Thanks to all for the great amount of information here. I was reading through the sail trim forum. I saw a post about leading halyards, and how traditionally the main halyard was on the starboard, and the fore sail halyards on the port. and how that was odd since my boat was the opposite. On my boat, 1978 Mariner 28, the jib halyard is on the mast and the main halyard is led back to the cockpit on the port side, with the spinnaker halyard next to it. It sort of made sense. The fore sail is on a roller furler, so you only have to go "forward " twice a season, to raise and lower the jib. First time I took the sail off,a friend idly commented that the halyards were backwards, but I really didn't think about it. I did notice that the main halyard ended in a snap shackle, and the jib halyard ended in a headboard shackle, odd I thought. After reading the post, I started thinking, everything else on the boat is traditional, why is this backwards? I realized that it wasn't backwards! Most likely when they installed the furler, they "simplified" the halyards the easy way, by running the main halyard forward and the jib halyard backwards. It does give you the advantage of "never" leaving the cockpit, at the expense of ignoring jib halyard tension. The boat came with no documentation of any sort, so figuring out these little things is a gas. The mast is coming down this winter, and I am replacing halyards, so I will rig them the right way, now that I realize that you can't ignore the head sail just because its on a furler! So Thanks for the great insights!
Lou
Lou
