Posted: Apr 18, 2023 - 06:59 PM
For non-racing, the zippered luff where the halyard and the forestay are zipped over while you're raising the jib and then untied from a short piece of line and that short piece is cleated off and also used to get halyard tension is a huge pain. It's difficult to do alone and keep your jib off the ground or out of the salt water. It's flogging the whole time and you just can't raise it or lower it quickly. It's a nice clean system to have that halyard hidden inside the luff but to me not worth the trouble. Furlers are great but expensive, but I also believe that there's nothing wrong with a hanked on jib for recreational sailing. Beach cat jibs are so small that with adequate halyard tension there's no scalloping and the hanks are tiny and can't create much wind resistance. When you stop at a sandbar to rest and stretch your legs you just untie the halyard from a cleat on the mast and down she goes in seconds. No flogging.
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Bill Townsend
G-Cat 5.0
Sarasota
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