Page 342 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

Some emergencies are even more involved than
Pendragon’s. What could have been done, for exam-
ple, had the mast collapsed? But most sudden prob-
lems are smaller and simpler though not necessarily
any more obvious of solution. Whatever the level
of complexity, your road to intuitive understanding
begins with a basic idea: restore appropriate tension
and compression. As you sail, consider what pieces
are under how much tension, and why; study design
to see the logical beauty of a resolution of forces;
look at and sail many different boats to see how dif-
ferently and with what varying degrees of success
forces can be resolved. Ask yourself, “If that halyard
jams now, what could I do? If a crack appears in the
mast...there...what could I do? If that roller-furling
headsail jams, what could I do?” This line of ques-
tioning leads to interesting conversations, encour-
ages design comprehension, occupies the mind,
and most important, helps you avoid emergencies
by making you aware of potential trouble. The fol-
lowing are a few examples of tension/compression
restoration.

Problem: Through inattentive tailing, the turns
on a headsail sheet winch become thoroughly, pro-
foundly “wrapped” under a heavy load, so that you
cannot cast them off to tack (Figure 9-3). You’re in
the midst of a closely contested race (not all emer-
gencies are life-threatening), and it’s unthinkable
that you should create slack in the sheet by bear-
ing off to let the main blanket the headsail. A stiff
breeze is blowing, so that even if you were willing
to head into the wind, the flogging of the sail would
keep you from clearing the line.

Figure 9-2. The crew of the racing yacht Pendragon Response: Pull the lazy sheet around to the lee
used a spinnaker pole, five winches, and assorted side and lead it via snatch block, stanchion, cleat,
blocks, tackle, and lashings to replace the starboard or what-have-you to another winch. Take a strain
D-2 (second-lowest diagonal) shroud on their rod- to put slack in the jammed sheet. Clear turns and
rigged mast. The spinnaker pole provided a healthy reset properly. Return lazy sheet and prepare to
staying angle and was reinforced with lashings at its come about. Alternatively, for a quicker, don’t-
base to relieve the heavy compression loads there. leave-the-cockpit fix, Icicle-Hitch (Figure 3-12) a
The rope and wire rope used as shroud, fore guy, and spare line to the standing part of the fouled sheet
after guy were far more elastic than rod rigging, but and lead this line to a spare winch. Or, for a possi-
inelastic enough to keep the mast up.
bly rope-damaging alternative, take the bitter end

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