[quote=nohuhu][quote]can you guys please explain to me why you would go through the time and expense of raising and lowering a snorkel when raising and lowering a jib takes about the same amount of time (3 minutes) ?[/quote]
As noted, with a furler in the mix, raising and securing the jib becomes a lot more work. Particularly if the downhaul needs to be secured through the tiny holes on top of the harken furlers, like mine. All that space is taken up by the forestay hardware.
You need to do this while holding the perfect amount of cord in the furling drum, which tends to spin out while you are working, and while the sail is flogging. Then you still have to attach the jib blocks to the jib sheet, with perfect knots and equal tension. All this is better done with 4 hands, so if you like to solo,...
[quote]To me: (but to each their own) this creates windage in storms (creating extra stress on your fittings and boat), is a perfect place for dirt and bugs to live, traps moisture (bad for hardware and sail) and costs about 1/4 of an actual jib[/quote] That's a really good point about the windage. It can oscillate a lot when blown from behind. Especially a loose, oversized snorkel. It's better than a loose unattended jib though.
Sizing the snorkels length and diameter is important. Not too loose or too tight. Also long enough to cover the furling hardware. There is no problem with moisture, bugs and debris in my experience. unless you leave it closed for an entire season, in which case the jib should come down.
By comparison, raising and lowering my snorkel using the main halyard is a breeze. I just dip the bow, while on the beach wheels, and I can reach the zipper from the ground. I added a couple feet of string to the zipper pull. I quick-tie that string off to the blocks or elsewhere and then I have both hands free to manage the snorkel and halyard, single-handed.[/quote]
No HTML tags allowed (except inside [code][/code] tags)
