Boom hardware and other questions

[c130king]

Like Doug my jib halyard is used to raise/lower the Sunbrella sock that covers my furled genoa.

As for my single-line reef (which I just posted in the other thread) the reefing line is always in place. When the main is fully up I will pull the reefing line just a little bit tight so that the reefing line is not "flopping" around at all. There is no interference in my experience. I normally either reef before I even raise the main or I will "heave to" and reef while heaved to.

I am sailing solo on tomorrow but one of my Mac buddies from this site ( Fxwg80hd...aka Chris) wants to go sailing on König so as soon as I get him out there with me I will shoot a new video with better close ups of my reefing and LJ systems...I can't operate the camera and the boat at the same time.


Cheers,
Jim
Sailing on König
Sailing on König YouTube Channel

[C Striker]

Hey Jim?

Could you elaborate on your downhaul? Do you have it attached to your top slug? That's my plan for this year, with a 3/16 line. Wish I had a metal slug lying around though... running a heavier line to the same "hole" as the halyard didnt work that well last year. I know I'm missing the boat on this somewhere.

Couldn't agree more on your top five list for singlehanding. I'm workin on #6 - a beefier anchor roller. Seems I anchor more than I sail
I look forward not stowing anything on deck until its trailer time.

mucho appreciado,
Erik

[hoaglandr]

Here's a link to Sumner's single handed reefing system:
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... ng-22.html

Five very nice mods to have if you plan to go single-handed:

1) Wheel or auto-pilot
2) main halyard led to the cockpit (raise/lower the main without going up to the mast)...and my main does have a "haul down" to pull down the main...you can see it in the video
3) Roller furling foresail (Genoa 150 in my case with CDI FF-2 Furler)
4) Lazy Jacks to catch the sail when you lower it
5) Reefing system led to the cockpit (no need to go up to the mast to reef)

I've got 2,3 and 4. I'm seriously thinking about adding # 5 but I really need to get some on the water experience before I start making any changes. Auto-pilot would be great but it's going to have to wait a while .

I'm going out to the boat to rig my mainsail and see if my lazy jacks and my new slugs work as promised. I'll try to get some pics of my boom.

Russell

[Highlander]

Hi All
I bought the hardware last fall to make an internal outhaul in the boom

http://www.harken.com/rigtips/outhaul.php

I also plann on going with the harken two line reefing system with the lines being led back to these mounting brkt's in front of my winches, if you enlarge this pic you'll see my 7ft coach roof mounted genny tracks

From their I'm thinking of installing 12" x 1" or perhaps 24" genny track on the top of the sliding hatch track & installing these

http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab1/ ... 010001.jpg
there for my two line reefing and for the sheet lines for my Storm Jib & Staysil


J
PS I put single eyelets on the bottom of my boom for my L/J instead of eyelets on each side this was cheaper & allows me to install my mail sail cover over them without removing them as my cover is quick connect not zippered

[Highlander]

Just a Teaser
Notice I only had my genny furler on here the jib furler was laying on the driveway
http://s844.photobucket.com/albums/ab1/ ... 010013.mp4

Thought you'd like this Richard

J

[c130king]

Hey Jim?

Could you elaborate on your downhaul? Do you have it attached to your top slug? That's my plan for this year, with a 3/16 line. Wish I had a metal slug lying around though... running a heavier line to the same "hole" as the halyard didnt work that well last year. I know I'm missing the boat on this somewhere.

Couldn't agree more on your top five list for singlehanding. I'm workin on #6 - a beefier anchor roller. Seems I anchor more than I sail
I look forward not stowing anything on deck until its trailer time.

mucho appreciado,
Erik

Erik,

You asked so here you go. My Halyard/"Haul Down" (as opposed to a "Down Haul" which pulls the luff tight by either pulling down on the very bottom of the sail or by pulling down the boom itself when the boom is able to slide in a track) is a single line about 75' long. One end is tied to the top of the head board of the main with a bowline in the usual fashion. The line is routed through the halyard block at the top of the mast then down the mast to a turning block attached the deck right next to the mast on the starboard side. From there it is routed 90 degrees out towards the starboard side to get it just beyond the edge of the sliding hatch and then through another turning block back to the cockpit. At the cockpit it goes through a jam-cleat (with a top on it) and then loops back on itself and routed back the same way through seperate blocks on the starboard side and at the base of the mast. In fact those blocks are really two sets of double blocks. From there it goes up the mast and I have a bowline tied around the top-most slug which is right at the base of the head board.

I have about 3' or so of a loop in the cockpit. Pull one direction and the halyard raises the main. Pull the other direction the "haul down" pulls the sail down into the Lazy Jacks. Works great. I find that frequently the sail does not fall smoothly and needs some help.



In this picture you can see the loop of blue line secured to a horn cleat on the front starboard side of the cockpit. That is the halyard/haul-down. Once the sail is raised I wrap the loop around the horn cleat...I don't have those fancy locking cleats.

You can also see my LJ system and see the port side carabiners at the aft end and forward end of the boom. They are small and red.

My "out haul" is simply a line tied to the clew, pulled as tight as I can pull it, and secured to the strap at the end of the boom.

My reefing line is the white line coming down near the aft end of the sail and looped under the boom. It is secured just on the other side of the boom. I have since adjusted this a little so that line is no longer running under the boom.

The other line running vertically aft of my sail is my topping lift. Tied to the top of the mast and tied to the end of the boom. No adjustment needed IMHO.

And please excuse the loose and ugly luff. I think I took this picture shortly after I shook out the reef and I didn't get the sail all the way to the top of the mast. Poor seamanship on my part...almost as bad as sailing with your fenders out...

Cheers,
Jim
Sailing on König

[hoaglandr]

Just got of the boat...

Not happy with the lazy-jacks as currently configured. First of all I discovered that it is much easier to rig the mainsail without having them in the way. An easy fix if I use carabiners or shackles to attach to the boom. Second issue was that the head of the sail caught in the lazy -jack and I had to grab the leech and pull on it a few times to get it clear. Once the sail was up and caught the wind it pressed into the lazy-jacks considerably. I'm thinking now that I will add the shackles and use one long adjustable line. The slugs worked great on the way up but the sail didn't drop as easily as I expected. A downhaul may be added at some point. Some of my issues may have been the strong winds today. In a lighter breeze this may not have been a problem. I noticed that Sumner ran his lazy jacks through blocks on his spreaders to get them away from the sailtrack. That might also help me out here.

A pic of my boom:

Two eyelets on the port side, an eyelet, block and cleat on the starboard.

Russell

[c130king]

Russell,

I don’t install the LJ until after the sail is rigged. I have two sets of eye straps like you have but mine are placed slightly differently. The forward ones are just slightly forward of the boom vang and the aft ones are nearly at the end of the boom.

There is a separate port side and starboard side line (I call these the “main LJ line”). Each goes from the carabiner at the forward eye straps up to turning blocks a little lower than the spreaders (and pulled wide away from the slug track by lines that are attached to the aft shroud on each side). From the turning block the line runs back to the carabiner attached to the rear eye strap. The blocks that are just below the spreaders are attached to lines which are attached to the mast about ½ way between the spreaders and the mast top.

Then there are two “vertical” supports. These are the same size line. They are attached to the main LJ line with a single simple granny knot. I have tightly wrapped about 7-8 wraps of duct tape (1” wide) around the main line to keep the granny knot from sliding down the main line. The vertical line then goes under the boom (through a small eye strap sort of thing attached to the bottom of the boom) and up to the other main LJ line where it is tied on with a simple granny knot and use duct tape just like the other side.



I also sometimes have issues with the battens hanging up in the where the "verticals" are tied to the "main" LJ lines. Just have to make sure I am pretty much directly head to wind or if does happen I let the sail fall down a little and do what you said about grabbing the leech and pulling it tight to get the batten back in between the main lines. Not a huge issue...happens maybe 30% of the time...and takes less than 30 seconds to correct...even when solo.

Now, every now and then my halyard...if I let it get loose and flap around during this process...will wrap around the end of the bolt that secures the hound to the mast (where the furlers attaches to the mast). In this case I have to get up on deck and try to flip the line over this bolt end. I really need to either cut off a ½ inch from that bolt or figure out a way to cover it with something so that the halyard can't hang up on it.

Jim

[hoaglandr]

I don’t install the LJ until after the sail is rigged.

Duh... took me about 30 seconds to realize that. I should have seen it coming!

I like your idea of using a line to hold the upper blocks away from the sail track. Should be a simple solution.

I think the hook thing on the end of my boom functions as a cleat for my topping lift. Is the 6' line for securing the clew to the cleat on the end of the boom?

Russell

[DaveB]

Highlander,
You have more time designing things that work for you! I am willing to bet you put a lot of mind and effort in the designs and had the time to do so.
They are great and give us many thoughts of things we want .
Thankyou for your continued efforts in sharing your thoughts and expertise.
Dave

Hi All
I bought the hardware last fall to make an internal outhaul in the boom

http://www.harken.com/rigtips/outhaul.php

I also plann on going with the harken two line reefing system with the lines being led back to these mounting brkt's in front of my winches, if you enlarge this pic you'll see my 7ft coach roof mounted genny tracks

From their I'm thinking of installing 12" x 1" or perhaps 24" genny track on the top of the sliding hatch track & installing these

http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab1/ ... 010001.jpg
there for my two line reefing and for the sheet lines for my Storm Jib & Staysil


J
PS I put single eyelets on the bottom of my boom for my L/J instead of eyelets on each side this was cheaper & allows me to install my mail sail cover over them without removing them as my cover is quick connect not zippered

[Divecoz]

John you have wayyyyyyyyyy too many cool sailing toys...

Just a Teaser
Notice I only had my genny furler on here the jib furler was laying on the driveway
http://s844.photobucket.com/albums/ab1/ ... 010013.mp4

Thought you'd like this Richard

J

[Highlander]

Highlander,
You have more time designing things that work for you! I am willing to bet you put a lot of mind and effort in the designs and had the time to do so.
They are great and give us many thoughts of things we want .
Thankyou for your continued efforts in sharing your thoughts and expertise.
Dave

Dave
If I had your great sailing experience & knowlege on top of what I have the ability to design & make alot of my own rigging mods then I'd be the perfect sailor
So until then we all have to work together as a team
Alot of my projects go through as many as 5-6 design changes on paper before I start them & usualy at least 3 more when making them & retro fitting , shopping around for cut-off's & waiting for the material to go on sale so it is all very time consuming
I have quite a list of to do mods , winged weighted D/B just to mention a few , but alas I must finish off some of the one's I'm still working on
J
Another teaser a little tour of my boat & the line madness on the last half of the video Enjoy
http://s844.photobucket.com/albums/ab1/ ... 010064.mp4

[Doug W]

Another teaser a little tour of my boat & the line madness on the last half of the video Enjoy
http://s844.photobucket.com/albums/ab1/ ... 010064.mp4

I enjoyed the video tour! Thanks!

[vizwhiz]

EDIT: Wasn't trying to "yell"...had some computer trouble last night and had cut/paste this response into the forum post, but lost my connection and couldn't get back on to edit and correct. My apologies for the previous appearance...

I also have 6 ft. of line hanging from the boom that I don't know what to do with and a hook-like device that I am clueless about.

It's a toggle - you stick it in the loop of an eye-spliced rope to make a quick connection between it and another rope (or the other end of the same rope to make a loop of rope).
You can put it in a relatively small loop by feeding one arm in first, then pushing the rest through, then as you pull it back, the loop catches under the two "arms" and you have a connection. Toggles were originally just rods of wood or metal, then they had grooved (reduced area) shanks on them to help hold the rope loop in place...yours is the modern high-tech version.

Not for permanent stuff, or anything you have to permanently rely on (like an anchor rode), but a good quick-connect for a looped line. Probably used for hauling something up the mast, and I've seen them used on land for hanging tool bags and other equipment slung under lifts so they can be easily removed by the workers once "up there".

I'm guessing it could have been used for (a) a preventer - PO had a looped-end rope cleated off or tied to the stanchion and just stuck the toggle through on the appropriate side of the boat, or (b) could have been looped through the eye on the clew or reefing point - may not have been perfect, but possible, and no knots, no rope hanging on the sail... No other good guesses at the moment.

Second Question:
Referring back to Judy's pictures, the luff-side jiffy-reefing line is run in the picture to the mast, thru a fairlead and to a block on the deck. Any reason I can't run it to a cheek block at the mast-end of the boom and to a cleat further out on the boom just like the other end is set up?
Same procedure used to reef then, one at the forward end of the boom, the other at the aft end?

[hoaglandr]

Thanks Viz!

Could this have possibly been used for the topping lift?

Russell