This is a sad tale of what NOT to do when getting your boat ready.
I have an older version Harken Furler/Unit 1 on my 1977 Catalina 30. This winter I took the jib into Haarstick Sails to have the UV cover resewn.
I picked up the sail last week and I couldn't wait to get the sail up. So Thursday after work I went down to the marina and proceeded to get that jib up. I was alone...mistake #1 and the winds were 25 knots gusting to 30...MISTAKE #2.
The jibs UV cover is on the port side of the sail so I charged the furler clockwise...mistake #3. I got the sail up through the foil, the foot attached to the base of the furler and the sheets attached to the clew and tightened down to keep the flutter to a minimum.
Obviously I had the furler charged the wrong way so I dropped the sail and recharged to counter clockwise. This is where the story goes terribly awry.
The sail was back up, the winds were getting gustier and my patience was running thinner. I couldn't get the sail to furl. I tugged and pulled and turned. Nothing. Now the winds had won and I thought it would be better to fight another day. Of course the sail wouldn't come down now. It was stuck about 4/5 of the way up. The wind was whipping the sail all over. I gave in, called my wife and begged her to come down quickly and save my sail!
We couldn't get it down, so I just stuffed what was down in the sail bag and wrapped the whole thing around the foil and tied it off.
The next day my wife and I went down to tackle the problem. I pulled her up to the spreaders in the chair and discovered that the wire halyard had twisted around the head of the foil and the cable down to the head of the sail had become lodged INSIDE the foil. There was no way to pull the sail down. She tried using a boat hook to grap a bit of the cable and pull but it was in there but good.
She (I) decided to go (let her go) to the top of the mast and attach a shackle on the cable with a rope down to me and I would pull the shackle down to the head of the sail pulling the cable out of the foil as I went.
Well I got about 8 or 9 feet pulled out of the foil before the shackle let loose and fell into the water. What we saw was sickening...from a cost point of view.
The wire halyard was ruined. Halyard wrap to the 10th degree, strands from the cable bent, broken and spiraling around itself. I was screwed.
To make matters worse, while I pulled my wife up to the top, the wire to rope transition got all twisted on the winch I couldn't ease it back and I was afraid to poke and prod at the mess for fear of cutting the rope end or snapping the wire and sending her plummeting 40 feet down.
I called 911 and attempted to explain to the dispatcher what I did. A first for him. 5 minutes later 2 fire trucks, a hook and ladder and about 30 volunteer firemen were at the scene. They saved my wife from certain death and hopefully the rescuers got their 'save'!!! My wife was a great sport about it.
I couldn't sleep that night, so the next morning I went down again and gave it one more shot. I unwrapped the sail and gave it a tug and it moved a bit. I got it low enough to use the longed boat hook and I heaved with all my might and got all of the cable out from within the foil. Looking through binoculars I could see the cable was a complete loss. But there was hope!
I could also see that the sheaves were not the specific wire only type, they would accept rope halyard. So off to WM for 85' of line!
My wife went back up the mast and this time my son helped to make sure the cable and rope didn't bind on each other. She threaded the new line though the mast head, I cut the cable down below and voila! I had an all rope halyard for the jib! Just what I wanted.
I pulled the sail up the foil, got it within the requisite 4-6" from the top and had the furler charged the right way. I was on the water sailing 45 minutes later on her first shake down cruise of the season. No problems.
The lessons?:naughty:
Patience is a virtue. Did I really need to get that sail up right then?
Read the damn manual. If I had, I would have know which way to turn the furler, I would have known that the head of the furler needed to be as high as possible to keep the shackle 'below' the bearing house so there would be no chance of a halyard wrap.
Get help.
I'm only writing this for the next poor slob who thinks he knows it all! Come to think of it, now that this is over, I pretty much know everything else, I mean what else could possibly happen?
Happy Sailing!
Chris
I have an older version Harken Furler/Unit 1 on my 1977 Catalina 30. This winter I took the jib into Haarstick Sails to have the UV cover resewn.
I picked up the sail last week and I couldn't wait to get the sail up. So Thursday after work I went down to the marina and proceeded to get that jib up. I was alone...mistake #1 and the winds were 25 knots gusting to 30...MISTAKE #2.
The jibs UV cover is on the port side of the sail so I charged the furler clockwise...mistake #3. I got the sail up through the foil, the foot attached to the base of the furler and the sheets attached to the clew and tightened down to keep the flutter to a minimum.
Obviously I had the furler charged the wrong way so I dropped the sail and recharged to counter clockwise. This is where the story goes terribly awry.
The sail was back up, the winds were getting gustier and my patience was running thinner. I couldn't get the sail to furl. I tugged and pulled and turned. Nothing. Now the winds had won and I thought it would be better to fight another day. Of course the sail wouldn't come down now. It was stuck about 4/5 of the way up. The wind was whipping the sail all over. I gave in, called my wife and begged her to come down quickly and save my sail!
We couldn't get it down, so I just stuffed what was down in the sail bag and wrapped the whole thing around the foil and tied it off.
The next day my wife and I went down to tackle the problem. I pulled her up to the spreaders in the chair and discovered that the wire halyard had twisted around the head of the foil and the cable down to the head of the sail had become lodged INSIDE the foil. There was no way to pull the sail down. She tried using a boat hook to grap a bit of the cable and pull but it was in there but good.
She (I) decided to go (let her go) to the top of the mast and attach a shackle on the cable with a rope down to me and I would pull the shackle down to the head of the sail pulling the cable out of the foil as I went.
Well I got about 8 or 9 feet pulled out of the foil before the shackle let loose and fell into the water. What we saw was sickening...from a cost point of view.
The wire halyard was ruined. Halyard wrap to the 10th degree, strands from the cable bent, broken and spiraling around itself. I was screwed.
To make matters worse, while I pulled my wife up to the top, the wire to rope transition got all twisted on the winch I couldn't ease it back and I was afraid to poke and prod at the mess for fear of cutting the rope end or snapping the wire and sending her plummeting 40 feet down.
I called 911 and attempted to explain to the dispatcher what I did. A first for him. 5 minutes later 2 fire trucks, a hook and ladder and about 30 volunteer firemen were at the scene. They saved my wife from certain death and hopefully the rescuers got their 'save'!!! My wife was a great sport about it.
I couldn't sleep that night, so the next morning I went down again and gave it one more shot. I unwrapped the sail and gave it a tug and it moved a bit. I got it low enough to use the longed boat hook and I heaved with all my might and got all of the cable out from within the foil. Looking through binoculars I could see the cable was a complete loss. But there was hope!
I could also see that the sheaves were not the specific wire only type, they would accept rope halyard. So off to WM for 85' of line!
My wife went back up the mast and this time my son helped to make sure the cable and rope didn't bind on each other. She threaded the new line though the mast head, I cut the cable down below and voila! I had an all rope halyard for the jib! Just what I wanted.
I pulled the sail up the foil, got it within the requisite 4-6" from the top and had the furler charged the right way. I was on the water sailing 45 minutes later on her first shake down cruise of the season. No problems.
The lessons?:naughty:
Patience is a virtue. Did I really need to get that sail up right then?
Read the damn manual. If I had, I would have know which way to turn the furler, I would have known that the head of the furler needed to be as high as possible to keep the shackle 'below' the bearing house so there would be no chance of a halyard wrap.
Get help.
I'm only writing this for the next poor slob who thinks he knows it all! Come to think of it, now that this is over, I pretty much know everything else, I mean what else could possibly happen?
Happy Sailing!
Chris
