Double-ending jib halyard

[wbatcheler]

This is my first post, so I hope it will not be seen as off topic.

I've removed a Shaeffer roller-furler from my Bristol 24, and want to use the inventory of mostly unused hank-on jibs that came with the boat. When single-handing it would be much easier to change jibs if the halyard winch stayed where it is on the mast. However, I’ve been concerned that it might sometimes be unhandy to go up to the mast to drop the jib. I would like rig a jib downhaul to the cockpit, but that only makes sense if you can free the jib halyard from the cockpit. I'm attaching a sketch for double-ending the jib halyard (the red line), using a single block with snap shackle head to hoist the jib and a double block with swiveling head on the masthead crane. There is only one sheave available for foresails in the masthead. There was already a single block on the crane to handle the drifter, and I’m not sure there would be room for two single blocks. The mast in the sketch is an actual photo of my mast, but I used Photoshop to paste in the two Ronstan blocks from their catalog and the dinghy jib I found on the internet just for illustrative purposes. Any thoughts about the practicality of this? I know there would be several miles of jib halyard involved.

[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Owner_2\Desktop\Bristol 24 Spring 2009\double end jib halyard.jpg[/IMG]


wbatcheler