Main Halyard Lock/Downhaul Part 2

I got the new halyard from Stiletto. Picked it up at Ron Nicol's house. The skipper put it on and lubed up the bolt rope.

Sunday! As my late crew and friend Kevin used to say, "Whatta Day". 15 to 18 out of the east against an incoming tide. Charlotte Harbor chop at its finest.

We put up the sail and it seemed to go up much easier and we loaded the downhaul. After sailing about a mile to the course and killing some time, I checked the downhaul and sure as , it was slack. I then suggested to the skipper that we reraise the halyard and he said , "Let's just sail, everytime with mess with it we lose our focus on the race". I said, "In this breeze we need the downhaul to flatten and depower the sail". He said, "The 'Sailmaker' told him that the downhaul only moves the draft and the outhaul flattened the sail." We only have a 2x1 outhaul and it really doesn't do much.

So I guess I have 2 problems:

1. Where is the stretch coming from? At this point I'm thinking it is the sail. It is a Quantum with yellow strings and a semiclear laminate. I would not expect this sail to stretch much at all. I'm will suggest to the skip that we tie a messanger to the halyard shackle, raise it and mark where the line exits the mast so that we know when we have a full hoist and eliminate the halyard as a problem.

2. The skipper. He came from monohulls and does not quite understand the importance of the downhaul. He is a retired Ford engineer and I can't give him a technical explanation of out problem. Can y'all help?

I'm going to cruise up to Sarasota on Saturday and will ask the Stiletto folks up there. I'll get to say Hello to the Division 10 crowd and pass out NOR's for the Charlotte Harbor Regatta.

We did end up as First to Finish on Sunday, but corrected to last behind 3 S27.9's. 42 vs 128

I'm off to visit the Buzzelli Rendevous. Maybe I can get some more ideas there.

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was that the first time you used the halyard? I believe all lines stretch/creep a bit the first use....

So...you were not yet racing, just killing some time?

And he wouldn't take the...30 seconds...to luff up so you could grind the new (stretched) halyard back up to where it should be?

Or do I misunderstand the situation?

To explain it to him, tell him not only are you moving the draft foreward when you pull the downhaul tight, you are also bending the mast, which pulls the draft out of the middle of the sail. The outhaul only flattens the foot area up to a certain point, but not very far up, maybe only the bottom 1/3 of the sail. To get the middle flatter and get the leach to open up (is it a square top?) you need to bend the mast, and you do that with a (very) tight downhaul.

We did this in J24's too (bent the mast to flatten the mid sail area), but we used the backstay to bend the mast. Most monohulls have an adjustable backstay to pull on which is more powerful than their cunninghams.

Does a Stilletto have an adjustable backstay?

These sails on big stiff masts need very little downhaul. On a Raider 30 that I sail on, the downhaul is just a bullet block tied to the mast base, no block atall on the sail! the sail looks fine and the boat flies!

How does one open up the top of the sail in that case (Raider 30)? Is there a cunningham, downhaul, vang?

I would love to get my hands on a R30 (and a million dollars). They have great marketing photos ....

The Stiletto 27 does use a downhaul (at least every one that I've seen). Now the R30 is a different beast and very well has a different setup. I'm still curious as to what is moving. Is the halyard on a cleat or halyard lock? Something else? Is the headboard still at full hoist or does it drop? If it starts at full hoist and a short time later is down some, you have two possiblities. 1.) Clutch is not gripping the halyard, or not enough turns on the cleat. 2.) Halyard stretching, not likely since he has a new one right?

Is it a wire + rope halyard?

Clayton