Dart 15 Forums

Hi all,
Hope you are all keeping safe and well, and getting some sailing in of course.
At Felixstowe we are getting out now, for some social sailing, and the dart 15 I bought last year is proving to be a delightful boat to sail, however unhooking the mainsail off the masthead is a problem, we follow the normal procedures by heaving on the halyard, rotating the mast etc, but the sail will not release and several times now its needed to turn the boat on its side to complete the job. We replaced the halyard, and the sheaves, and even spray silicone on the luff of the sail to ease friction, but again no success.
It looks like a new hook is on the mast, was wondering if I hacksawed some off, and reduced the size, would that seem like an idea, but thought its best to hear any feedback from others first.
Appreciate any thoughts.
Paul Williams 1918

Look at some others in the boat park. Dart 15 masts come in many varieties and the distance from the sheave to the hook varies. Some suit a longer hook, others a short one. Find one with a similar distance from hook to sheave like yours that works OK and start filing to match it.

Hi Paul,

At the risk of telling you what you already know:
- boat on port tack,
- unhook the mainsheet and downhaul,
- stand in front of the mast with the bows down and with a hand either side of the sail just behind the bolt rope, push the sail up the mast several inches,
- before rotating the mast, pull the halyard up as hard as possible, thereby lifting the halyard ring off the hook at the top,
- still keeping the halyard under tension, rotate the mast to your right so that the hook is clear of the ring,
- release the halyard and, with the mast still rotated, pull the sail down a few inches,
- release the mast and the sail should come down easily.

All of this is done with you at the mast, not behind the boat. If you still have a problem, check that the rigging isn't so tight that the mast can't rotatae 180 degrees from one side to the other.

Good luck,
Howard.

Had this issue when I first had my boat, I bent the hook inwards slightly with a pair of pliers, so the hook was more in-line with the mast track, do be careful not to bend it in too much, as this could mean the sail comes of the hook when you are sailing on port tack...

Hi Paul,
I have the same issue sometimes on my relatively new boat. I'd echo the erudite comments from others but would add: clearly the boat is head to wind before dropping the sail but if you put it slightly off head to wind so that the luffing sail naturally aligns to the starboard side of the boat, the sail should detach more easily from the hook when you go through the procedures outlined by the previous posts when turning the mast to port. Works for me although Brian Phipps did also suggest filing a couple of millimetres off the hook length.
Hope that helps.
Cheers

Hi Paul,
I think your problem may be much more complicated than others imply, in part due to 1918's history (see end)..
As well as changes in mast halyard hook lengths over the years, the eyelet in the head of sails can be different distances from the bolt rope.
When I bought a new Sprint 15 sail to replace an ageing Dart 15 sail, it came unhooked while sailing because the eyelet was so much further from the bolt rope. I spoke to Brian Phipps and bought a new longer hook (of the kind that is now supplied as a matter of course, unless you request a short hook and Catparts can still supply one!)
As it happens, my new hook is very long so dropping the new main can be tricky. I get round the problem by part-rotating the mast before hauling on the halyard, and then completing the unhooking with a full rotation. Clearly, my old sail cannot be used unless I am prepared to tip the boat on its side etc.
My cat 1594 is still in pieces in my garage for running repairs, uncompleted due to my health issues. When my latest round of heart investigations (the remaining one is a bit invasive and will be in a cardio theatre) is complete I hope they will get on with doing what was supposed to be done in 2018, and that I will recover well enough to complete the work and sail again.
One thing I will do is run my newer sail "up" the dismounted mast, and mark on the hook where surplus length can reliably be cut away, having regard to the extremes of "no downhaul" and maximum downhaul. After cutting the hook I'll run the old sail "up" to find out if the shortened hook is ok for using the old sail. There was life left in that sail, using which I got 3 of my 4 top ten Nationals results..........
As regards 1918 history, it was bought new by Gordon Goldstone (Queen Mary SC and ex- Class Chairman and Treasurer). When he bought 2004 he sold 1918 to Stewart Pegum, (then Queen Mary, later Oxford). When Stewart retired I think he sold 1918 to Kyle Stoneham. After that I don't know, but you might.
When Gordon had 1918 he experimented with a gennaker, which needed a special mast top fitting which I think also replaced the mainsail halyard hook. I think 1918 then had a 2-piece mast. I don't remember if Gordon or Stewart replaced the special masthead fitting with a "standard" hook.
Kyle wanted to replace the 2-piece mast with a 1-piece (a search of this Forum will turn up the Chat). If your 1918 has a 1-piece mast then whatever hook is on it maybe longer than is suitable for your sail.
If you have a 2-piece mast with a standard hook then that too may be too long....... It's also possible that the special masthead fitting meant that replacing with a "standard" hook was not possible. If your hook is on the starboard side of the mast, you'll have to rotate the mast the other way from everyone else to unhook.......

BEFORE YOU GO GUNG HO AND CUT YOUR HOOK, MAKE SURE YOUR UNHOOKING TECHNIQUE IS NOT THE PROBLEM.

Thank you all for your very informative responses. I never considered facing the boat on port tack to unhook sail, but it makes complete sense. i also plan to keep the boat bows down when unhooking to see if that helps.
I read carefully about the history of 1918, thank you so much George for the background of this boat, and had noticed the additional bracket on then two piece mast, so i now know what that was used for. I will file a tiny bit off the hook taking all the advice given about reducing the hook size.
Hopefully this may end rolling the boat over after every sail !!
Happy sailing all
Paul williams

Another thought. Make sure that the knot on the halyard ring is on the aft side of the ring when you shackle it to the head of the sail.

How interesting to hear of my old boat, hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Paul, as far as I recall nothing was changed to the mast hook, the gennaker fitting was riveted on about 3/4 of the way up the mast, (Just something I experimented with for a while), but didn't affect anything else. The original was a 2 piece mast.

I still remember buying it new at the dinghy show and it was from Laser in those days, must of been around 2000(?) I struck a deal there and then on the Saturday with the then boss of Laser, (I'm sure Bob Carter will remember his name, but I can't). But the deal was I had to pay for it in full before the show finished, which meant bring the money with you and take it away at the close on the Sunday! They didn't want to take it back to the factory.
Probably my best boat.

Good luck
Gordon

Dave Graham maybe......

Dave Graham taught me how to sail at Grafham in the mid 90s.

Dear all,
I tried the Howard Hawks method below (thank you Howard) and it worked a treat. As an additional thing I have bought a Camcleat CL261 (about £7) to be assist to pull the main halyard as hard as possible to release the peak of the sail from the hook.
Hope it helps.