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Hello my Fellow Wind n Water Fiends, thanks for reading my post.
I have a Nacra 5.8, it's great but I need to be able to drop the mainsail in a hurry for anchoring and coming into port. The current set up is a hook at the top of the mast with a halyard to raise it up to the hook and drop it onto it, which doesn't usually happen the first ten times... and then getting it off the hook and lowering the sail in a hurry to drop the anchor in a specific spot or depower when approaching a jetty or boat ramp is ..... hectic to say the least.
So I am thinking of removing the hook and just rigging up some simple method of tying of the halyard to the base of the mast so the mast can still pivot and I can drop the sail in seconds if need be.
Can anyone envision any problems with doing this? for example will I need to upgrade the halyard or the pulley at the top of the mast?
Cheers
The main problem i see is that when the mast bends (and beach cat masts bend a lot) the halyard will slacken and the sail will lose shape.
I sail a Hobie 16 and we use the same hook at the top of the mast system and we mostly use to shock cord at the bottom of the Halyard to stop the halyard banging around as it gets quite loose once you put some bend in the mast.
For casual sailing it might not matter though?
I think A normal halyard will be fine.
I'd go 2:1 if it was me just using a nice rounded shackle as the 2:1 pulley and 5mm spectra a the halyard.
What about a 2nd halyard spring loaded operating a release mechanism at the top of the mast a lot like a door latch.
How are you raising and dropping the main, do you rotate the mast to raise and lower the main, or just pull up and hope..?
From here: glenmoresailboats.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Nacra-manual-1985.pdf
My cat is not a Nacra, but I am learning that the trick is in the rotation when raising / lowering...
2nd photo of later model nacra, but it shows how the ring clears the hook by rotation.
