I am having trouble getting the hook to release from the ring when wanting to take the jibsail down. I have the open side of the hook facing the mast and the hook has an eyelet on the top of the S which one end of the halyard is attached. On the bottom of the S hook there is another eyelet with the other end of the halyard attached. I attach the shackle to the bottom eyelet and when raising the jib sail the hook engages the ring easily and I have not trouble with it after the downhaul line is tightened. When attempting to take the sail down I pull on the halyard to try to disengage the hook from the ring as well as twisting the sail all to no avail. We end up tipping the boat on it's side in order to release the hook from the ring. I know there must be another way. I am wondering if the halyard line may to taunt. It has little slack in it and maybe this is the trouble. If any of you have similar systems can you give me some advice? Thanks

I put a side stay adjuster in series with the fore stay, and inside the stay adjuster there is a small pulley.

The jib halyard attaches to the top of the jib in the normal way, and a second piece of line attaches to the opposite end of the jib halyard to raise the jib. Down at the bridle plate, there is a short pigtail wire that attaches to the end of the raising wire for the jib and the raising line is disconnected while sailing. A small piece of line and a clam cleat pinned to the bridle plate allow the jib luff to be tensioned. Similar to the Hobie 18 without the roller furling.

Thanks for your comments xango8. I love to tinker up solutions to sailing problems. This boat had a few such as weak side stay attachment system that I am working on a solution to solve. The deck was torn off as a result probably due to too many people on board during a blow.

if this is what you have, or something similar, i battled with that same problem on my nacra until i finally just replaced it with a traditional halyard system. although it was great for tensioning the jib when it was hooked , i never did get the hang of it and it caused me endless frustration. i feel your pain.
j

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Aquacat 12 (sold)...'87 Nacra 5.8 (sold)...'03 Nacra Inter18 (sold)
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