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?

TT, you're asking for trouble... The poor man's facing a real problem and asking serious questions, and all you can do is joke about it. Shame on you...

Besides, you could train the child to climb up the mast and sort out the mess... 

Iain, what halyard block/sheave have you got at the mast head? When we experienced a similar problem on the Stealth, we put the boat over on it's side with the kite up to see if we could figure it out....

We couldn't see anything wrong, although the Ronstan bullet block that we had was a little tatty and 'squeaky'. Just out of desperation more than anything we put a new Harken ball block on to replace the Ronstan - amazingly this fixed the problem.

On closer inspection, although the Ronstan block appeared to spin freely, it was looking quite tired. I suspect that under load as the last few feet of halyard went up, it had stopped turning and therefore just twisted the halyard which  twisted the kite.

You could try fitting a swivel (fishermen use them when they are spinning) between the halyard and the kite.  This would take all the twist out of the system.  Don't know about the strength of the swivels though.

Try talking to your local tackle shop

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?

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...

Might be worth trying then

don't know if you were joking about passing sheet to helm or not but what my crew does is come in to the boat and then stand on the sheet before pulling the kite down.

saw it on higher and faster - which is well worth a view if you haven't seen it.

BOABS

Nope not joking I always pass the sheet to my helm for the drop it works really well,meaning we bear off as i go in, but keep the speed on until the last minute.Also I don't have to remember to lift my foot off the sheet so it comes in without any trouble

Iain,

Some of this problem may be caused by winding your halyard up when you de-rig. It helps a lot to use the method climbers use to coil your lines (basically, loop alternating coils over the opposite side of your hand).

The tappered halyard should help a lot and it is preferred to let the tapper exit the bottom of the mast and stop just short of the cleat.  Otherwise you may be pulling the taper through the halyard top sheave when you douse.

If you've not tappered halyards before, go to http://www.swiftsolo.org - www.swiftsolo.org and download the rigging manuals for instructions.

I hope this helps.

Bram

Originally posted by ssailor Guys I actually believe on Higher and Faster he is only referring to the gybe drop, when coming for a straight line drop pass the sheet to the helm it enables flat out ish speed until you douse the kite! however on a gybe drop you step in, pin the sheet under you foot so that when the sails gybe it is against the jib, enabling you to drop the kite down the side of the jib - much easier!!

On a gybe drop I just pull the windward sheet right in as we gybe then drop the halyard.This enables the kite to drop on the deck so it doesn't trawel (old 5000 practices)