward of the jib
halyard. But that would have been rather clumsy and complicated and
might not have worked.
Good luck
John
John B. Sprague, Salt Spring Island B.C., # 1492 Flagfish
We had the same problem of the spinnaker halyard catching and
winding, when we replaced our furling device with a new one, 2 years
ago. Once, I had to go up the mast to free it.
So last year took it to the rigger. His standard solution was one
also recommended by the manufacturer of the furler. It might work
for you if you have a little space to play around with on your jib
halyard.
A simple fitting goes on the front of the mast, about a hand's
breadth below the place where jib halyard comes off its block. The
fitting is really just a smooth fairlead. The halyard comes off its
block but then goes down the mast vertically, a hand's breadth to the
fitting. Then the halyard goes out from the mast at an angle, to
take the furler and sail. This gets the halyard, and the top of the
sail, out of the way of the spinnaker halyard. It worked for us
because our sail did not occupy the whole space, we just set it a
little lower.
Also, when sailing normally on the genoa (furling), we flip both ends
of the spinnaker halyard over, and around behind the upper shroud.
When I went to the rigger, I had the idea that some sort of fitting
could be put on the top of the mast, to run forward, so that the
block for the spinnaker halyard could be well forward of the jib
halyard. But that would have been rather clumsy and complicated and
might not have worked.
Good luck
John
John B. Sprague, Salt Spring Island B.C., # 1492 Flagfish