Kite wraps...

TT thanks, I'll give that a go!

Les, that could be the problem, we tend to be not that disciplined on our drops.  It usually goes something like this:

Crew-eases kite slightly and comes in of wire and shouts "ready"

Helm-bears away slightly and replies "ok"

Crew-trips over something on the way in whilst handing sheet to helm (in fact hooking heavily loaded sheet over the end of the tiller extension)

Helm-assists by shouting "f*** dam wall coming f**** get the f**** kite down hurry hurry ohnobugger"

Crew-"aaaaaarrgghhhh it's stuck" whilst throttling himself on lazy sheet and ripping the turning block out the floor

Helm-"stop ripping my boat apart"

Crew-"well in that case if you want your kite down you bloody get it"

Helm moves forward on rack as kite comes down whilst saying "bbllllbbbllbbbblllglugglug" whilst perfecting underwater trapezing

You get the idea...

Cheers for the advice so far guys (apart from TT but very amusing nonetheless, if you don't get the joke see this weeks position of the fortnight in the mag).

I'll change the block just in case.  Jim, what are xoere less lines?  Being serious, is that a spelling mistake or a new technology? Can't see anything on google, did you mean core less?

 

maybe the halyard is twisted? try hoisting it on the land and have a butchers at the top of the rig?

Twisty halyarditis... Presumably it always wraps the same way? Its not a new halyard I suppose? I've seen stuff on the Musto skiff site I think where they talk about some of the new core less lines as being best for preventing this.
Failing that you need to get some of the twist out of the rope, which presumably means lots of turning in whatever direction it is.

Edited by JimC

I recently changed the kite on my Cherub for a much better one but I am regulalrly (40% of hoists) having a problem with the top 18" to 2 ' being in a wrap.  It starts at the halyard block and goes downwards...it does not look like an "hourglass" at all with any filling of the wrapped bit, it's just a thin twisted mess.  This never happened with my tatty old kite.

The boat-'05 rules Cherub, carbon mast, internal halyard (apart from the last 2' or so), that is a one-string system and this is the only bit of string in the mast (no jib or main halyards).  Kite is a Hyde RS800 running at masthead height.  It has a bobble at the top of the halyard to try and allow it to spin if required.  Halyard is untapered 4mm or 5mm (not sure which but "standard" size control line) excel pro (don't think it's dyneema).

No amount of yanking on sheets or dropping a bit and re-hoisting will sort this, sometimes a well executed gybe might do.  I have tried EVERYTHING, the only thing I was going to do was alter the tension in the luff line, theory being that it seems quite happy with the twist, where if there were big differences between luff and leech tension it might be more willing to unwrap.

Other idea was to taper the halyard in some way, I'm sure I've seen 800s with the tapered (thin) bit being at the top of the halyard, with (somewhat surprisingly) the untaperd (fat) bit going up to the patches on the downhaul end of the halyard.  I guess the tapered bit might be happier to rotate, and I'm also guessing the taper wants to stop about 2' from where it exits the bottom of the mast.

Any sensible ideas or thoughts anyone?