How are the 2 mainsails (plus gaff) raised and lowered on Gaia?
Hanneke says: “We normally never use a winch, as it is much quicker without, but it does take at least 2 people to pull up a sail (with the horizontal pull on the halyards you can get a large crew all pulling together, good to keep the charter guests busy). Depending on the weight of your sails it can be quite heavy once the sail is almost up. You must always hoist the sail with the gaff kept horizontal, once it gets peaked up you can no longer hoist it. Pull until the foot of the sail is at the right height up the mast (about 30 -40cm above the deckpod), cleat the throat halyard and peak up the sail until all creases disappear. Then pull on the downhaul until the sail sleeve is smooth. (Slacken the downhaul a little when sailing before the wind). These sails can be hoisted and lowered with a following wind. We attach a thin line to the head of the gaff, other end tied to one of the reef cringles on the leech (for the foresail), with which we can control the head of the gaff and have i
Hanneke says: “We normally never use a winch, as it is much quicker without, but it does take at least 2 people to pull up a sail (with the horizontal pull on the halyards you can get a large crew all pulling together, good to keep the charter guests busy). Depending on the weight of your sails it can be quite heavy once the sail is almost up. You must always hoist the sail with the gaff kept horizontal, once it gets peaked up you can no longer hoist it. Pull until the foot of the sail is at the right height up the mast (about 30 -40cm above the deckpod), cleat the throat halyard and peak up the sail until all creases disappear. Then pull on the downhaul until the sail sleeve is smooth. (Slacken the downhaul a little when sailing before the wind). These sails can be hoisted and lowered with a following wind.
