How tight should jib luff be?

[rexicon]

I recently adjusted the front stay to correct some weather helm issues and now am unable to have a nice tight luff on my jib.

Is it the stay or the jib halyard wire that is designed to keep the tension and how loose is unacceptable?

Weather helm is much better btw...

[Matt Haberman]

Rex,

Typically we will pull another 1" of tension into the jib luff after the wrinkles go away. This is done without any mainsheet tension. When you sheet in on the mainsheet it will stretch the luff of the jib and the wrinkles will go away. If you still have some wrinkles along the luff you can try tightening it a little more.

[rexicon]

Rex,

Typically we will pull another 1" of tension into the jib luff after the wrinkles go away. This is done without any mainsheet tension. When you sheet in on the mainsheet it will stretch the luff of the jib and the wrinkles will go away. If you still have some wrinkles along the luff you can try tightening it a little more.

Hmmm - might have to shorten the halyard as the only way I could get this kind of tension would be to thread it under the pin that goes into the roller fuller then back up the stay tensioner assembly and attach it via shackle which seems convoluted.

I will try to snap some pics next time I'm at the boat...

[rexicon]

ok - so here's a pic of the halyard now. Any suggestions on how can I get that extra slack out of it?

[Matt Haberman]

Rex,

I would say that your halyard wire is approximately 12" too long. There should be another shackle (twisted) in the hole right above the one holding the tack of the jib. On that shackle there should be a piece of 1/8" line tied that is used to tension the luff of the jib.

Take a look at this thread, there is a photograph and an explanation of what is rigged wrong.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=486&p=1713&hilit=furling#p1713

Unfortunately I don't have a good photo of a correctly rigged jib at my fingertips.

[SC15Av8or]

Matt....

I believe I rig mine correct so I will snap a picture of it next time I sail and add it to this post. Along this line though I was sailing yesterday and noticed as of late a large amount of slack in my rigging as well. I know you have posted here some where how to check the rig tension by the amount of mast rotation is that correct?/ And is that with the hayfield levers open or closed??

[Matt Haberman]

Check the mast rotation with the levers closed.

Here are a few previous posts on this topic.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=467&p=1646&hilit=ma ... tion#p1646

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=107&p=354&hilit=mast+rotation#p354

[SC15Av8or]

Matt and Rex....

As promised here are a few pics of my jib halyard and the DOWN haul I have on my SC19. I know the shackle is not a 1/4 twist shackle on the shroud/forstay adjuster like Matt says to use but it works. I use a lock shackle on the wire to line portion of the halyard so it is easy to remove the long line portion of the UP haul. It also slips into the zipper luff pretty easy. The bottom shackle is the jib sail tack. The DOWN haul is tied to the second shackle up. In the pics I have not finished zipping the luff down and snapping the strap. I have one on my SC15 and the set up is the same other wise.

100_0005 2.jpg

100_0007 2.jpg