This post is all about the jib. One night, 20 minutes into my watch I hear a bang followed by mayhem on deck. A quick look reveals the jib sheet has broken. I wake up Josie, we go in the cockpit and furl the jib. I then go on deck and bring the starboard sheet over to port side and we set the jib again. There’s still a piece of broken sheet flogging off the jib and I attach an extra block to the genoa track, lead the broken sheet through it and tie it to the piece still attached to the jib. Now we have a spare sheet as well.
After arrival in Jamaica we inspect the jib and find that the second sheet is also severely shafed, it apparently rubbed on the second block I attached to the genoa track. Also, we find the jib furling line chafed in two places and looking for what caused this, we find that the guide block just in front of the furler lost a pin from it’s shackle and is just hanging on the furling line. The chafing occurred right there, for fully deployed jib, as well as partially furled (reefed) jib that we used since the 30 knot squall.
Last but not least we check the halyard and find severe chafing at the Spinlock rope clutch on the mast. Four out of sixteen strands are cut.
About everything that could break around the jib broke. So what did we do wrong? First is the sheets: with the weather forecasts in mind, I setup our light weather sheets, which are 1/2” dacron. They were also 15 years old, but kept out of the sun most of the time and looked okay. The sheet broke right at the genoa track block which was fine, it was just a clean brake during a 30 knot squall while close reaching, so about 40 knots apparent. We should have installed our 5/8” heavy duty sheets instead, but a new set of 1/2” sheets would’ve survived this as well I think.
Next the chafing of the sheet on the extra genoa track block. This block is normally used for staysail sheets so it seemed natural to do this but in this case the blocks/cars are too close together. This was an improvised setup and we should have tested that on a clear sunny day :-) In other words: user error again.
Then we come to the furler line. This was simply an equipment failure that can happen anytime. It became a problem because it happened at night during heavy weather so it was not noticed and got the chance to do damage.
The halyard is user error again. The halyard should have been on a mast winch so that there is no tension on the clutch. I also selected a never-used backup halyard which was made from Vectran but didn’t have a protective sleeve at the clutch.
Today we dealt with these issues. We are lucky to have a full 1,200 feet spool of 1/4” Dyneema aboard, as well as an ample supply of rigging parts and materials. We made a new jib furling line from the 1/4” Dyneema and added a dacron sleeve for the 50’ of it that gets handled. Instead of the lead block at the furling drum, I now installed an Antal low friction ring. This high tech setup means that the furler works better than ever before.
For the sheets we simply rigged our primary 5/8” single braid Dacron sheets, which are great. They don’t seem that big of a diameter anymore after these 30 knot squalls :-) The lesson here is that you always use your heavy duty gear for offshore passages, regardless of weather forecast.
For the halyard, I just finished making a new one out of the Dyneema, with a brand new Wichard halyard shackle and a little over half the length with Dacron protective sleeve for handling, winches and clutch. Where the sleeve stops, we splice it into the Dyneema center and at the bitter end we splice a Flemish eye for finishing touch and easy reeving. The halyard shackle is attached with a Brummel lock and bury splice. I think this cost me $250 in materials but I get a $600 high tech halyard for just a couple hours of work.
Today we started work at 6am and quit at 2:30pm. Besides the rigging and ropework described above, we made a ton of water, fully charged the house battery bank, did another laundry load, baked another bread, serviced two winches, had a bacon and eggs breakfast and swam in a bay in paradise. Not bad at all :-)
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