I would like to be able to lower my sails while on the water for reasons like reefing, being towed, drifting and relaxing, fixing a batten, etc.

My boat is a '75 with the clip at the mast head. As far as I can tell it would almost be imposible to deal with on the water.

Is there a system that would make it possible to lower the main while in the water?

I posted this on the Hobie site so sorry if you have already seen it.

well... chevy, if youre determined enough, you can do anything on the water, Ive had to raise my sails on the water once while trying to run from the coast guard(long and humorous story) so im pretty sure you can lower your main, just turn up wind, uncleat everything and stand on the cross bar in front of the mast, and with a lot of grunt work i bet you could pop the bead out and lower the sail(be prepared to get wet... also wouldnt be a bad idea to secure yourself to the boat if solo... just in case)

I'm guessing this is a H 16. Why couldn't you scoooch half way out on the hull facing the mast and do it?

That's how I've done it on the water. That's about where I stand when lowering my sails on the beach anyway.

Hey Newbie, your story sounds good? What happened??
When we launch in the harbour here, we often have to raise our sails standing in the water up to our waist. Even this can be a pain, as the boat tends to come towards you not allowing the leverage...so standing on the hull sounds pretty good:)
Clint

Just so you know I was suggesting sitting on the hull while doing it. (I'm talking about raising or lowering the sail )

Well gather round kids and I'll tell you the exciting and dramatic tale. It all started around last summer, one day me and a friend decided we would go up sailing in Lake Tahoe (since we have a cabin there) well, about a week before we go up(again) there was a huge sewage spill out on the Kings beach. And this is the ramp we use to launch my boat since it is close, easy, and with a parks and rec pass of California... free. So we go up a week later and the beach and ramp is still closed, so my first mate and I quickly devise a plan, we planned to seduce the girl stationed at the launch ramp into letting us launch there with our sauve, sexy and charmingly witty personalities. Well, it worked... apparently she was no match for our amazing charm... anyway, we convinced her to take a "lunch break" while we set up and launched amazingly fast, the only catch was the coast guard was patroling up and down the beach.

So we ended up tossing everything on the tramp and raising the mast then flying down the launch ramp at about 20mph, we get out, shove the boat off, the first mate takes it to the beach and was supposed to start getting ready to go while I parked the car. I come running up and see my H16 not on the beach, but it making its way out to sea(ignore the fact we are on a lake...) and my first mate yelling at me and pointing at the coast guard boat less than a 100 yds off and getting closer. We hop on the boat, the first mate grabs the oar(yes I have an oar on board... in case of emergencies, plus the first mate is in crew, so he is always the oar whore on my vessel) and frantically starts paddling us out; in the mean time I get the rudders down and tiller attached so we can steer. The coast guard is getting closer, but we stay just far enough away for them not to yell at us. As we paddle through the bouy field we start zig zagging between boats in attempts to lose them... even though they are faster and we have a 26 foot pole sticking out. At this point we are just playing games with them, once we feel we are far enough out, we realize the sails are still on the tramp... we are screwed...

We thought the best way to go would be to get the jib up, to help stabilize the mast and give us SOME way of moving under our own power. We tightened the battons on thr tramp, connected it to jib halyard and the jib sheets... then came the hard part... getting in on the forestay. We ended up putting the sail in the water, and it took a combo of standing on the nose of the while almost laying on the forestay and pulling up to it from the water to get it attached. Then raised the jib, getting it out of the water and getting us moved out away from most certain trouble.

Now the main sail... this was a doozy... Again we tighten the battons with the sail on the tramp and I attach the main halyard while the first mate attaches the blocks and gets the traveler set up. We then thread the main into the groove and start raising. I really wish i was on the coast guard boat to hear what they were saying, I should also mention they stopped chasing us and decided it would be a very amusing spectacle to watch, and we would end up going through all the trouble and wind up heading back to shore to raise the sails where they would surely catch us. But we heave and pull with all our might and its only about half way up. So I wrap the halyard around the hand, and try raising it on the hull, but in the water it just rocked the boat alot, so I go and stand on the crossbar, and slowly lean back while the first mate is on the very stern hull in order to equalize the boat more. Also might I add that leaning back like that was one of the scariest thing I have done on my boat. But I got it all the way and it took about five minutes to get that stupid bead locked in, but I did it.

We were off, we had successfully seduced a lovely young lady into looking the other way, out ran a coast guard boat on a hobie with no sails, raised sails while quite a ways out from shore, and did not get caught and chewed out by the coast guard and entertained them for about 15- 30 minutes... it was a full day... but not before a daring rescue, I almost lost my hat that day to Davey Jones' locker, but I save that story of epic heroism, adventure and most certain tale of near death for another time and another day. The End.

So Newbiesailor, I have a question. If you and the "oar whore" (love that) were forced to paddle back to the sewage-soaked beach in order to rigg`er up, would you still get "in [censored]" from the coast-guard, or would they consider it as...time already served?

...It was just a question... you know - like an alternative ending or the "director`s cut".

may I suggest a title? ...How bout CAPTAIN POOPY AND THE OAR WHORE - ADVENTURE AT STINK BEACH !

...fine story and well told! I`m still laughing (so are the coast guards - I`m sure)

Signed,

Dave

...still in touch with my juvenile side.

Captain Dave, first I love the title you thought up there, may I buy the rights??? anyways, there werent like chunks of crap floating in the water, it was just deemed "unsafe for public use" so when we got out in the middle of the lake, we just jumped in and rinsed off the bacteria or what not then after the day of sailing took some long showers. Concerning the coast guard, they still would have had a fit and a half, as we were launching some guy comes up to us and says "Don't get caught by the coast guards, they caught me just the other day and had a HUGE @$$ fit... good luck to ya though" so we would have been screwed, and glad to hear you enjoyed the story

LOL !

Ya know, after I wrote that, I thought to myself - I bet he writes back to explain how there weren`t actually floating turds...Too much!

Ya, I know how those closures work - I didn`t really think you were sailing amidst a bunch of floaters! As for the coast guard, they`re worried about lawsuits ...if you end up getting a nasty case of ecoli and your last name happens to resemble something like...Hilton.

Consider the title rights...a gift!

My gut hurts!

Dave


Note to Chevy: sorry to bring/hijack your post to this! My credibility (if I ever had any) is lost forever!