A Jib Fairlead System for Reduced Sail

Walter H Kittredge

Sunri II, 1984 S37

March 27,2005

Seidelmann owners:

I’ve been reading various messages re jibs/genoas and concerning difficulties with sail shape with partially furled headsails…and thought I would share an arrangement I installed on my S37 years ago that is some help in this regard.

A major difficulty in maintaining sail shape with a partially furled headsail is maintaining the proper sheeting angle as the clew goes forward with a partially furled sail. If the fair lead isn’t re-set when the clew moves forward, the foot of the sail ends up too taut and leech is left open…spoiling sail shape and spilling air. The problem on my boat was twofold…1) the fairlead track does not run far enough forward to do the complete job, and 2) since I sail mostly single handed, going forward to set a block on the toe rail, under conditions where reefing is needed, is not something I want to do if I have a choice.

My drawing is crude, but basically I installed a ‘running block’ on the jib sheet between the fair lead block and the clew of the sail. A line ( I call it the fair lead control line) runs from this running block to a snatch block on the toe rail and back to a turning block on the toe rail next to the cockpit and then through a cam cleat. (same on both sides of the boat of course)

With no tension on the fair lead control line, the running block has no influence on the sheeting angle (sail fully unfurled) … changing the sheeting angle is a function of the fair lead block’s position on the track, as usual.

When I partially furl the jib – and want to change the sheeting angle – I can change the ‘effective’ position of the fair lead by taking in some of the fair lead control line and cleating it with the cam cleat…all done from the cockpit !

By using a snatch block as the attachment point to the toe rail, I can adjust the block position - on those rare occasions when I switch between the 110 and 140 headsails.

If these drawings don’t make sense, and anyone is interested, maybe I can take some photos.

Happy reefing – Walt Kittredge

Sunri II

Fort Myers, FL