MacGregorSailors.com

How many of you have a line dedicated to dropping the sail? I saw a down haul mentioned in a video, and the notion that there may be a time when rapidly lowering the sail will be important haunts me. I have little sailing experience, but have never seen a down haul on a boat.

We use a 1/4" line as downhaul.
We use sail-slugs and routed the line from the head of the sail down through the loops on the slugs and then back to the cockpit. Works like a charm, but ads a few minutes to set-up after trailering.

Obelix

This is the same method that I used. Routed the line down and through the vang bail at the base of the mast, then through the stanchion brace on the port side, then back to the cam cleat behind the port winch (which I never use). Worked great.

~Rich

Obelix wrote:We use a 1/4" line as downhaul.
We use sail-slugs and routed the line from the head of the sail down through the loops on the slugs and then back to the cockpit. Works like a charm, but ads a few minutes to set-up after trailering.

Obelix

+1 but when I did it I had a pulley at the mast base, a pulley on the stanchion base and a cleat mounted on a stanchion closest to the cockpit to keep the line tidy. I also had slugs.

To mount the pulley at the mast base I attached a boom bail between the two ends of the bolt that holds the mast to the mast foot. (dimensions for the mast from the "suppliers corner" on the MacGregor web site). Quite a number of pulleys can then be mounted if required. e.g. bringing halyards back to the cockpit although any tension will stop the mast rotating I found.

We have one rigged also - definitely times when the main needs to come down NOW.
Occasionally things foul up and we end up at the mast hauling the luff anyway.

A jib down haul is especially useful - more so than the main.

Both the main and head-sail down hauls are very useful

With a hank-on head-sail, its a must for safety

I find with the main on sail slugs, she usually drops pretty good, but the last few feet are zipped up nice with a down-haul

G

A timely topic! The groups discussion to the Mainsail down haul is easy to imagine establishing on ones vessel. However, I'm preplexed with how a downhaul would be rigged to the jib. Does one just deal with the head and tack of the sail? Or is it important to include the clew in the foresail rigging.

Down hauls are easy to rig.
A sail downhaul in this case works essentially in opposition to a halyard.

Attach a line to the head of the sail at the halyard.
Have a block at the mast foot (or jib tack) directly in line with the luff at the deck.
Run the line from the sail head through the block to yourself. Wala.

Cleats and turning blocks fairleads or whatever gear you need can be added to enhance
handling and/or access. Methods for attaching the downhaul along a sails luff vary.
Ours are just loose.

I've been experimenting with a main sail downhaul, using some 1/4" utility line I had laying around, and so far it's been working rather well.

My halyard is too fat for the boat, so when I replace it, I'll use smaller line, and just run it in a loop, to eliminate all that line in the cockpit. The halyard back to the cockpit is almost long enough anyway, so when I replace it, only a few additional feet will be needed.

What i do is use the same continuous line for the halyard and the downhaul, led back to the cockpit. This eliminates all the excess line on the floor. Simple yet elegant.