Jan wrote: I have problem: Do spanned downhaul parrels need to be pulled while reefing/dropping the sail?

The parrel-downhauls need to be pulled tight when reefing, because they become slack as soon as you lower the sail a little. So, you drop one panel (say) and then just give each of them a tweak - I run mine through cam cleats, so all they need is a tweak to make them firm again.

Mine are set up so that you don't lose control of the sail. They are set up with a stopper, so that even if the halyard is slackened off quite a lot, the running parrels only slacken off a few centimetres, just enough so that the batten is detached from the mast, but it can't move too far away. That way there is no urgency to tweak them up.

As for dropping the sail entirely, the whole bundle falls into the lift cradle (lazy jacks etc) the same limitation as above still applies, so there is no loss of control of the sail and when when fully lowered it is completely muzzled by the lift cradle, which in the case of a SJR would best be a  sail catcher (which I see you have anyway).

How to make the stops so the running parrels can only slack a few cm? It's a bit hard to explain. Here's how I did it on my boat: Each batten has two small saddles attached and the running parrel pairs are attached to two of these saddles at their ends, and rove through the other two other saddles as shown.

I just did that so that (a) I could take it all apart quickly and (b) I could adjust the position of the saddles to exactly where they work best.

The loop at the bottom of the parrel pair runs through the clip which is on the downhaul  (that clip being smooth and frictionless so it also acts as a little pulley. I think you will understand how it all works). It's exactly the same as Slieve's diagram except for the two saddles which the parrel pair run through.

The bonus, which I discovered by accident, is that when the downhaul is slack, the parrel pair can only run back out through the lower saddle until the downhaul clip hits the first saddle - it is too big to go through, so the parrel pair is stopped from getting any slacker. That's slack enough for the parrels to run freely so the batten drops, but not slack enouigh for the batten to move too far away from the mast.

That's how it works for me, and is probably only suitable for a small rig, and with timber battens which made it quick and easy to screw the saddles where I want them. For a bigger boat or a boat with metal battens, you might need to find some other way, but the principle of having a stop somewhere in the system to prevent the parrel pair from slacking more than necessary is a useful one, because then the battens are under pretty good control at all times and the downhauls only need to be tweaked at a convenient time just to get the sail set nicely. It's dead simple but hard to explain. I hope you can understand - I think what I have described will work well for your little sail.

I should add, I found it useful to have a standing parrel on the yard, just loose enough to allow the yard to move up and down without sticking, and also I have a standing downhaul on the boom - neither of these requires any attention. The former helps keep the yard under control, and the latter (which only comes into play when the sail is fully hoisted) just keeps the boom where I want it.

I would be curious to hear feedback from other SJR owners. What I have described may not be necessary at all, or there  may be a better way. All I know is, it works perfectly on my boat.

David Thatcher wrote:For non adjusting parrels try webbing, it slides very easily.

Has anybody compared the friction of webbing with rope inside hard slippery plastic hose?

I think I'm going to try something like Paul Fay's system on my mizzen next, and I do want to manage the friction as best I can.

Kurt Jon Ulmer wrote:

Lateral thinking...

Barry: '...instead of tying off to the becket, I just tied the tail around the yard.'

Great idea! In any odd-purchase halyard, this can distribute a fraction of the lifting load to another point on the yard, and add a little peaking-up, if tied aft of the sling point. 

Substituting a knot and 2 single blocks, for a double block with a becket, spreads the lift over three points in a 5:1 halyard. This is geometrically way better than a bridle with very little height above the yard. 

A related trick is to tie the halyard's tail to the deck, giving one less purchase (5:1 becomes 4:1) and keeping the tail handy for re-reeving.

Kurt

... but be careful. If you have a double or triple block at the masthead, the leads of the parts of the halyard into that block will be offline. Better to use single blocks at the masthead if you want to use this idea.

For non adjusting parrels try webbing, it slides very easily.

Back on topic here...my mizzen is pretty close to a classic Hasler-McLeod shape with a high aspect ratio, and I don't think it really will need the downhaul function very much.

So I just fixed short parrels which should limit the forward motion of the battens. I couldn't do enough to make for full positive stagger, as the mast is raked aft and I tried to set the sail almost vertical...so the upper battens need to slide forward compared to the lower ones. But the mast is tapered starting between the first and second battens above the boom, so that will help me here.

Since my top panels have more length in the luff than normal, I moved my standing throat parrel so it goes between the yard and the top batten instead of the one below it.

I also adjusted the sling point on the yard slightly--My three-part yard uses a block attached to the yard, and instead of tying off to the becket, I just tied the tail around the yard. I moved the tail from a foot past the block to a foot forward of the block. Now my yard goes aft enough to allow my YHP to do something at full hoist or one panel reefed.

I should be sailing again possibly later today, and tomorrow for sure...so I'll report what this does.

Barry