Gennaker set up

Ever had the frustration of ending up with your gennaker sheet dragging in the water or even underneath the boat? Unhappy with messy solutions using tape on your hull? Time for a simple and effective upgrade to your boat!
Here is what you need: 2 plastic rings (Allen sells good ones), about 2.5m of shock cord, 2 small diameter (enough for the shock cord) single blocks and one small diameter (enough for your gennaker halyard and for the shock cord) double block.
The idea behind this mod is that we make a system that automatically retrieves your gennaker sheet when you drop the gennaker. We do this by replacing the single block that is responsible for retrieving the gennaker boom by a double block. This new double block will not only handle the halyard, but also the shock cord.

The shock cord will run towards the mast step where you will have to tie down the 2 single blocks. Run both ends of the shock cord through the single blocks and tie the 2 rings onto both ends.

The length of the shock cord should be such that when the boom is fully retrieved you have little to no length left over in your shock cord. Make sure there is no tension in the shock cord at this stage.

Now for the true magic of this modification; run your gennaker sheet (shown in purple in the picture) through the rings on both sides. When the gennaker is retrieved the rings will be near the mast step, so your sheet will be in the boat. When you hoist the gennaker the ringed shock cord will get a lot of room allowing for full normal usage of your sheet. Dropping and hoisting the gennaker will control this retrieval shock cord. The fact that we are using shock cord (you could also do it with normal lines) should make sure that you can still retrieve the gennaker if the rings get stuck on something (such as your stay adjusters).

By Floris Stapel

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