Raise a Jib when Sailing

Raising a jib is not as simple as it sounds. It involves a lot of forethought and an understanding of both your boat and the weather that you will be sailing in. Before raising a jib, you must know how your boat works with each sail, and a sail chart specific to the sails you have is a great tool for this purpose. To know when to use the sails you have, experience using these sails on your boat can help you know whether these charts are slightly off, which they often are. Raising and using a jib is easiest with at least three people helping with the process (not including usage of the main or other sails during the process). This involves one person on the foredeck, one running the control lines, and another driving. Ensure that you have all the sails you intend to use, as well as ones that may prove useful if conditions change.

Steps

  1. Prepare for your sail. Check a weather app to find what the wind will look like while you are out sailing. NOAA, Sailflow, and Weatherbug are all fine choices. Select what sail you will be using based off of a Sailchart that is made for your boat.
  2. Launch the boat. Check one final time that you have all the materials required to sail. Exit the marina and motor to an open area where the wind is steady and look around you for any boats that may get in your way, or that you may get in the way of. If you intend to use the mainsail, raise it now.
  3. Run the jib sheets. Take one sheet to the bow, uncoil it and walk the non-clip end toward the back of the boat. Take the sheet outside the shrouds, feed the line through the block on the car that runs forward and back on a track, then the next block that leads to the dedicated jib sheet winch. Repeat for the other side of the boat, then clip the front ends to each other.
  4. Bring jib to the foredeck.  Before doing this, look at your instruments to see if the conditions match the forecasts. Talk with your crew about how comfortable they are about the sail being put up. Ask the crew to prepare to raise the jib.
  5. Unbag and layout the jib across the foredeck. Unroll the sail on the deck with the tack facing forward. Ensure that the clew end of the unrolled sail is along the side of the boat, and on the outside of the shrouds. Check the sail for any twists or for any potential catches on the deck or lines. Remove the bag from the deck.
  6. Rig the foot of the sail. Clip the tack ring of the jib to the deck using one of the metal clips attached all the way forward on the deck. Detach the jib sheets from each other and attach them to the clew of the sail. Double-check that the jib sheets are outside the spreaders.
  7. Rig the jib halyard. The crew in the cockpit controlling these lines opens the jib halyard cleat. The person on foredeck will next unclip the other end of the halyard from the mast, then walk it to the bow where they can attach it to the head of the jib. Feed the fat rope-like part of the luff into the pre-feeder, then feed it into one of the tracks of the foil on the forestay.
  8. Turn the boat into the wind. The crew at the control lines need to close the halyard cleat, and wrap the halyard properly around a winch, putting tension on the line so it isn’t swinging around the bow or allowing the luff to fall out of the track. The person on foredeck should relocate to the mast so they can ‘jump’ the halyard. The skipper should keep the bow pointing into the wind.
  9. Raise the jib. The person ‘jumping’ the sail needs to pull down the halyard, and the person at the control line has to pull the slack they are creating from the winch, grinding at the end to make sure it is all the way up.
  10. Trim the jib sheets in. Trim all the way in to just before the sail touches the spreaders. Drive the boat so both the inside and outside telltales are ‘streaming’.
    • Turn up if the inside is wagging.
    • Turn down if the outside is wagging.
  11. Tack the boat. Alert the crew that you intend to tack, then wait until everyone is ready. Turn the boat at a medium speed into the wind, unwrapping the jib sheet off its winch, releasing it when the jib begins to backwind.
  12. Build speed up after tack. Bring the new jib sheet in as fast as possible, trimming it to about the spreaders once again. The driver needs to turn a little bit more than necessary downwind after tacking to get back up to speed, and turn back up once speed is back up. Sail to keep the telltales streaming once again.

Tips

  • Sailing a boat effectively requires more crew when a boat is bigger. A forty-foot boat generally requires a team of at least 6 people when using a full set of sails.
  • If you are racing, do not head upwind to change a sail, as it merely makes the raising a jib easier, it is not necessary.
  • There is a different process to raising spinnakers than there is for gennakers (jibs). This includes Code Zero, Asymmetrical, and Symmetrical sails, although for some sails the process is very similar.
  • Read the How to Sail a Boat wikiHow article to get a better understanding of how a boat functions if you feel you need more knowledge before attempting this instruction set.

Warnings

  • Make sure everybody has the safety equipment to prevent injuries. Gloves, life jackets, foul weather gear, and grippy water shoes are a must to be minimally prepared to sail.
  • The amount of free space needed to conduct this process is dependent upon the skill of the crew on board. If there are mostly amateurs on board, have a big open body of water to practice raising and lowering sails.

References

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