DaySailer.org Forum

Hi all, picked up a 74 Daysailer 2 from Craigslist that came with roller furling. Not sure how the PO had it rigged. It has a luff wire sewn in that seems stout, so I was going to use it to replace the headstay. It has a Harken small boat roller fastened to the stemhead fitting and a swivel at the head of the sail with a wire loop at the end. I've read on the forum here that you should fasten the halyard on to tighten the jib/headstay. Would the standard sat-set 1/4 inch halyard work for this? Does anybody just use a turnbuckle to tighten the jib luff and leave the halyard out of the equation? I understand that you wouldn't have the ability to adjust on the fly to wind conditions, but am looking more towards simplicity as I am a newbie small boat sailor and am not as worried about performance.

I have that setup on another (non-DS) boat.

The halyard should be something that is rather less stretchy. There's quite a choice in rope that you can use. If you want to stay with New England Rope, then have a look at their Endura Braid, for example. Sta-set is rated as "medium stretch" whereas Endura Braid is low stretch. (The ratings are from the APS website and should allow a quick comparison).

The boat I have uses a wire halyard, but some of the modern ropes can mimic wire.

The halyard ends in a block, to allow it to be tightened using a 2:1 purchase, which is powerful enough to allow setting of the tension. Importantly, there's a "catch" mounted on the mast that prevents the halyard from moving up the mast beyond the distance needed for adjustment. This is very important, as the mast will be unsupported, should the halyard come loose entirely. (The halyard fits the catch, but the eye at the end or the block would not, making sure that there is positive support for the mast. You tension the halyard manually and insert it in the catch, then later tension it more as described next).

At the bottom of the mast is a cleat, to which is knotted a secondary line. That one is run up through the block on the halyard and back down to the cleat on the mast, creating a 2:1 purchase.

The system works really well and is easy enough to operate that you can adjust tension on the water. Of course, you can simply set some tension appropriate for the expected wind conditions and leave it at that.

Putting a turnbuckle in line with the furler has two disadvantages. First, there would have to be room for it, without needing to shorten the luff of the sail. Second, it would increase the separation between foot of the jib and deck. Ideally, you want the jib to "sweep" the deck, so less power is lost from the pressure difference between front and back of the sail equalizing by air flowing around the foot of the sail.

The kind of mechanism I describe is not super tricky to set up or use. You should get used to it quickly and thereafter not notice it, unless you want to learn how to adjust it on the fly when the wind drops or increases.

Okay, I know you gave this info on another post but it's starting to make more sense to me now. So a short piece of low stretch halyard that ends in a block a couple feet off the cuddy deck to accept the 2 to 1 purchase from a cleat lower down? Love the idea of the catch above the block for safety as well.

Would a 1 1/16" swivel block attached to the headstay attachment on the mast be strong enough to hold this set up?

I think I have a setup like that on my other boat (I mean, in reference to the swivel block) but I don't have access to it right now, so I can't confirm. What's the working load on your swivel?

If you need parts for your Day Sailer II, check out D&R Marine http://www.drmarine.com/categories.asp?cat=64 , they are a good supplier of parts.

John

Don't know the working load of the block, has nothing written on it. Just found it in the bin of parts that came with the boat, looks pretty strong. I did go to D&R Marine to upgrade to the 1/8" side stays. When I attached the stays and raised the mast I realized the turnbuckles were tightened down all the way but the stays were still loose. Turns out my mast has been shortened. Ordered a 3' piece of mast extrusion from Dwyer to lengthen the mast, as per instructions from some other posters on this site. Hoping to get this thing on the water before winter if, for nothing else, to figure out what else I can fix over the winter, leaks , centerboard, etc.
Thanks for the info, been learning a lot from this site!

Well I found out the Schaefer 27 mm block I have has a safe working load of 900 lbs. Would this be strong enough for the halyard and purchase blocks or should I upgrade to something stronger?

At 900 lbs you can lift the boat (plus some crew). I think that is plenty for the purpose.

Yeah, figured that, thanks.