Page 187 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

The Semi-Self-Tending Staysail is a little more Another problem with Bowlines in these days
work than other systems, but is more efficient, ver- of slippery, stiff, synthetic lines is that Bowlines can
satile, and safe. There’s no traveler to invest in, and come untied. A locking tuck will fix this.
no traveler to clutter up the deck. But even if you take the above measures, Bow-
lines are by no means the ideal sheet-attachment
Tackers knot. Though supremely convenient, they weaken
Boomless staysails, the ones you have to tack your- the line they’re tied in by about 40 percent, in con-
self, are a lot more work than their boomed breth- ventional synthetics, and much more than that in
ren. Not only are the forces on them higher—no HM ropes. And they’re just plain bulky and clum-
spar to take the load along the foot—but these sails sy-looking out there on the corner of your sail. For
are also usually larger than boomed staysails. Force braid only, the Brummel Splice (Figure 5-41) is a
on the sheets is related to sail area and apparent smooth, compact way to make both sheets from a
wind speed, so large sails on fast boats need stron- single piece of line in minutes. This splice is remov-
ger sheets. That’s why you need big winches. This able, with a little work, but you have to unreeve
concentration of forces has implications outside the both sheets to do it, so you would only undo this to
subject of sheets per se (see “Seaworthiness,” page wash the sheet (see also Figure 4-13).
167), but it’s sheets we’ll deal with here. Eyesplices, the strongest and most compact of
First and foremost, you have to attach the all knots, are ideal sheet ends for braided or three-
sheet to the sail. Most people tie on the sheets with strand line, for sheets that are permanently attached
Bowlines, and that’s okay except that Bowlines fre- to one sail. Unfortunately, your sailmaker is going
quently hang up on shrouds and stays in mid-tack. to be very unhappy with you if you bring a sail in
To minimize this, tie the port sheet left-handed and for inspection or repair with sheets attached. Perma-
the starboard sheet right-handed (Figure 5-40). nent attachment also means that you can’t switch
the sheets to other sails. So if you use the same set
of sheets for more than one sail, or if you have a
Figure 5-40. If you attach sheets to headsail clews reefable staysail, splices are out—you need an eas-
with Bowlines, tie the port one left-handed and the ily detachable attachment. One alternative is to
starboard one right-handed to alleviate snagging splice each sheet to a shackle, or both sheets to one
when you tack.
shackle. Expedient, but shackles can come undone,
are costly, and are hard—as in hit-you-in-the-face-
when-the-sail-is-flogging hard. Fortunately we now
have the Grail of sheet attachment: the Spectra
soft shackle (see page 388). With one of these, you
can put eyesplices into the ends of your sheets, and
shackle them to the clew without creating an active
hazard (though note that, if the sail is flogging hard
enough, even a soft item is hard enough to hurt you
if it hits you). You can use lighter, thinner sheets than
you ever could with Bowlines, so the sheets won’t
drag the clew down in light airs. You can change or
reef sails, replace each sheet independently, etc. Plus
you’ll have happy sailmakers.
This chapter began with some nice, safe, linear
formulas. But those formulas are put to work in the
service of wildly varying human preferences, based

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