Happy New Year 2013!!!!

Back in 2011 I blogged about having a jib tack pendant and also about a jib dousing line (a poor man's roller furler) on Snickerdoodle.  I showed a photo of the tack pendant, but only described the dousing line.  Here's a little bit more info.

Here's a photo of the tack pendant.  The pendant has a loop at the bottom end that secures easily to the tack snap shackle which is on the stem fitting.  There is a loop at the other end which has both a sail hank and a halyard shackle secured to it.  The sail hank clips the pendant on to the forestay; and the halyard shackle secures the jib's tack corner.  The whole arrangement gets the jib's foot up about fifteen inches above the deck for easier visibility forward and to leeward.

This line drawing gives a general arrangement for the pendant and the jib downhaul (dousing) line.  I tie the downhaul line to the jib halyard shackle at the head of the jib sail.  The downhaul line is rove through a block secured to the stem fitting aft of the jib pendant; and then is led aft to a cleat.  You can put the cleat on the cabin top or the coaming - just make sure that it is easy to reach when you want to douse the jib.  The downhaul line needs to be long enough to reach from cleat to block and all the way up the forestay.

If the wind has breezed up, there is a real tendency for the wind to push the jib sail up the forestay.  So, simply releasing the jib halyard might not be enough to get the sail down.  Usually this means that someone has to go forward to the foredeck to pull the sail down.  With the downhaul line, simply release the jib halyard and pull the sail down with the downhaul line.  When the sail is down to the deck, secure the downhaul line to its cleat so that the wind won't push the sail back up the forestay.

I always rig a downhaul line for my jib if the wind is strong enough that I need to shift down to my 135% jib or smaller.  AND, I use the jib tack pendant for all of my smaller (135% and smaller) jibs except the blade jib (which has a luff that is the same length as my 150% genny).

How many jibs do I have aboard Snickerdoodle?  Six - - 155% Drifter (Stars 'n Stripes), 150% Genny, 135% Genny (which has reef points to about 115% - which you can see in the top photo), 105% Working Jib (which was re-cut  down from the original 110% to correct stretching problems), 95% Blade Jib, and a 50 sq. ft. Storm Jib.

Come by Snickerdoodle and check out both the jib pendant and the downhaul line anytime.