Bringing Outhaul back to winches

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Ereiss
Posts: 354
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:32 pm

Bringing Outhaul back to winches

Post by Ereiss »

Every since I purchased Being There ten years ago the outhaul has always been tied off on the boom. I know if I brought it back to the winches I could actually get some power on flattening the sail when needed. However, there aren't enough rope clutches available. I would have to give up, for example, my second reef point.

Does anyone/everyone else bring their outhaul back? The boat is an F38.

Thanks
Ed Reiss
Being There
F38 - #154
out of Marion, MA

Erik
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Dec 14, 2017 7:24 pm
Location: Stony Point, Hudson River New York USA

Re: Bringing Outhaul back to winches

Post by Erik »

Ed
I have a 33 Cat Ketch and the main outhaul comes back to cockpit and used a clam cleat ahead of the winch works well.

Regards
Erik

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Ereiss
Posts: 354
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:32 pm

Re: Bringing Outhaul back to winches

Post by Ereiss »

Erik, I assume you had space in the, don't know what to call it, deck organizer? All six of my slots are occupied.
Ed Reiss
Being There
F38 - #154
out of Marion, MA

unfetteredalexandria
Posts: 128
Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2009 1:57 pm

Re: Bringing Outhaul back to winches

Post by unfetteredalexandria »

I have made this modification on my F25, and it was well worth the effort, which was not insubstantial.

On the F25, there is a slot in the bottom of the boom, just behind the attachment for the vang. Up inside the slot (in the boom) there is a 4:1 arrangement of blocks, fiddle, and becket that attaches a wire, which runs back through the boom to the clew, to the rope line which is what you haul on. This originally ran back toward the cockpit below the boom to a cam cleat on the bottom of the boom, aft of the slot.

There are (at least) a couple problems with this arrangement: 1) (you mentioned this) you can't readily get the outhaul onto a winch, which means you can only haul it in when the main is luffing, and even then it's hard to get enough tension to get the main good and flat; 2) if you forget to ease the outhaul before you ease the main sheet when you head down, the outhaul is now hanging out over the side of the boat to leeward where you can't reach it.

To make the desired modification, I reversed the direction of the 4:1 arrangement (inside the boom) so that the rope line would end up running forward out of the bottom of the slot, down to a block near the mast, and up across the cabin top through a padeye on the forward cabin top to a clutch near a winch at the aft cabin top (this routing is the same arrangement as the halyards, reefing lines, and spinnaker controls use on the F25).

You will save a lot of work if you just reuse an existing route, e.g. the 2d reef as you suggested. But I wanted to rededicate the 2d reef line for use a cunningham, which could easily be reattached at the higher luff cringle if a 2d reef were ever needed. So I added another set of hardware (block at mast base, padeye on forward cabin top, and rope clutch near winch) on both sides of the cabin top. This allowed me to retain all the existing controls routed to the cockpit, add the outhaul, and also add a routing to bring the vang back to the cockpit.
1984 round-mast Freedom 25
Western Shore of the Chesapeake

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