KEELBOAT: techniques for handling the mainsail

Handling a cruiser, a small yacht, is very idiosyncratic, it is not like handling a big ship, a small boat, or a surf. If you are going to take up an adventure with a yacht, you need to, or rather, you must be quite familiar with some basics which are inseparable part of the everyday life of a yachtsman, and will help you in many situations.
They say, it is relatively easy to study those basics (and, of course, the best way to study something is by practicing it), yet sailing is something that calls for lifetime commitment.
Regardless of how you treat sailing - a pastime, an active relax, an arena for sports daring, or a challenge for your personal strength sailing requires serious back-up - that is why it is advisable to devote some time to learning techniques, mistakes and achievements of the people before you, and as many details, as you can store in your brain, cause you never know what you might need.

The primary power source, the gears of a yacht, is the mainsail. It is easily accessible.

Some tips for handling the main sail:

1. Preparation stage:

the carefully folded mainsail should be undone. (The best place for storing it is in a cockpit locker).
You have to free off the principle halyard and attach the mainsail through a shackle
Free off the traveller and kicking strap.

2. Hoisting
There are various ways to hoist the mainsail, and your choice of method should depend on the size of the sail (the amount of effort). During the hoisting, the vision of the helmsman is difficult. In the moment when the halyard starts to be heavy and difficult to move, you have to turn round the relevand coachroof winch. Then it is better to spin more halyard. Once the pulling becomes slow and difficult, it's time to wind the mainsail to the top of the mast, which consists of 3 turns round the winch. Once the sail is sheeted hard, strap can be tension. Then, have a look at the sail - horizontal creases means that the luff should be tighter; vertical creases indicate that the luff is too tight, and you need to ease the halyard.

3. Dropping the mainsail.
When dropping, the vision of the helmsperson is again obscured. It is advisable to drop the mainsail at anchor. The wind must be well forward of the beam to drop the sail. The mainsail slides will drop down the most easily if the yacht is head to wind. You should free the mainsheet. When ready, the crew should be well prepared to let the halyard run in a controlled way. Part of the crew should be in the cockpit to let the halyard run, and jump sideways to roll the mainsail into a tight bundle, and then secure it on the boom. At this stage it is crucial that somebody looks after the boom so that it doesn't move from side to side. The crew removes the main halyard.
Note: Conventional sail ties without a loop can be secured with a reef knot. It is very likely that you get this knot mistaken (likelihood 50%), you must follow this tip: keep the direction. When you start with right rope over the other one, you must continue with the same rope on the other one in the second part.