spinnaker rigging

[WhiteNoise]

I recently purchased an assymetrical spinnaker. I am used to flying a spinnaker or assym from a masthead rig.

My 30+ is fractional with a tapered mast. Because of the taper I have decided to fly it at the fractional height for strength.

My sheaves are all presently below the fore stay which presents an obvious issue for jibing the spinnaker.

How would you recommend I rig the halyard?

 

[WhiteNoise]

Does anybody with a 30+ fly a spinnaker?

 

[mherrcat]

I would like to know the answer to this as well. My boat does not currently have a spinnaker but seems to be rigged for one.

 

[Rocinante33]

Chris & Mark,

I have flown an Asym on my 33 with a similar set up. You cannot set up the sheets for an outside gybe. That is, the lazy sheet must be led inside the forstay, not forward of if as you would do if your spinnaker halyard exited the mast (or had an external sheave) above the hounds (the point where the forestay meets the mast). Then, during the gybe, the sail must pass "inside," through the foretriangle. You cannot allow it to "blow out" and go forward of the forestay.

As a cruiser (no racing at this point & often shorthanded), I typically douse the asym, complete the gybe, then lift the sock again after I am on the other tack. This is slow and probably not good for racers.

One of these days I will get up the mast again and drop a line through the mast to add an internal halyard for my spinnaker. Then I can switch to external gybes. I have the openings (2) present for this & they have rollers to protect the halyard during twisting & pulling by the sail. Some PO added this external halyard that I use now, though.

P.S. Seth taught me this stuff. There may be an old thread about it somewhere.

 

[Rocinante33]

I didn't really talk about rigging the halyard, which was your original question, but was referring to rigging your sheets. For the halyard, just use one of those lower sheaves you mentioned & the sail will blow out/twist out to the side depending on which tack you are on. No problems there.

 

[Loren Beach]

There is a good chance that you have the triple halyard "cage" that Kenyon put on a lot of Ericsons (and my Olson) in the 80's.
This has a headsail halyard sheave right under the forestay attachment and sheaves on either side for port and starboard flying sail halyards.
If you have this setup you get used to choosing whichever "wing halyard" you will need for the majority of the downwind sailing for the day. If you jibe the chute that halyard will be over the top of the polished ss tube that protects the headsail halyard.
With this setup all the halyards are internal.

After so many years I would seriously advise removing that ss "cage" assembly next time you drop the spar and polishing it up. Also remove the original aluminum sheaves with all of their scratches from those awful wire halyards and turn the sheaves on a small lath to get 'em smooth again. Lastly, if not done already, replace any remaining wire-to-rope halyards with something like T-900 or the current low-stretch line type.

There are probably better ways to rig the spinn halyard on a fractional rig, but Kenyon had their own plan...

Loren

 

[WhiteNoise]

Thanks for your replies

Thanks for the input and yes, Loren, it is the triple box you mentioned.

Do you think it would be possible to put a halyard exit point just above the head stay attachment point and add a crane with a block to avoid chafing?

This is the crane I mentioned (NG1-39):
http://www.rigrite.com/spars/Isomat_Spars/Isomat_Masts/NG28_mast.html

 

[Loren Beach]

Thanks for the input and yes, Loren, it is the triple box you mentioned.

Do you think it would be possible to put a halyard exit point just above the head stay attachment point and add a crane with a block to avoid chafing?

This is the crane I mentioned (NG1-39):
http://www.rigrite.com/spars/Isomat_Spars/Isomat_Masts/NG28_mast.html

You could if you want an external halyard. Some offshore sailors I know prefer an external spinn halyard route... but then you have to get the halyard past the forestay attachment without undue chafe. Also the fastenings for that crane have to be strong -- the test will come when the chute pulls the boat over to 90 degrees in a hard broach.

I have seen some fractional OD boats in the 20 to 30 foot range that solved the problem by using a swivel block just above the forestay, with the halyard led up about a foot or two, and into the spar over a sheave and then down to an exit slot the usual way. If we had kept our prior frac. rig boat longer I was going to convert it to that scheme.

Lots of answers... most are correct... some are more complicated....


Loren

 

[Meanolddad]

On our 1985 30+ the spinnaker halyard exits above the forestay. The boat was rigged for spinnaker when we bought it. I do not think we have the triple cage, I will check the next time we are down at the boat. We only use the spinnaker on light wind days to keep the boat moving which are not to common in San Pedro. We used to have an Oday 240 that we flew an assymetrical spinnaker using one of the sheaves below the forestay. It always went up with out a problem. If we jibed the sail to the other side it could be a real pain to get down.

Greg

 

[egalvan]

Spinnaker Halyard for Ericson 30+

Adding to this thread, which I found very useful. I went up the mast to add a spinnaker halyard yesterday to my 1984 30+, Zenergy. (For an asymmetrical.)
Discovered not the side-by-side cage mentioned in this thread, but a narrow cage with three sheaves stacked in a tall SS slot. The aluminum sheaves were still in good shape. The middle sheave was mounted furthest from the center of mast with a clevis pin and split ring so it could be removed. The others are further toward the center of mast and cannot be removed without removing the whole cage. (Cage is fastened to mast with 10 rivets, 5 on each side of the slot.) I used the top-most sheave for my new spin halyard. Halyard is 1/2 inch diameter--nothing bigger than that would work with these sheaves. Used self-fusing tape to attach a messenger line (mason's string) to the end of the halyard and fed that down for my partner to fish out of the exit hole in the side of the mast.

Here's where it was essential to remove the removable middle sheave: The first try with the messenger seemed perfect, but once the halyard itself went down more the 5 inches it jammed hopelessly. I took out the middle sheave so I can see what was happening in there. Turns out that just below the top sheave and offset further toward the center of the mast there is a very small sheave/fairlead. If you just drop your halyard over the top sheave like I did, you go forward of this fairlead, and you get jammed against the jib halyard. You have to have a long skinny tool (stiff wire with inverted hook is perfect) to insert into the slot to coax the messenger aft of the fairlead in order to prevent the new halyard from running too close to the jib halyard. Takes some patience to do this while hanging 40' in the air, of course.

Still not entirely satisfied with the chafe potential. The slot opening was clearly made to prevent chafing, it flares out on the sides of the slot so that the opening is bounded with curved and smooth edges rather than sharp ones. So that's good. But if there is downward pressure on the halyard, it is probably going to get involved with the headstay attachment. I suppose/hope that when flying the spinnaker, the halyard is going to be pulled out from the slot and, and not so much downward. Or am I crazy to think that?

Ernie Galvan
Ericson 30+ Zenergy

 

[egalvan]

Spinnaker Halyard for Ericson 30+

Adding to this thread, which I found very useful. I went up the mast to add a spinnaker halyard yesterday to my 1984 30+, Zenergy. (For an asymmetrical.)
Discovered not the side-by-side cage mentioned in this thread, but a narrow cage with three sheaves stacked in a tall SS slot. The aluminum sheaves were still in good shape. The middle sheave was mounted furthest from the center of mast with a clevis pin and split ring so it could be removed. The others are further toward the center of mast and cannot be removed without removing the whole cage. (Cage is fastened to mast with 10 rivets, 5 on each side of the slot.) I used the top-most sheave for my new spin halyard. Halyard is 1/2 inch diameter--nothing bigger than that would work with these sheaves. Used self-fusing tape to attach a messenger line (mason's string) to the end of the halyard and fed that down for my partner to fish out of the exit hole in the side of the mast.

Here's where it was essential to remove the removable middle sheave: The first try with the messenger seemed perfect, but once the halyard itself went down more the 5 inches it jammed hopelessly. I took out the middle sheave so I can see what was happening in there. Turns out that just below the top sheave and offset further toward the center of the mast there is a very small sheave/fairlead. If you just drop your halyard over the top sheave like I did, you go forward of this fairlead, and you get jammed against the jib halyard. You have to have a long skinny tool (stiff wire with inverted hook is perfect) to insert into the slot to coax the messenger aft of the fairlead in order to prevent the new halyard from running too close to the jib halyard. Takes some patience to do this while hanging 40' in the air, of course.

Still not entirely satisfied with the chafe potential. The slot opening was clearly made to prevent chafing, it flares out on the sides of the slot so that the opening is bounded with curved and smooth edges rather than sharp ones. So that's good. But if there is downward pressure on the halyard, it is probably going to get involved with the headstay attachment. I suppose/hope that when flying the spinnaker, the halyard is going to be pulled out from the slot and, and not so much downward. Or am I crazy to think that?

Ernie Galvan
Ericson 30+ Zenergy

 

[egalvan]

Of course, I didn't bring a camera. But searching for an image on the web, I see that this thing is called a "jib box." Here's the closest image I found: