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Soft Shackle Untra-Lite Sheet

sails I didn't know if I should call this "Splicing Samson Untra-lite", "Integrated Soft Shackle Light Air Sheet", "Soft Light Air Sheet", or "The Ultimate Sheet for Light Air Sailing". Maybe "How I Went From Doing Pirouettes in Light Air to Nirvana."

The truth is that it is all of these. In most of the time I owned Papoose, if the wind got down to about 5 knots the boat would just sit there and turn usually backing to the wind. Now I have a free flying light air jib and a spinnaker and sailing in 5 knots of wind is my favorite sailing condition.

Clearly a large part of this is the sails. The jib is a 155 rip stop polyester. It is ideal below 10 knots. I launch it from a spinnaker bag and just stuff it back in. It is light and easy to handle. But it is not much use if the clew is weighted down by a heavy sheet. I started with 1/4 inch Warpspeed sheets but even they are too heavy. Now I am using 3/16" Ultra-lite and typically use a single sheet, adding a second if we have to tack or gybe.

Ultra-lite is unsplicable and I found that using knots both takes away half the strength but also if I use an Amsteel integrated line shackle on the end, the knot won't pass through the jib block. That is when I got the idea to double the Ultra-lite over and sew it along the length of the overlap leaving an eye at the end to splice the Amsteel through. I have used that on my Spinnaker in 15 knots. I said, leave it up and let's see if it breaks. It didn't. I now use it exclusively with the spinnaker as 15 knots is the take-down wind. I have used my spinnaker in 30 knots but it is pretty hard to handle the boat in that much wind. My sailmaker said take it down, you don't need it in high winds.
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I used a SailRite zig-zag sering machine but you could do it by hand or have your sailmaker sew them. I did a couple of passes of tightly spaced zig-zags at maximum width. It just grabs the cover on both sections and fits perfectly in the walking foot of the machine. The overlap is about 9 inches with the first inch the eye and 8 inches of stitches. The Amsteel has a line shackle at the end. These attach to stopper knows that are permanently attached to the clew ring. You can find instructions on making both the shackle and the stopper knot HERE.
sails In this picture you can see a close up of the line shackle attached to the stopper knot that is luggage tagged to the clew ring. The second small stopper knot has the second sheet attached if we are going to tack or gybe. I find that not only does just using a single sheet provide superior performance in light wind, it is easier to rig a spinnaker sheet correctly when the spinnaker is flying then when it is in the bag.
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Here Bill is attaching the second sheet preparing to gybe while doing a little slip sailing. Line shackles and stopper knots can be secured easily unlike traditional soft shackles. As I like to say, you can attach a line shackle with just two hands. With soft shackles, it takes three.
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Here is the clew with both sheets attached. The third stopper knot is for use with the Y-Sheet covered in last months article. It is larger as it is intended for higher winds.
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Bill is pulling on the small line that helps to open the line shackle..
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With the loop open, it is a simple matter of passing the knot through the loop.
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Then snug up the line shackle and that is it.



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