Raise / lower the main while on the water?

Does anyone have experience raising and lowering their main sail while their H16 is on the water? If so, I would like to know what the trick is.

The reason I ask is because at one of the places I like to sail my only access to the lake is over a seawall. Depending on the direction of the wind it can be a real challenge to get the boat into or out of the lake without banging the boat against the wall or risking a runaway before I can get on it. It there is a good way to raise and lower the main while standing on the boat it sure would make things easier (and less frustrating) for me. Ideally I would wait to raise the main until I'm on the boat, on the water. When I am finished sailing I would drop the main before attempting to pull the boat up the ramp and over the seawall. The lake it too deep to let me stand next to the boat in the water and do it.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

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Michael
'86 H16 #91487

There's no real trick to it, other than positioning yourself out of the way of the sail and far enough forward to latch the halyard.

Helps if the bolt rope is lubed with Sailkote or even paraffin. You're not going to be able to raise the sail on the water if the sail is hard to get up on land.

Thanks Matt. So I assume this means you have to hang over the front bar to be far enough out to latch the halyard? Is it better to be sitting or standing to do this?

Sounds like some Sailkote would be a good investment for use either on land or on the water!

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Michael
'86 H16 #91487

I have the same issue, and almost always raise the main on the water. It can be challenging in higher wind, since the wind pressure on the sail creates tension in the track making it harder to raise. I basically raise the jib half way, get the main threaded, then push off to get away from the dock and seawall. Then I stand on the front crossbar and raise as fast as possible. I leave the track and the main sheet loose so the wind direction has the least impact.

It's not ideal but that's life.

Don

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'77 Goldfinger, blue hulls

Thanks Don. One question. Why not raise the jib all the way before launching?

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Michael
'86 H16 #91487

Fine tuning the sail feeder will help a lot. Squeeze the jaws together with a big pair of pliers until the sail will just barely go in. This holds the bolt rope inside and will let you pull it all the way up without having to do any hand feeding. What makes it hang up is the bolt rope getting stuck in the slot in the feeder, or for boats without a feeder, in the sail track on the mast. With the slot in the feeder sized as small as possible, there's no way the boltrope can get in it enough to jamb.

Thanks Tom. Sounds like a good idea.

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Michael
'86 H16 #91487

Another question along this same path...

Could you sail with the main halyard just cleated at the base of the mast, skipping the clip on the top? It would be easy to drop the main then.. but I'm not sure if those cleats are made to handle that kind of pressure.

I've always wondered how people could raise and lower their mains while on the water on an h16... and the jib too for that matter, without dumping it in the water?

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1982 H16 (C:\Worthy)
Yellow/White Prism type sails

By leaving the jib loose, it doesn't catch the wind as much. Most of the time, the wind is directly onshore, and times that I have raised it all the way, I get blown back to the dock too fast

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'77 Goldfinger, blue hulls

just try to get out of the wind, and then face dead into the wind, and start to lower the sails