We all know how critical sail shape is to performance and that the sheet controlling said airfoil is matched to the job, whether it’s a zero-stretch, minimum-diameter PBO sheet on a mini-maxi blade, or a fuzzy polyester jib sheet that grips the drum on a big cruiser’s primary. What, then, of the handshake between the two?

Tying directly to the clew is the most basic — though not always lightest — method of attaching jib and spinnaker sheets, and these days, the humble knot still has the biggest cohort of followers overall—everything from Club 420s to beach cats to large cruising and race boats. But there are tradeoffs that come with simplicity. For instance, the simplest of sheet-to-clew connections is the luggage tag (or cow hitch) on a 1-to-1 jib sheet system. Simply take a length of line twice the length of your boat, double it up to find the middle, pass that loop through the clew cringle and then pass the standing ends through the loop.

The luggage tag is a low-profile connection; it doesn’t slip and is as short as any other option, which is more of a consideration in some classes than in others, allowing trim right up to jib cars, fairleads and redirect blocks, such as foot blocks, barber haulers, etc. When you need clearance and simplicity and never change a jib between dock out and haul out, the luggage tag might be perfect for your application. This knot, however, can be the 3M 5200 of knots when it truly sets, especially if it’s a soft polyester line in a high-load application (think J/24 genoa) or if the sheets live on the sail and go through a few wet/dry cycles. 

On the plus side, in cases where the luggage tag is ubiquitous, you’re only likely to need to remove the sheets when they are damaged and need replacing; in which case, what the heck, bust out the knife. In most cases, however, the sail and sheets age gracefully together in the bag and never need to be separated.

As one moves up to larger boats, the simplicity of a knot may still be desirable. It’s not uncommon to see bowlines or buntline hitches get the nod on everything up to masthead genoas on 70-footers — but those bring more considerations. First, tying a knot reduces the strength of a control line by as much as 50 percent, though headsail sheets are often overspecified to ensure maximum grip on winch drums, self-tailers and, of course, the trimmer’s hands.

Of greater concern is the size and bulk of the knot. On a typical 36-plus-foot crossover, a properly tied bowline with a tail, while simple to attach and easy to untie, will create quite a relatively sizeable wad of rope at the clew, likely to catch on everything between the fairleads — shrouds, lifelines, deck cleats, you name it. And, if you’re racing and have a crew crossing in front of the mast, a heavy bowline in 14mm sheets can also add the excitement of possible blunt force trauma to a bowman’s day. For all of these reasons, the simplicity of knots at the clew is generally not enough to earn them usage on larger race boats.

Race boats (and well-sorted cruisers) generally rely on three broad categories of sail connections: hardware, textile and hybrid systems. Hardware solutions come in many forms, from small ball-bearing blocks on the clew rings of 2-to-1 jibs, like those on Stars and Flying Scots, to large titanium T-rings, which are webbed into the clew of a sail and feature a central T-shaped post that an eye splice in the end of a jib sheet slips over.

On large racer/cruisers and grand-prix boats, trigger snap shackles are ubiquitous, especially on tacklines, sheets, guys and halyards on forward sails. Tylaska, Ronstan and Wichard make stainless and titanium versions of these versatile workhorses, popular because they are reliable, very strong, won’t flog open, and can be spiked open under load.

Also available are small, cone-shaped fids (sometimes referred to as ‘Martin Breakers’) that allow the option of remotely releasing the trigger on these shackles, often the tack shackle coming into an asymmetric spinnaker drop.

Two caveats with snap shackles of any type are weight and the potential damage they can cause when the sail flogs—anything they can reach can potentially be dented or otherwise damaged, leading to a cottage industry among marine canvas fabricators of padded mast base protectors, neoprene shackle boots and similar.

Another popular option to consider for jib sheet, main halyard and outhaul connections are Tylaska’s J-Lock shackles. Their low-profile design fits through most genoa lead cars, simplifying leading changing sheets, and also makes them a little less likely to ding up your pride and joy. They are super strong, easy to operate and have a plunger system that makes the possibility of them flogging open remote.

With the increasing prevalence of low-diameter, high-strength single-braid lines, (HMPEs like Dyneema specifically), soft textile connections are having a day. Distinct from tying knots directly to the sail, textile connections are spliced systems designed to capitalize on the strength of these high-modulus fibers as well as their lightweight, non-water absorbing characteristics, while addressing the shortcomings of tying a knot—difficult reversibility, bulk, strength loss, etc. Soft, light connections that take advantage of Dyneema’s natural slippery texture are a no-brainer for connecting sheets to asymmetric spinnakers, adding lubricity as they drag along the shrouds during a jibe.

Much of the prevalence of textile rigging solutions can be traced to the viral popularity of the soft shackle. Made from as little as 18 inches of single-braid HMPE, a soft shackle is, in essence, a sliding loop buried back inside itself with a stopper knot at the other end. Using the “finger trap” characteristics of single-braid rope, the loop is opened, slid around the stopper knot, and milked smooth, creating an incredibly strong loop that can be used for everything from hanging water bottles below to armored vehicle recovery (the overland and 4×4 market for soft shackles dwarfs their marine use).

Years ago, several videos showing step-by-step how to make soft shackles appeared online and had the effect of demystifying working with high-tech rope, and really got the average Wednesday night warrior thinking about ways to use the light, strong fiber all over their boats. Soft shackles have become so ubiquitous that every rigger has their own spin on them — some are covered with 48-plait Dyneema chafe sleeve, some use ‘ripcords’ to make the loop easier to open, some use unidirectional (unbraided) fiber…the customizations and variations are seemingly endless.

As boats get larger, ‘softies’ have their place. Oftentimes, they’ll be spliced into a reeving eye of a single jib sheet, and the two sheets are then soft shackled to the clew of the sail, allowing the lazy sheet to be moved independently.

They are also handy and light for connecting snatch blocks and other deck hardware, as evidenced by the number of block manufacturers – Nautos, Antal, Harken, Ronstan, etc. – that make a lash-on version of their gear.

Another simple method of connecting spin sheets to asymmetric kites is to put 1-inch eyes in the stripped end of each sheet. Then, pass the tail of a ‘pigtail’ (a 20-inch or so length of single-braid Dyneema with a 1-inch eye in one end), through the eyes in the spin sheet ends and then back through the eye in its own other end, leaving you with the two sheet ends lashed together and a single 20-inch, small diameter tail that then gets tied with a bowline to the clew of the sail. The pigtail is small and slick, allowing it to drag around the rig easily, and the sheets can be swapped to a new kite with only one knot to untie. The downsides of using Dyneema single-braids to attach sails are few. 

To be sure, a soft shackle takes more time to open and to attach than a trigger shackle (and gets progressively more difficult as they age), and the hundreds of small denier fibers that make up each plait of the rope are susceptible to chafe. That said, the many advantages of Dyneema connections – UV stability, zero water absorption, extremely light weight and low stretch. With the myriad variations available, there are solutions that address the threats (chafe sleeve, PU coatings, etc.) and should make soft connections a serious consideration.

A final category is what I would describe as ‘hybrid’ connectors – pieces of hardware that rely on a combination of textile rope and a bit of hardware. Companies such as Antal, Ropeye, Equiplite, Nodus, Wichard, Tylaska and Harken, to name a few, all make trick little anodized bits that take the best of both worlds and use them in creative ways. Oftentimes these solutions can be as simple as an anodized ‘dog bone’ – a short, often conical bar tapered towards the center that can be used as a ‘button’ in place of a stopper knot on a soft loop attachment.

Spool shackles are a similar idea – a spliced eye in the end of the sheet passes through the spool, then through the clew of the sail, and then back around the ends of the spool. A soft rubber O-ring slides down to add an element of security when not under load.

At the far end of the simplicity spectrum are high-load shackles that utilize milled spools in conjunction with covered, braided or unidirectional-HMPE fibers, pre-stretched and heat set, often with a Velcro belt to hold everything in place when not under load. Also popular with commercial rigging operations, units like those manufactured by Equiplite are advertised with strengths up to 3,000 tons. For your 36-footer, you can expect to pay a few hundred dollars for one and to then be amazed at how simple, light and strong they are.

At the end of the day, there are an almost infinite number of ways to connect sheets to sails, and every situation has nuances and considerations. What type of boat? Sail? Are you racing or cruising? Is there a chance that you will change sails? If you’re racing, find the good guys in your class and see what they are using and ask them why. If you’re a DIYer, consider getting a set of fids and watching a few YouTube videos about making softies. That will get your mind spinning on the possibilities that exist, and on finding a solution that matches your budget, ambition and needs. Now go get connected.

The post Knots Work, But These Connections are Better appeared first on Sailing World.

Before we tackle the hardware phase of the Still 2 Crazy project, let’s rewind for a moment to its beginnings. My father, Jon Shampain, and his boat partner, Robert Plant—with my help—purchased and started a full rehab of a vintage 1996 Melges 30, a sportboat that had runners, an articulating bowsprit, and overlapping genoas. Dad and Plant started by stripping the boat completely, even removing the chainplates. Then every hole was filled, and delamination in the gelcoat was ground away, filled, and faired. Because the boat is now almost three decades old, we added knees under the stanchions and ribs under the genoa lead system to prevent the deck from flexing. We also added laminate under areas where we knew there would be high loads, such as under padeyes and runner-­block attachments. We added winches for the runners, so we also added pads and backing plates for the new winch locations.

The runners were a good place to start. Originally, the boat had a purchase system that led belowdecks. While it was lightweight, it also was complicated, with many ­moving parts, and it allowed water to get inside the boat. So we opted for a 2-to-1 above-deck system that leads to a pair of Harken 35.2ST Performa winches, which are powerful yet smaller self-tailing two-speed winches. This should give us good control of the mast when tacking and jibing in a big breeze.

Using Harken’s online resources, I printed and built a scaled-to-size mock-up of the winch and positioned it where we wanted it on the boat, to verify that the line would reach the winch without affecting other systems. Incorporated in the system is a series of the 57 mm Black Magic blocks, which are the perfect size and strength to handle the runner loads on this 30-foot fractionally rigged sportboat. At the top, we have the purpose-built 57 mm runner block, which is designed for runners. At the stern, we have the standard 57 mm Black Magic blocks attached to the boat with Dyneema loops. In the cockpit, the 57 mm Black Magic foot blocks direct the runner to the winches.

The mainsheet system got a makeover as well. The original fine-tune adjustment ran through a purchase belowdecks. And while it was clean, like the runner system, it let water down below. I exchanged that for a standard system, similar to what you’d find on a Melges 32—a 6-to-1 with a cam base behind the traveler and a 4-to-1 fine-tune on a low-profile base in front of the traveler. We use 57 mm soft-attachment Carbo blocks on the boom and a double Carbo block on the traveler car. The fine-tune uses 40 mm Carbo fiddle blocks. For the mainsheet and fine-tune cleats, I spec’d the Harken fast-release fairlead. I find that it is easier to cleat and uncleat, and it has less friction on the big eases. The traveler itself has a 3-to-1 using a combination of 40 mm and 29 mm Harken Carbo blocks.  

We had some fun with the genoa car ­system. The boat was designed with tracks for the genoa and separate tracks for a jib, along with all of the purchase systems needed for the cars. It was all pretty old, and it was looking as if we were going to have to replace all of the tracks and cars. Instead, we designed a floating lead system that is light, cost-effective and simple. Under the location of the genoa and jib hardware, we mounted Harken’s 12 mm bolt-down ­fairleads to the deck. Then we spliced in a 2-to-1 Dyneema strop to Harken’s floating-­jib lead rings. These were spliced to a 3-to-1 purchase led to a cleat near the genoa winch. The strops for the No. 1 genoa and No. 3 jib are spliced together so that one line adjusts everything. Last, we added the Harken Grand Prix jib lead eye in front of the winch to prevent overrides. Voilà! Floating leads that are simple, easy on the pocketbook, and still have the 6-to-1 purchase for easy adjustments. The genoa lead cleats have Harken’s extreme-angle fairleads, which align the rope and allow us to cleat and uncleat them from the weather rail.

While on the genoa system, I was unsure how I wanted to set up the outboard leads. While I try to avoid adding stainless parts to a sportboat because every ounce matters, there is a time and a place for everything, and once again, Harken had something special. In the locations we thought that the outboard leads should go, we mounted 56 mm fixed padeyes (Harken 2759) with two bolts. Folding padeyes are great and Harken’s new Gizmos are great, but I really wanted to get the eyes as far outboard as I could, and that meant fastening them to the curved radius of the deck/hull joint. A two-fastener fixed eye let me mount them inline on the rail on a curved surface. They have a round eye built in and are very strong. I can attach a block to them, I can run a sheet through them, or I can clip a shackle or carabiner to them. And with working loads around 2,500 pounds, weighing just 1.3 ounces each and costing less than $20 apiece, with these I could do no wrong.

I’ve long felt a need for a high-load block similar to the 57 mm Black Magic block but one that was a little smaller. Harken’s new Fly blocks are amazing but too small for what I had in mind. As if to answer my prayers, Harken designed a new 45 mm Black Magic loop block—exactly what I wanted for the aft spinnaker blocks. They easily take the load, run smoothly, and are very light. In front of them are 75 mm Harken Carbo ratchet blocks. In light air, we can trim without a winch; in heavy air, we can turn the ratchets off and trim on the winches.

Another area that got a full makeover was the articulating-bowsprit purchases. There is a pole extender, a pole retractor, a pole-pull to starboard, and a pole-pull to port—each with its own purchase system belowdecks. Originally, they were led through the back of the companionway or the side of the cockpit. These were places where plenty of water could egress. My father came up with the idea to lead it all to cleats inside the companionway but facing outward to where the pit person would ­naturally be in maneuvers.

But because it wasn’t my idea to begin with it, I didn’t like it. But he got his way, and I admit that it works extremely well. Just inside the companionway are two standard cam cleats angled out to the cockpit with, you guessed it, extreme-angle fairleads on them. It really makes cleating, uncleating, and lining up the rope with the cleat a breeze. The pole-out incorporates a pair of medium-size Harken wire blocks. These are very strong and good when using small, uncovered Dyneema lines.

A 2-to-1 purchase is plenty for this function. As it is with the pole in, we did a 2-to-1 after trying a 1-to-1. There was some binding in the pole system, and the 2-to-1 seemed to alleviate that. Because less strength is needed for this function, we were able to use lighter Harken Carbo blocks. Because the articulation controls load up a fair amount more, we designed an 8-to-1 system using Harken Carbo blocks at the back end and high-load wire blocks at the front.

The boat came with an older code zero, and I was eager to get it on a furler because furling these sails makes setting, dousing, and use in general so much easier. Our previous Still Crazy had a great Harken unit, so I was confident that it was the way to go for us. The Harken Reflex Unit 1 furler with the top-down furling option and Harken’s 10 mm Torsion Cable was an easy choice. I am a fan of the interchangeable bottom pieces, so you can have one lower drum and multiple spinnakers with torsion cables ready to go. Clip in and clip out for easy storage or sail changes. In addition, we installed a retractable bobstay to help us maintain luff tension when sailing with the code zero. 

The Lineage Report

As a part-time rigger, I enjoy finding different ropes and exploring applications for them all. I worked with Marlow on this project. Let’s start with one of my favorite ropes and one of my go-to products for J/70 rigging: Marlow’s D12 MAX cores. This core is available in SK78 and SK99. It is strong and has nearly zero stretch. This is a key ingredient for jib halyards, main halyards, control pennants, backstays and runners. It’s also important in spinnaker halyards and tack lines, especially on boats with code zeros, where maintaining luff tension is essential. We used a lot of it on this project, and it’s performing as expected. Because it’s strong and also easy to splice, we were able to use 6 mm on the primary runner and 3 mm on the checkstays and topmast runners.

For spinnaker and genoa halyards, we chose their MGP Tech 50 covers with the D12 Max core. The MGP Tech cover is a Technora-based cover that is very grippy in the clutches and on the winch while providing good durability and chafe resistance. In fact, it’s so good in the hands and with chafe resistance that we also used it for the genoa sheets. For spinnaker halyards, we chose small Tylaska shackles and added Marlow’s chafe sleeve to reduce chafe when the halyards pull off center at the top. We are trying Tylaska’s spool shackles on the jib halyards. They are working well, albeit I need to lengthen the splices to accommodate the press rings in some of the older sails

For the runner tails on these fractional boats, heat resistance is key because the rope heats up under so much load when eased. For this reason, we went with Marlow’s MGP P Tech 50. While similar to the rope described above, the P tech has PBO woven in to help with the heat resistance. Of course, because overall stretch is a concern, D12 Max is in the core. To keep the weight down, we spliced a lightweight tail into it where it will never be loaded. We used Excel R8 for a clean and finished look that matched the runner tail itself.

For the spinnaker sheets, I wanted an all-purpose set and a light-air set. For the AP set, Marlow suggested the same cover as the genoa sheets and halyards: MGP Tech 50 but with a low-stretch softer core, such as D12 78. It sounded like a great idea and has proved itself well. For the light-air sheets, we went with another recommendation from Marlow: Excel HPR 6.5. It’s lightweight, strong, and easy to grip.

MGP Furler 50 is excellent for the code zero furling lines. It provides good grip in the furling unit and is easy to splice in a continuous loop. We added a small detachable block on a bungee with a clip so that the unloaded end stays tensioned. This keeps the continuous furling drum from ­back-spinning as you furl.

Tack lines live in clutches and are not adjusted much, so we thought we could use a simple cover over the D12 Max. MGP Racing fit the bill, with a simple polyester cover that is cost-effective but still works well in the hands and clutches. 

We used plenty of Excel Racing for ­control lines as well. It is a Dyneema-cored polyester-covered line that’s great for jib leads, vang, cunningham, outhaul, traveler, etc. It comes in many sizes and colors.

The post A Melges 30 Redo: Deck and Rigging Upgrades appeared first on Sailing World.

An evolution of Harken’s 2700 series of small-boat cars, the new 2767 car has no stainless hardware other than the ball bearing retainers—no shackles, pins or ring-dings.  Everything’s soft-tied.  In fact, there are just three main parts: an aluminum body, ball bearings and the two-ball bearing retainers. As a result, the car weighs in at an amazingly light 1.48 ounces.

The design was inspired by Adam Palfrey, who had been using the 2702 cars on the athwartship jib tracks he designed for use in the Etchells class (“A Sheeting Angle Solution”). For Palfrey, they were good, though not quite perfect, as he had to hog out a small section of aluminum on each car to allow the up-down line to work without chafing, plus they had stamped stainless control tangs with somewhat squared-off corners—ok, but not optimum for a spliced traveller control line.

Enter long-time Etchells sailor Chris Larson. “It started with him,” says Palfrey. “Chris knew the amount of work that had to be done to get the original car to work.”

Larson, in turn, pulled Harken’s Oakley Jones into the loop.  Says Jones, “I looked at what Dog was doing and thought, ‘We can do this better.’  I sent pictures of Dog’s modified car to one of our engineers and said, ‘The Etchells class is currently modifying our 2702 car.  Apart from not looking as nice as we’d like, the line going into it where it’s been milled out is chafing and the pin eventually bending from the where the line was going around it.’”

“Within a couple of days, Oakley had a 3D type of drawing,” Palfrey says.  “And about three weeks later, he called and said ‘Do you want to go ahead and buy some?’ It was really impressive how quickly they turned this around.”

“Luckily, we weren’t starting from scratch,” says Jones, “so we could basically tweak the 2702 car to produce the new one. We carved away all the unnecessary aluminum we could and rounded all the edges.” The car has the additional bonus of no plastic end caps, something that in older versions would deteriorate in the sun, eventually failing and releasing the bearings.

The result is a car elegant in its simplicity. Traveller control lines run though rounded oval slots at each end, eliminating the need for tangs and providing a more rounded surface for control lines.  Splice-in or luggage-tag a piece of 1/8 to 3/16″ Spectra or use a soft-tie block, such as one of Harken’s Carbo T2 block series, for a 2-to-1 setup. Three shallow grooves at the end of each oval lock the soft-tie loops in place.  “It looks great, saves custom work, which is always expensive, and it’s just perfect for the job,” says Palfrey.

The center slot has rounded corners to allow smooth up-down line movement for fore-and-aft jib lead adjustment, as on Palfrey’s jib lead system. Or, use the car in a more traditional fore-and-aft jib car alignment by tying a Harken Carbo block there.

While the 13mm system is mostly used for jib tracks, Harken is also producing an up-sized version of the 13mm car, one that will fit a 22mm track, which is used for main traveller systems on E Scows, Etchells and similar-sized boats. Like its smaller sibling, it’s very light—a just 4 ounces.  Current prices are: 13mm car ($135.50) and  22mm car ($199.95) at Harken.

The post Harken’s All-Soft-Tie Jib Cars appeared first on Sailing World.

Customers were asking for an assortment of through-decks in aluminum, says Harken’s Bill Faude. “Really, customers ask for lots of that stuff that lives between blocks and cleats and protects decks and line. There is a lot of development going on in this rigging space. We’ll do more Gizmos as people ask for quantities of them that make doing them possible, and we will participate with others where we can supply components they need.”

Initially, Harken will offer single-sided through-deck bushings to protect decks and lines from chafing when used in through-deck applications. Double-sided through-deck bushings are also available, engineered for installing soft attachment loops to protect lines from wear.

Padeye kits include a cross pin, waterproof cap and O-ring to convert a double-sided bushing into a through-deck, watertight padeye. The cross pin attaches the loop and the cap snaps over the top to keep water out. Bushings and loops are sold separately.

The post Harken Gizmos appeared first on Sailing World.