Should I release the choker line all the way while raising the sail?

Google Mirror
1

I used to follow the below steps while raising the sail.

  1. Point the bow in the direction of the wind with engine on low RPM
  2. Release the main
  3. Release the choker
  4. Raise the sail
  5. Bring in the choker
  6. Adjust the main sheet and get going
  7. Switch off the engine

Over a period of time, I stopped releasing the choker altogether. I will keep the choker at the desired point before leaving the marina. And this allowed me to handle just the halyard and the mainsheet.

But of late, I found that the boat starts heeling almost instantly as soon as the sails are up, as the wind starts filling the sails. Even with a loose main sheet.

And this puts a few guests on the boat a bit uneasy, as it’s not a gentle transition from motoring to sailing. They get a feeling that the boat is going to tip over.

I am so used to not letting the choker completely out as I don’t have to juggle 3 lines. But I am thinking I might have to go back to the original protocol.

Would like to pick your brains on this.

What’s the step-by-step process you follow, especially when you are single-handed and you don’t have an electric winch?

Siva Surendira
’Inner Peace’ NS26
Jersey City, NJ

2

I do 1,2,4,6,7.

I leave my choker in the average sailing position and have not had any problems with it. (Knock wood.)

Sorry, I don’t know how the boat could heel while pointed into the wind and with the sheet loose.

3

Thanks, Bryan. This helps so I can fix the choker at the desired position. That’s good to know.

It starts heeling because I keep some minimum tension on the main sheet so that the boom doesn’t sway wildly and the main sheet gets caught up in the bimini.

But I think letting it completely loose would be a better thing to do.

4

You are doing this single handed? That would make it harder to keep the bow exactly into the wind. Especially with the mast all the way forward. My boat windvanes worse than anything else I’ve ever been aboard. And pointing directly into the wind is like standing on top of a ball when it is windy. (Fortunately that is not usually a problem here in San Diego. At least there’s something good about light winds.) If you’ve got someone else, or an autopilot, steering while you are cranking on the halyard, perhaps try just a little bit more throttle to help keep the bow into the wind.

5

Hello Sirendalya? ( I think I spelled that wrong sorry)

This is Rob
From Sarnia. We hoist the main as you do but have also some question about how much chocker can be on while hoisting.

I would think your healing concern comes from not staying head to wind as you are too busy with all these lines. If you are head to wind you won’t heal. A bigger concern is that if you let the main sheet run out unattended you can end up with it tangled around the bbq or other fixtures at the transom.

I am hoping you don’t release the main sheet and you just take the tension off of it a little.

My confusion starts when it is time to reef. We often neglect to let the choker off enough to allow us to tighten the clew reef line such that it pulls down close to the boom.

Looking for discussion on this.
Thanks
Rob
NS36, #24
Sarnia Ontario Canada

6

I dont have an autopilot and I often sail alone. So I use the wheel lock. But it isnt that good. The boat tend to turn even with wheel lock due to ferry wakes in NYC.

7

You don’t need the choker fully released, just loose enough that the sail raises smoothly without excess friction. As a rule of thumb, my experience has been that any combination of boat direction, choker adjustment, and mainsheet loosening that keeps the sail from filling is good enough.

Brian’s right, Nonsuches do not want to point into the wind, they really want to fall off.

Unless you have an autopilot that can steer to the wind (ideally) or failing a compass course (next best), all you can do singlehanded is to lock the wheel.

I’m with Brian on increasing throttle. How well the rudder steers increases with boat speed. Its only solution I’ve found short of turning on the autopilot. There’s no right set speed, it needs to be just enough for the increased bite of the rudder to counteract whatever wind you’re dealing with. This can be necessary even when the autopilot’s working – if the boat’s moving too slow, it doesn’t matter what the wheel’s doing, you don’t have enough rudder bite.

Since it means moving faster when you’ll be away from the helm, you really only want to do this when you have plenty of room and nothing to hit.

Having a working autopilot makes a huge difference in singlehanded operation. There’s no existing trick to raising the sails without one. It can be done – it simply can’t be done without a scramble. If you’re alone and don’t mind scrambling, fine. If you’ve got company that’s scared if you scramble, and not able to chip in and help so you don’t have to, then an autopilot is the way to go.

If the choker isn’t creating friction, you don’t actually need to be heading directly into the wind to raise the sails. That’s in fact why you’ll see in some of the sailing guidance on the website that the original experts recommend sailing on a reach when reefing. I can comfortably raise the sails at maybe even a 35 degree apparent wind angle.

The main thing, in all cases, is to keep the sail loose. That’s where sail tension, friction, and heeling all come from. All the other tips are just ways to keep that from happening.

– Bob

8

Maybe what you need to do is experiment a little. Time how long it takes for you to get from the helm seat to raising the sail and back into your seat. See how much throttle you need to keep the boat headed into the wind long enough to do that.

Bob says it’s OK for the boom to swing out some while raising the sail as long as it is not restrained by the sheet. And that makes sense. (As soon as the sheet is taut, you are sailing.) Try pointing straight into the wind, completely loosing the sheet, giving it that little extra throttle, lock the wheel and see how long it takes for the boom to swing out 35 degrees. Compare that to the time it takes you to raise the sail and see if letting the boom swing out gives you the extra time that you need. Once you are back in your seat you can steer back upwind if necessary to keep the boom from swinging farther, so make sure you can get there before the boom swings too far.

I am told that these boats can sail with the boom actually swung out a bit forward of the mast if you loosen the choker. But that’s with the sail already up. Bob says you can reef with the boom out 35 degrees. That means the sail should slide safely up and down the track at that angle. I imagine that if you loosen the choker before you start all of this - maybe as a separate step, then return to the helm to setup for raising the sail - then it won’t matter if the boom swings even farther past 35 degrees (while you are returning to your seat) as long as the sail is up before it passes 35 degrees.

If you time it all out and you just can’t do it, then I suppose it’s time for an autopilot.

And I suppose you should be willing to drop the sail if things are going wrong. I’ve done that. It might be a bit embarrassing at the moment, but everyone will forget it once the sails are set and you hear that magical sound immediately after turning off the engine.

9

I am going to try it this time. Here is my manual.

  1. Adjust the choke to desired setting before leaving the marina.
  2. Head out and point into the wind.
  3. Keep the throttle to the desired level and lock the wheel (3/4th).
  4. Release the main sheet.
  5. Scramble to the main hall yard and raise the sail.
  6. Raise 3/4 of the sail and check on the wheel to adjust the bow direction.
  7. Raise the remainder of the sale and cleat the main hall yard.
  8. Head back to the helm and fall off the wind.
  9. Bring the main sheet to the desired degree.

I know I got a scramble, and I know I have to leave the port side cockpit area free.

10

In step 3, I would change “release” to “ease”. Find a setting that is loose enough to allow your sail to be easily hoisted without putting stress on the track… mark the setting. Start with the choker secured at that setting.

The loose choker won’t make the boat heel, your boat is probably falling off the wind before you are ready to sail. Maybe examine the method you are using to keep the boat headed into the wind… depending on current and wind speed, you may need a little more RPMs.

I’ve been on boats that have lots of friction when hoisting the main. On a 26 you should be able to hoist the sail hand-over-hand most of the way up, then crank the last bit. Maybe check for friction end-to-end… masthead , slugs/sail track, turning block , deck organizers, rope clutch, winch. If any part is not silky smooth service or replace.

If you frequently sail single or short handed maybe consider and auto-pilot.

Guests can be helpful, and most get a thrill from helping drive the boat or cranking the winch. Find ways for them to help.

Smooth sailing,

Rob
s/v SOAVE
NS33 #009
Cedar Point YC
Westport, CT

11

Siva -

When you are raising the sail, you are head into the wind. By falling off the wind to start sailing, you are on a close reach. You do not want your choker to be loose on a close reach. It can over-power the boat and put a lot of weather helm on the steering, making it difficult to steer the boat except back up into the wind. You want your sail to be pretty flat upwind, especially on a close reach.

The choker adjustment is valuable going off the wind - beam reach to down wind. It gives the sail extra shape for capturing the wind. It is also helpful to loosen the choker when raising the sail because it relieves the tension off the sail track.

Once you have the sail up, tighten the choker and also then loosen the topping lift (slack but not flailing). This puts the sail in the proper position to be in a close reach.

You can adjust from there depending on your point of sail.

Bob Gehrman
NS30U #396 “Quickbeam”
Baltimore, Maryland

12

Although this is obvious, I would add as step 0 - make sure that the reefing lines are free and clear. Also, I found it to be useful (and easy) to generously spray some dry lubricant (silicon or ?) in the sail track and work it in a little once in a while. That should facilitate getting the first 3/4 of the sail up hand over hand.

13

I’m coincidentally going on my first Nonsuch training sail this morning. I’m an experienced sailor but brand new to Nonsuch. This thread had been sent from above! Thank you Siva and for all who so thoughtfully responded.

Dick Barthel

Gipsy Girl #45 NS22

New London, CT

14

I singlehand all the time and usually have my sail up in a minute or so….. but I have a secret weapon.

Before leaving the dock I release all reef line clutches and make sure that the lines are free. Once clear of the docks I ease my sheet to about the corner of my transom and head into the wind at a couple of knots. I generally leave the choker where it was when I dropped the sail. I don’t release it for that if it’s in.

Then I move to the port side seat forward of the helm and with my right hand on the wheel I grab the handle of my Milwaukee right angle drill (that secret weapon) in my left hand and pull the trigger. In about 20 seconds give or take the sail is up and I turn away from the wind, shut the engine down, and release the topping lift.

I’m pretty tall and have long arms but I’m not stretching at all.

20200622_143436_Original
20200622_143436_Original1920Ă—933 157 KB

2 Likes
15

Very smart! And since I have an electric winch I could do the same from the helm with something like this:

image
image714Ă—744 27.5 KB

16

You could!

17

I need two: one I can put a Boeshield-soaked cotten glove on for lubricating my mast track, and one with a middle finger for the powerboats that keep throwing their wake at me when I’m raising my sails.

– Bob

18

We figured out on the Discourse group that his problem is that the boat falls off and starts sailing after he raises the sail, but before he can return to the helm. Just taking a little tension off of the sheet will make that worse.

Allowing the boom to swing out should not wrap the sheet around anything as long as it doesn’t go too far. He should sheet in to get the boat sailing after he returns to the helm and since the boat is still under engine power at that time, you are right that he should make sure not to tack before he has the sheet/sail under control.

–Brian Godfrey

Edit: apparently the posting I was answering here has been deleted.

19

So just to clarify again.

Can I have the choker pulled in all the way, leaving only as much room as possible to allow me to raise the sail? Will doing this ensure that the sail doesn’t catch a lot of wind and doesn’t fall off, making it harder for me to control the heel?

Also, the other question I had is, what if I raise the sail all the way up to 80%, come back to the helm, fall off the wind, set the course, and then go back to raise the remaining using a manual lever?

20

Flattening the sail (choker pulled in hard) will cause it to produce less power, but you will still be sailing and you will still heel. But you might heel less. You are beyond my knowledge here. All I know is that if you don’t want to heel, then you don’t want the sail to be generating power.

Likewise with my second question. On my boat if the sail is up 80% and sheeted in the boat will be sailing (inefficiently) and I don’t think I could even raise it the last 20% with the power winch. In fact, I usually luff a bit just to tweak the tension on the halyard. But your boat is different, so I cannot help you here. I’m just not experienced enough to be able to extrapolate beyond my own experiences.

Here’s a question for the experts. On the schooner we raised and lowered sails while underway at all points of sail. It was all about managing the power of the sail we were dealing with. My boat hardly heels at all when headed downwind and I assume Siva’s boat behaves similarly. The problem is his passengers are bothered by scary heeling when raising the sails. If the winds are light, can he point downwind, give the boat a little extra throttle to reduce relative wind speed, then let the boom way out and raise the sail in that configuration? He could then turn upwind and sheet in to the desired heading just as he would any other time. (I just got home from a sleep study - where you do not sleep! - and am almost comatose, so this might not make any sense at all.)