What type of cleat?

[Joe11688]

Forgive my ingorance but why wouldn't you adjsut a jib sheet with a winch? I wrap the sheet arround a couple of times and put my back into it. Seems to work pretty well. Then I cleat it off while wrapped around the winch. Is this wrong?

No it isn't wrong. When I tack, I put one wrap around the winch, pull the slack out of the sheet, and then add two more wraps to get the sail trimmed the way I want it. Then I merely slip the sheet on to the open clam cleat.
Small boats without winches should use jam cleats or cam cleats. Otherwise, with at least three wraps around a winch, and an open clam cleat is a heck of a lot cheaper than self tailing winches and they'll do the job just as well.

 

[Freedom77]

I use winches with Cam Cleats to secure halyards and winches and horned cleats for sheets. A wrap and a single half hitch on horned cleat will suffice. Bless us Lord, Thy sea is so great and my boat is so small. Fair Winds and Full Sails....

 

[mark_swart]

SidneyK is right -- don't take off your 'real' cleats! Use the cam cleats as a secondary, mounth them close to inline with the standard cleats if possible and continue to run the sheet on the winch.

 

[timebandit]

I just take a couple of raps around the winch and then one wrap around the horned cleat and just let the tail hang down and that is enuff friction to keep it tight.

If you have to adjust the sail outward you have control of the sheet by slipping it on the winch and if you need to totaly release the sheet it is just a snap of the wrist to unwind it from the cleat and slip on the winch.

Old salt showed me this while sailing on a 55 foot ketch with a big genny and 5/8 inch sheets that were bar tight with tension and they never slipped.

 

[dscribner]

Thanks Guys and Girls,

I like the no-money solution best. Come spring, I'll try just a couple of wraps around the horn clean and see what kind of trouble I can get into.

 

[Joe11688]

The "no money" solution is the best solution. Try experimenting with the number of wraps on the winch and the cleat. My friend has jam cleats on his Seaward 22 and he didn't like them so he added the open clam cleats and left the jam cleats mounted. Personally I think that I could get used to the jam cleats if I had them on my boat. I like cam cleats on my boom vang and my mainsheet, but that's it.