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Our 26 was rigged upon delivery and I had to undo it all to move the boat away from hurricane Isabel. Now I am trying to rerig it and am having difficulty. We have a genoa and mainsail. The genoa is rigged fine, I am not sure about the mainsail. Are there better instruction than those with the manual? In particular I do not know what to do with a line on the bow side of the mast that runs from a cleat on the lower mast to a pully at the top and then down again. It is not the mainsail halyard. Thanks for any help.
Tom

Its either the jib halyard or the main halyard. The jib halyard is the one with the pulley connected to the forestay. Hope this helps.
Jeff

Jib halyard shouldn't be all the way at the top of the mast, main halyard possibly- but it seems strange that it is in front of the mast. Topping lift should be on aft portion of mast (if you have one). What other lines do have accounted for?

Jeff S

Jib halyard is on the front of the mast, not all the way to the top. If the boat has a roller furler this line is not used except to pull the sail cover on. Main halyard is near the top of the mast, on the back.

What is the size of the line? Maybe it is just a small line for hoisting something up the mast. ie. flag,anchor light, maybe bosin chair if the line is a large one,etc..

The main halyard is near the top on the starboard aft side. It goes through a cheek block that is bolted to the mast.

The jib halyard goes through a loose block hanging from the bolt that attaches the headstay to the front of the mast. If you have a CDI furler this uses it's own small diameter internal halyard. The factory jib halyard is not used for the normal sails when you have a furler.

You will however use it if you fly a spinaker. As mentioned it also can hoist a UV protective sock for the furled headsail. We also use it for misc hoisting jobs such as the dinghy and it is the halyard you use with the mast raising gin pole when raising and lowering the mast. There should be no block at the top of the mast on the front. That part of the mast is not supported and you should not fly any headsail from there. You also don't want to use the main halyard when raising the mast.

Is this an X or M?

On my M, the topping lift goes through a smaller cheek block forward of the cheek block for the main halyard, all the way at the top of the mast; hence one might say it is on the "bow side of the mast". Also, on my M, the supplied line for the topping lift is at least 25 feet longer than necessary.

The topping lift is simply a line which you use to hold up the aft (back) part of the boom so it does not drop onto the head of people in the cockpit when you lower the main sail. When the sail is up, the topping lift can be left attached to the end of the boom, where it may affect sail shape if it is too tight, or it can be removed from the boom and cleated off at the mast, out of the way. Many people rig the topping lift with some sort of a slider at the end of the boom, so you can adjust how high the boom is above the cockpit from right there instead of having to go up and adjust it at the mast.

- AndyS

We should probably make sure we're on the same page so to speak. This is a 26X we're talking about right? What year, did you buy it new, how long have you had it? In other words...has it been modified and are there more then two lines running up the mast and how familiar were you with it before you de-rigged it?

Thanks for all your comments. We did get everything rigged and have sailed several times. However today, being on the Chesapeake Bay, we are preparing for some wind and high tides from Charley. We keep the boat on a lift so we can be sailing in less than 15 minutes from the time we start putting the boat in the water.

The line must be the jib halyard and is the same size as the mainsail halyard. It is not being used. Our Macgregor is a 2003 model year which we purchased new.

The genoa furler was jamming at the bottom of the mechanism, but that sems to be fine now.

Just need to do final cleaning and keep on sailing.