Alternative for Gyb'Easy Friction Rope

[ianpowolny]

Folks, we have a Gyb'Easy and the friction rope is too short. Has anyone tried an alternative for this 'special' rope?

I'm not that impressed with the Gyb'Easy as it seems to have too much friction even on the lowest setting. Ian

[hoppy]

I assume that the rope is too short to lead back to the cockpit? Can you Just connect another piece of rope to lengthen it

I have a walder boom brake. I find the friction increases the older the rope gets.

[ianpowolny]

Hoppy, yes I've tried that. The Gyb'Easy rope is some special product that tends not to tie well on to braid-on-braid. I'd like to get the system to be 'old' but I just can't seem to find a tension that works and allows a smooth jibe. I must be doing something wrong but I just don't know what.

Ian

[dublin]

Same problem with the babe easy
Added a length of rope to each end. After some trial and error I invented a knot something of a cross between a double sheet bend and a rolling hitch. Seems to trip ok on the gybed ash rope.

[hoppy]

Sounds like a pain that you need a special rope

How do you adjust the line? Does it come back to the cockpit straight to a clam cleat or something? Or do you have a block for extra purchase?

[ianpowolny]

Hoppy, I use two blocks to the base of the shrouds from the Gyb'Easy and then I added a Spinlock clutch outside of the cockpit on the starboard side to adjust tension and dead ended the other side. I thought I could use the clutch to adjust the tension across the full length of the rope but it doesn't work. I need to adjust the tension on the working side independently so will need to by another clutch for the port side. There is usually so much tension that the G/E acts as a preventer. I'm not that impressed with the G/E and would find it difficult to recommend. Ian

[dublin]

I just make it off to the stern cleat on each side

[hoppy]

With the Walder you only need to tension on one side. Originally I lead the line from the base of the shrouds to a pair of double blocks with one having the clam cleats (actually a main sheet rig for a smaller yacht). This year I mounted a pair of double blocks a the base of the shrouds and a line back to a clam cleat in the cockpit. It means that the actual line used to tension my Walder is very short only going from the base of one shroud to the block on the other. When the line gets a bit old and stiff creating too much friction, I only have a short line to replace. It's worked out a much better solution than what I originally had. If you need to tension from both sides with you gybe easy, then you could rig up the same as me on both sides, but you'll probably only need 3 or 4 meters of the special rope.

[rene460]

Hi Ian,

We have the gybe easy on our SO30i, and are delighted with it, so I am surprised that you find it has too much friction on your larger sail.

We have a Spinlock clutch on one side only and tie the rope to the shroud plate with a bowline on the other side and set it with the lightest friction, once through the device then over the peg. I once tried a bit more friction (twice through) and it was a good preventer until I took it about 20 degrees by the lee when it did quite a well controlled gybe, though still enough to round us up a bit.  (With great care in only 20 kts winds just to see, normally I choose and control the gybe at 180 degrees in the normal way.)

We we normally sail with the line a bit loose, and the first tack can require pushing the boom across in light winds.  The gold standard is a Spinlock each side to keep it lightly tensioned on each tack without having to pull the rope through against the friction, and probably necessary for safety if you have two or more loops through the device, and can't pull it through from the adjustable side.  I can imagine it would be hard to operate if you need the maximum friction, ropes through all the openings, but a little slack on the wind and lightly tensioned off the wind works well for us.  I tension it to just take out the slack once the wind rises, as the sail then takes care of sliding the rope through on the first tack away from the knotted side.

A mountain climbing shop or book would probably have a suitable knot for joining the rope as their ropes have similar characteristics, though I am not sure if they are suitable as rope replacements, or use a Carrick bend and complete bowlines with the tails or just tie them off with whipping twine.

I hope this is helpful but it is hard to scale up my experience to your larger sail area.  I just experimented in reasonably light conditions until I found the friction that just prevented an early accidental gybe but still slowed the boom enough in its passage across

rene460