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through the grommet on the
other side. Tie an overhand
knot while pushing the batten
firmly into the pocket on the sail
with your thumbs. Tension the
battens firmly enough to remove
the wrinkles in the sail. Check
to see that they are evenly
tensioned and no one batten is
bowed more than the others.
13.1 - External Downhaul:
With the external downhaul
system, with a short piece of line
tie the 2 blocks together with the
line through the grommet on the
tack of the main sail.
14.0 Raising the Sail
Make sure the boat is first facing
directly into the wind. Connect the
main sail ring shackle to the head
of the sail, and start feeding the
sail into the mast groove, and
remove the slack from the main
halyard line. Continue to pull on
the halyard line while making sure
the sail is feeding properly into the
sail track while being raised. If the
luff rope in the sail comes out of
the track at the bottom, stop, lower
the sail slightly and continue as
before. When the sail is fully
raised, the ring will catch on the
halyard hook at the top of the
mast. Pull firmly on the foot of the sail several times to ensure that the ring is fully
attached. Coil up the halyard line and tuck into the storage pocket to keep out of
the way.
15.0 Lowering the Mainsail
Make sure the boat is facing into the wind and that the mast rotation controls are
untied or very loose, and that the downhaul is likewise disconnected. To lower main
sail, uncoil the halyard, and pull firmly to raise the sail above the height of the
halyard hook. Turn the mast 90 degrees, release the tension on the line and pull
down on the foot of the sail. Once the sail moves a small ways, it is OK to let the
mast rotate back straight and continue to gently pull the sail the rest of the way
down.
Fig 13.B
Fig 14.A
