Self-tacking jib

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Self-turning rail with attached sail, circumferential sheet. The slide with the two blocks at the bottom moves automatically to the other side of the boat when turning or jibing

A Selbstwendefock is a headsail on sailboats that at a turning no operation of Vorschot required by the Department.

advantages

This allows the crew to take care of other actions during the turn, such as shifting your weight to the other side of the boat. This is particularly important on skiffs with wide outriggers such as the 49er , on which the crew has to overcome great distances during the turn. If the weight shift does not succeed quickly enough, such boats capsize easily.

How a self-tacking jib works

Self-tacking sails are - apart from the mainsail  - always a jib and never a genoa ; so it does not overlap the mast . The leech of a jib can therefore move freely from one side of the boat to the other when turning.

Two types are common:

  • The (single) jib sheet does not lead directly into the cockpit , but is deflected by rollers. A first roller is movably mounted on a curved guardrail in front of the mast. From there, the bow is either guided forward to a pulley near the bow tip or up to a pulley on the mast, and then runs back into the cockpit , where it can be operated by the bow .
  • The jib sheet is circumferential and leads from one winch over a block on the guardrail to the sail, is deflected there and leads to the other jib winch on the other side. This allows the sail to be pulled in or released from both the windward and the leewinsch (see picture).

For luffing and dropping , the bow of a self-tacking jib is used like the sheet of other jibs. A jib boom is often used to make it easier to control the leech tension .