Locating pin for furler drum

[Graham W]

Can anyone think of a way of setting up a tack line on the end of a plank bowsprit so that foresail furlers (in my case a flying jib on a Barton drum and a spinnaker on a Karver top-down) can be swapped from the cockpit or at least from the foredeck?

When the tack line is pulled tight, I want the foot of the furler drum to be secured in such a way that it can't twist, as I think it probably will if it is just held down by the tack line.  I thought that some sort of locating pin or bracket underneath the drum could engage with the bowsprit when the tack line is pulled tight.  However, I can't think how to set this up.

At the moment, the only way of swapping the foresail drums is to do it from the dock or to inch precariously along the bowsprit, which usually ends with bruised ribs.  That's the disadvantage of the plank over the standard carbon spinnaker pole, which can just be hauled inboard through its tube.

As David Stockill pointed out in the code zero thread, furled spinnakers should not really be sailed to windward but should be dropped to the deck after furling.  This then leaves the issue of how to take the whole caboodle inboard and replace it with something else. 

I suppose that one alternative to all this complication would be to give up the great convenience of furling from the tiller.

[Graham W]

I've sorted the problem, for the time being, with a few bits of string and some low friction rings.  Photo below.

The key is having an adjustable tack line for the spinnaker, keeping it simple by not using the top-down furler at all for the time being. So, I can keep both the jib and the flying jib attached on their furlers and let fly the spinnaker from the very front of the plank bowsprit, attached to a tack line that runs through and is held in place by a low friction ring.  The tack line is threaded back through the (now unused) spinnaker pole tube and ends up on a Clamcleat mounted on top of the centreboard case.  I've tried raising and lowering the spinnaker on the boat on the back of the trailer but haven't done it in earnest on the water yet.  I'll probably find out later this week whether it is feasible to do all this while sailing solo.

In the longer term, I think the key to interchangeability of sails and furlers at the front of the plank bowsprit is to have a small T-track bolted along the top, on a smaller scale to the genoa cars used by large yachts.  The furler can then be hauled aft as far as the stemhead, changed and hauled back out again.  I can't think of any other way of doing it and the locator pin idea seems to be a non-starter.

[Graham W]

I've tried raising and lowering the spinnaker on the boat on the back of the trailer but haven't done it in earnest on the water yet.  I'll probably find out later this week whether it is feasible to do all this while sailing solo.

Proof that it is feasible below.  I must remember to locate the sheets outside the tack line, otherwise tacking becomes a bit tricky (although as I found out yesterday in a light breeze, not impossible).