Posted By: George Haycraft, Picnic Cat #29 Posted By: CarlHaddick, Horizon Cat, Central Texas Posted By: The Sailboat Company, North Caroli na  Holding Course while Raising the Sail Posted By:Jim B., Sun Cat  hen raising the sail, it is helpful to pull both halyards at once. The throat is a 1:1, and the peak is a 2:1. Therefore, to  raise them both the same amount, you will need two pulls of the peak for every pull of the throat. I find the gaff goes  up smoothly if it is kept parallel to the boom, or just slightly above horizontal, until the throat has reached it's sailing  height. Once the throat is secured, then continue raising the peak until it is where you want it.  W  A word about raising and lowering the mast which I almost always do on the water. Before the mast goes DOWN, make  sure the gaff, sail, and boom are BELOW the hinge line on the mast stub, and the long fast pin is in place above the gaff to  hold them there. Lowering the mast with any of the above within the hinge area will result in a lot of bent metal.  Quick notes on sail set. There are two wrinkles. the too loose wrinkle, from throat to clew, and the too tight wrinkle, from  peak to tack. For starters, adjust the peak halyard to eliminate both of these. With more wind, and a more windward  course, you will need to "peak up". With less wind, and a downwind course, you'll need to ease off on the peak. There is a  narrow range of peak halyard tension, maybe only a couple of inches, in which there will be neither wrinkle. Within this  narrow range, if you are on the tight side ( the too tight wrinkle has just disappeared ) the sail will have a fuller draft  located further forward. This, of course, is better for light air. If you are on the loose side of this narrow range ( the too  loose wrinkle has just been tightened out ) the sail will have less draft, and it will be located further aft. This produces a  flatter, less powerful, but faster shape. This is where you want to be in heavier air. A careful eye studying the sail can see  the draft change with peak halyard tension over this narrow range.  aise the gaff pretty much horizontally; at least that's what works for me. I take a pull on both halyards, then take a  couple of pulls on the peak halyard to accommodate its 3:1 purchase - repeat until sail is set. R  When the throat is all the way up, then haul the peak halyard the rest of the way. You'll have to tune the peak halyard for  wind conditions - too tight, and you get vertical wrinkles, too loose and you get diagonal wrinkles. Both halyards should be pretty close to effortless, until the throat halyard starts raising the boom. Make sure your  downhaul is loose enough to let the gooseneck up, and make sure the mainsheet is eased, so you're not fighting it, either. essage: Interested to find out what rigging changes you make on picnic cats regarding throat and peak halyards and  hardware to get 2:1 or better purchase making it easier for us older folks to raise the sail. M  Answer: I think the problem is the drag between the current hardware and the halyards. It's normally pretty easy to raise  the sail and the gaff until you reach a point where the boom has to leave the gallows. At that point, everyone has the same  problem with all of our catboats (young and old). We use a barber haul system on the Sun Cats to raise the boom off the  gallows and I think you can do the same thing with the Picnic Cat. Raise the sail and gaff to that hard point and cleat the  halyards. Grab the throat halyard about 2 feet above the bottom turning block and pull the halyard towards the stern.  When the boom jumps off the gallows, hold that halyard in one hand and pull the tail through the jam cleat at the bottom.  It's a 2-hand job. Adding additional purchase power would add drag to the system and I don't that will work. More expensive blocks would  make the system work better, but that's too much trouble and expense. I think the barber haul system is the only solution  and it has worked for us.  steer with just the tiller. I keep the motor pivot just tight enough to hold it in position, but loose enough to turn it by  hand. In tight situations, I use both the tiller and motor to turn. I can rotate the Sun Cat in not much more than its own  length with this technique. If you do not "trim" the motor when you change speed, you can feel a pull on the tiller. Try it  next time out: as you are motoring along, turn the motor (just a teensy bit) until the boat stays on that course with your  hand off the tiller. Then give it a bit more throttle; the motor will need a bit more turn. I don't even think about it, it's just  second nature. I've done something like this with all our boats. I  Our home here is on a 55' wide canal, with boats on both sides. We occasionally do "canal tours" in the Sun Cat... and  many of the canals dead-end; I can rotate the Sun Cat as tight as our dinghy. Then center the motor and "trim" as  necessary to hold course again. 59