Gaff hoisting [was micro pointing stats]
Hi Bruce
Friction in several forms sounds likely. Moriarty's gaff is really not hard
to hoist, even with single part halyards. You might look at the diameter of
your sheaves [where bigger for once really is better] as well as the jaws. I
lined the latter with UHMW. Navigator's sail geometry is such that if you
hoist in the 'approved manner' with the gaff horizontal until the throat is
all the way up then the gaff jaws will have minimal contact with the mast
anyway. Take up on the lifts before making sail, haul the gaff until your
halyards are on their marks, and the boom is riding high, then slack the
lifts and let the boom weight settle everything into position.
As for the reefed sail, given the way the centre section [in a fore and aft
sense] gathers into the lifts, might it be worth adding additional lift
lines? Four points of contact on each side of the boom rather than two, with
the added loops passing through as your original lift lines did [so as not
to require adjustment at slightly varying boom angles. You would not need
to add extra cordage from the cabin - the existing single pair of lift lines
would still do the job, with the new gathering loops terminating at the same
apex as the existing ones or perhaps a bit higher.
FWIW, I just pass a reef line through a grommet, one fore and one aft, but
as you know I don't have the glasshouse between me and the sail...
cheers
Derek
Friction in several forms sounds likely. Moriarty's gaff is really not hard
to hoist, even with single part halyards. You might look at the diameter of
your sheaves [where bigger for once really is better] as well as the jaws. I
lined the latter with UHMW. Navigator's sail geometry is such that if you
hoist in the 'approved manner' with the gaff horizontal until the throat is
all the way up then the gaff jaws will have minimal contact with the mast
anyway. Take up on the lifts before making sail, haul the gaff until your
halyards are on their marks, and the boom is riding high, then slack the
lifts and let the boom weight settle everything into position.
As for the reefed sail, given the way the centre section [in a fore and aft
sense] gathers into the lifts, might it be worth adding additional lift
lines? Four points of contact on each side of the boom rather than two, with
the added loops passing through as your original lift lines did [so as not
to require adjustment at slightly varying boom angles. You would not need
to add extra cordage from the cabin - the existing single pair of lift lines
would still do the job, with the new gathering loops terminating at the same
apex as the existing ones or perhaps a bit higher.
FWIW, I just pass a reef line through a grommet, one fore and one aft, but
as you know I don't have the glasshouse between me and the sail...
cheers
Derek