Page 66 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

the 50-percent-longer halyard. These days 2:1 down more deeply and sooner than you
halyards are popular on boats with full-batten currently do, or increasing the size and power
mains. The extra power means you can get the of your main, particularly with full-length
sail up faster and with less effort, before putting battens, among other options. Skillful trimming
the halyard on the winch. Mast compression is of skillfully made sails can compensate for the
also reduced by 25 percent. loss in headsail area. So if your sails are wearing
out now anyway, consider a design change.
4. Fairleads, Big Blocks, and Lubrication.
By using a minimum number of large, high- Whether your winches have help or work by
quality, strategically placed turning blocks, you themselves, protect your investment with regular,
reduce friction. By being one of the minuscule careful inspection and maintenance; it’s amazing
minority of sailors who strip down and lubricate how many people just crank ’em till they freeze up,
their winches on a regular basis (at least once a treating them like convenience items instead of well-
year), you reduce friction by a lot more. bred tools.
As for which winch brand is best, there isn’t a
5. Design. Staysails are any boat’s most lot to choose between the majors—Andersen, Har-
significant edge to weather, but their size and ken, and Lewmar—as they all feature good-quality
significance have been greatly exaggerated by gearing and consistently high tech support. But I
some racing rules. So if you are daunted by just have to recommend Andersen as being a stand-
the prospect of shelling out the bucks for a out in fit and finish, as well as having a drum that
comfortably powerful winch, consider making makes line-handling significantly easier.
your sails smaller instead of making your
winches bigger. This can mean getting smaller,
more efficient staysails, or reefing or changing THE COME-ALONG

Not exactly part of the rigging, the come-along
Figure 2-27. The come-along, that (Figure 2-27) is an indispensable shop tool and is
infinitely versatile industrial-grade good to have aboard for installing, shifting, and set-
winch—the rigger’s friend. ting up gear, and for emergencies. It’s another winch,
but with a wire or rope tackle anchored to the bar-
rel instead of wrapped around it. A ratchet mech-
anism, not friction, is used to sustain tension, and
a relatively small-diameter barrel means a leverage
ratio between 20 to 1 and 40 to 1, comparable to the
ratios of typical running-rigging winches. With some
come-alongs, power is compounded by the use of a
block added to the load end of the tackle.
Come-alongs are powerful, but they’re very,
very slow. Some models ease this problem with a
take-up wheel on the side. Nice feature.
Because it’s fairly easy to put more strain on
these tools than they are meant to take, their han-
dles are usually designed to bend under excess load.
Better that than have the wire break with you stand-
ing there, cranking resolutely away.

45