Is it possible to put a Tiger sail up in a xwind?
I put my Tiger in a place where there is no room to move it into wind to raise the sail. Whenever the wind blows in certain directions at the beach, it is close to impossible to hook in the sail. Any tips on how to beat this dilemma?
I also just noticed that the sail as it came when new was rolled up in a way that makes it difficult to put up and take down. I have switched directions of the roll although with great difficulty. It seems to be more hoister friendly now. Any comments?
If you rotate your mast so it points into the wind, it should not be a problem unless it hooks shrouds or trapeze wires while raising. But pointing the bows into the wind really is the preferred method.
There are two schools (I think) on sail rolling. Those who rolls from the foot and upwards to speed hoisting next sail. Then there are those who roll from the top and down, becouse they think this will be kinder on the sail.
Thanks Rolf
Generally the wind is a cross wind or a quartering tailwind so everything conspires against it. You are right about the optimum way being to raise it into wind though.
After I wrote the post I realized that maybe my solution is to use what everyone around here calls a
pull-off
, which is a setup where an anchor is installed a short distance off the beach. Then a rope comes from that (rope length is 3 times the depth of the water) to a wooden cross with a hole drilled into each end of one of the pieces of wood. Also a bolt is put through the wood, outboard of the holes, perpendicular to the holes to keep the wood from splitting and releasing the ropes. The other hole is then enlarged and smoothed out with a router and a rope goes from there to the beach around a permanent post of some sort and back out to the cross and is attached to the rope forming a loop.
Then a buoy (Plastic bottle) is attached to the rope with a length of rope is attached to that to fasten to the boat.
Then you attach the boat and use the rope to ...... jokes off... pull the boat out to the cross where you are moored and can raise the sail into wind. I have discovered that it is best to moor the boat from the most forward part of the boat in the centre (spinnaker snuffer on my Tiger) with a length of rope to pull the slip knot to release the boat as it is hard to climb out front when singlehanding as I generally am.
Regarding the sail I was referring to the direction of rolling the sail. When I got the sail I seem to recall that it was rolled in such a way that when it was coming off of the mast it had to bend outward and then back inward to go onto the roll. Now I have reversed it so it rolls in one continuous direction as it comes out of the mast.
That was interesting about rolling from the top first but I suspect that when you factor in the part about having to unroll the whole sail and have it flop around on the ground, you have effectively negated any advantage that you got from rolling it up the other way.
Pulling out to a mooring sounds like an excellent idea if you can not raise your main on the beach. If you can use the same setup when returning, it sounds like a great idea to land under complete control.
I only roll from the top downwards if I am to ship a sail. Otherwise, I roll from the bottom up and put it in the trailer ready for the next sail. Of course, we use the sails two to three times a week and dont move the trailer as we have mast-up storage at the club.
Thanks Rolf,
I used the Pull-off today and it works like a charm. I had originally built it to get me out from the beach away from some rocks and had stopped using it as I figured out a better way but now I see the value in using it for raising the mainsail.
BTW what is the picture of on your posts?
The picture is of our Tornado lying on its side. We had to knock it over to pass under a brigde to get to the starting area of a race in Stockholm/Sweden.