The main sail on South African cats are built to be extremely strong, which means they are extremely heavy. The halyard is run on a 2/1 purchase to lighten the load, but it is still very heavy.

When you first accept the boat from Seabbatical, the reef lines will probably be pulled tight and the stack pak will be zipped up. Having the reef lines tight will make the sail even harder to raise. Once you have the sail unzipped you can pull the green and blue lines out some.

First step is to unzip the stack pak. The Island Spirit 40 is one of the few boats that has a bimini walkway that you can walk on. But in order to walk on the bimini you must move the traveler over.   Just walk on the edges of the walkway, it is getting a bit tired and we want to avoid someone falling through the top.

The traveler is located by the helm. One winch moves it either way. At the bottom of the above photo is a knob that moves left or right depending on which way you wish to move the traveler. Pull the knob out and shift it right to move the traveler to you. MAKE SURE YOU RECENTER THE KNOB when you are done or under load the traveler can move by itself. With a winch handle in, be sure you have control of it, a free spinning winch handle can break fingers.

When sailing downwind, it is better to travel down rather than letting out a lot of mainsheet. This helps protect against accidental jybes. Please also watch for chaff against the spreaders when sailing downwind.

To use the walkway it should look like this:

The main sheet should be pulled tight to avoid it swinging and knocking you off. Always travel over at the end of your sail to put the reef lines back into the stack pack. Center back up before you raise the sail.

Main sails on Cats are Full Batten High Aspect. Most cats also have Lazy Jacks. When raising the main, you must watch the battens to make sure they do not get stuck in the lazy jacks. The helmsman must keep the boat directly into the wind to prevent this. Good communication from helm to winch is essential.

When the main is not in use, we secure the main halyard to the reefing shackle. This accomplishes two things. The main doesn’t slide up and down and the halyard doesn’t bang on the mast.

This shot shows the halyard secured.

The lines on the mast are setup:

Blue is Jib Halyard (don’t adjust)

Yellow is main halyard

Red is Spinnaker Halyard

From the boom you have

Blue – First Reef

Green  Second Reef

Red Outhaul

The main is loose footed so only the stack pack actually sits on the boom. The main is only on the boom at the clew and tack. You should never have to adjust the outhaul.

The breaks for the reef lines are under the boom.   As the breaks are pulled to the bow, that locks the line.

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The same shackle that is used to secure the main is also used for reefing. There is a reefing shackle on each side of the mast. As you look into the sail you will see several eyes, 6 actually, 2 at each reef point. Connect the eye as above to the reefing shackle. Raise the main as high as it will go, with the main sheet eased. Once the main is up, take the appropriate reef line (green or blue) and winch the back of the sail down to the boom.

Remember prudence says to reef early.

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