I have been sailing for 20 years or so... but am almost entirely self-taught, and until last year, nearly all of my experience was on just one boat which I inherited suddenly from my father-in-law. I had sailed with him a handful of times before he died, and just assumed that that the things he did, (the only things I knew about sailing at that point) were what I should do as well.
Things I've done which I'm now questioning:
1) My old boat had a short length of line attached to the bottom of the forestay below the jib's roller-furling drum. Per my father-in-law's recommendation, whenever the done sailing for the day, he would tie off the drum to this fixed point, so that even if the furling line were to fail, chafe, or otherwise somehow let go, the jib would not come unfurled. For 20 years, I blindly did the same. My new boat didn't come with such a line in place, and now I've added one, but wonder if maybe that's overkill. Other boats I see generally don't do this. My (current) furling line passes through a clutch, then is cleated ahead of a tied coil while not in use. Slipping is quite unlikely, but unattended in a storm, it is not unimaginable that something on deck could find its way into a position that could chafe through it. Very few other lines anywhere on the boat would cause as much havoc if they failed in a storm (other than mooring pennants), and few are as small/weak, compounding the danger. The other super-dangerous-if-it-snapped stuff (mooring lines, stays) are WAY more chafe-resistant. Does anyone else tie off their furling drum preventing it from spinning open or does everyone else just trust that furling line?
2) How tight do you leave your jib/genoa sheets when furled? I think I generally leave mine tighter than nearly all other boats I see. I don't want the sheets chafing on shroud turnbuckles, etc... plus as a bonus they sometimes provide a nice hand-hold while going forward (not underway). I tend to keep them pretty "hand-tightened" around the winches, but obviously I'm not using a winch handle to tighten to the point of damaging things like my sails/forestay/etc. I see some boats with the sheets drooping down onto the deck well ahead of the shrouds and flopping around like crazy after each passing boat wake. Any rules of thumb on tightness there?... I realize it's hard explain tightness in this context with any quantitative measurement, but still... any harm in what I'm doing? (my shrouds are stainless cables). Advice?
I'm 20 years deep into sailing, so obviously what I'm doing can't be TERRIBLY wrong... just wondering if I'm taking placebo sugar pills thinking I'm curing something and not really accomplishing anything "real".
Things I've done which I'm now questioning:
1) My old boat had a short length of line attached to the bottom of the forestay below the jib's roller-furling drum. Per my father-in-law's recommendation, whenever the done sailing for the day, he would tie off the drum to this fixed point, so that even if the furling line were to fail, chafe, or otherwise somehow let go, the jib would not come unfurled. For 20 years, I blindly did the same. My new boat didn't come with such a line in place, and now I've added one, but wonder if maybe that's overkill. Other boats I see generally don't do this. My (current) furling line passes through a clutch, then is cleated ahead of a tied coil while not in use. Slipping is quite unlikely, but unattended in a storm, it is not unimaginable that something on deck could find its way into a position that could chafe through it. Very few other lines anywhere on the boat would cause as much havoc if they failed in a storm (other than mooring pennants), and few are as small/weak, compounding the danger. The other super-dangerous-if-it-snapped stuff (mooring lines, stays) are WAY more chafe-resistant. Does anyone else tie off their furling drum preventing it from spinning open or does everyone else just trust that furling line?
2) How tight do you leave your jib/genoa sheets when furled? I think I generally leave mine tighter than nearly all other boats I see. I don't want the sheets chafing on shroud turnbuckles, etc... plus as a bonus they sometimes provide a nice hand-hold while going forward (not underway). I tend to keep them pretty "hand-tightened" around the winches, but obviously I'm not using a winch handle to tighten to the point of damaging things like my sails/forestay/etc. I see some boats with the sheets drooping down onto the deck well ahead of the shrouds and flopping around like crazy after each passing boat wake. Any rules of thumb on tightness there?... I realize it's hard explain tightness in this context with any quantitative measurement, but still... any harm in what I'm doing? (my shrouds are stainless cables). Advice?
I'm 20 years deep into sailing, so obviously what I'm doing can't be TERRIBLY wrong... just wondering if I'm taking placebo sugar pills thinking I'm curing something and not really accomplishing anything "real".