I’m hoping someone with a Freedom 40 40 might be able to help. How is your outhaul setup in your boom. When we were sailing this week, we had perfect tension and then all of a sudden there was a ping and it went partly slack. I have pulled the pulleys/wires and rope through, pictures below, but don’t really understand how it works and there is nothing in the manual.
I’ve fed everything back through, pulled as tight as possible and tied it off around the cleat on the boom but that seems to be the only way to hold it. There is no way to run it to a winch to tighten.
the outhaul does not lead past the cleat on the boom. I suspect that your block was partially skewed inside the boom when you thought it was tight… but under load, the block popped into alignment and gave you about 6” of slack. That block looks ready to be replaced.
That’s interesting. On ours there is a random wire with a shackle and washers that look like it was attached the front end of the boom above second reef. Do you have that as well? Essentially, it connects at both ends and the pulley block in the middle. Right now, the pulley block is right up to the rope opening. You don’t be chance have a photo of the underside of your boom at the front?
Had the riggers down today as well and they’re going to see what they can do to make it more simple
I dont think my 4040 has that type of arrangement but I will take a look the next time i am on her. The previous owner might have cooked this up as a way to make it easier to tighten it under load. Honestly the outhaul doesnt need to be adjusted very much while underway unless you are passage making or doing serious racing.
Yes, that’s exactly the same as mine, which is good. The issue is how the blocks and cable are connected inside. It looks like mine had a cable wire from the outhaul blocks in the boom, connected just above the reefing lines at the front on the boom, but inside, just above the pulleys. That is what we think pinged out. The whole outhaul system is now basically floating in the boom, and I can’t pull anymore tension on the outhaul because the blocks are right up to the but where the rope comes out of the boom, so there is no leverage to.
It seems to be the one part of the boat that isn’t in the manual. Nightmare
I would just remove all of it and just go direct from the shackle that attaches to the clew of the mainsail to the cleat in one single run. But maybe wait until other 40/40 owners can confirm that what you have is not stock.
On a fully batterned main the outhaul is not as effective. almost to the point that I set mine for heavy winds and don’t change it , ’d rather have minimal weather helm and sacrifice the minimal diff in light airs
Ben after some thought, that block in your boom might be stock and not some previous owner contraption. I realized that on my freedom the outhaul comes out of the aft end of the boom in cable form and exits the front of the boom as rope so i probably have the same block set up in there. I will take a look tomorrow at my boom. Id feel bad If i was giving you bad advice and you removed it.
Hey, yeah, that sounds exactly the same as mine. Don’t worry, I’ve not taken it out, it’s still all in the boom, just a little loose. We’ve been sailing with 2 reefs in so the clew is all good.
If you have chance to have a look at yours, can you have a look if there is a cable attached to the inside the boom, at the front just above the reefing lines. We think that part of the outhaul was fixed to a point just above the sheaves at the front of the boom, inside. Many thanks
Ah, ours was attached just slightly further back with a shackle above the sheaves. Thank you so much for sending this over. You should be able to get that welded back.
Another question - you don’t have a topping lift on yours do you? I know we don’t but just wanted to make sure we’re not missing something else on the boat
I Dont have a topping lift but the mast is designed to use one if you want. I will rig one eventually as I think its a good insurwnce policy incase you loose your halyard andneed a backup.
Mine, #16, is the same as yours and several others’ who posted: cable from the clew sail grommet through one of the pulleys at the aft end of the boom, into the mast to a block, with a rope from the mast side of he block through an opening in the boom then to the cleat.
The problem I have always had with mine is that the cable is very taught even with the rope untied from the cleat that the clew end of the cable cannot reach the clew grommet. I had to install a couple of long shackles to be able to attach the outhaul cable to the sail clew. I just set it in the spring and never touch it until the sail is removed in the fall.
I suspect that when yours suddenly went slack, as someone else suggested, that there was some kind of a kink in the system that let go.
Thank you. What I found is that at the front of the boom inside the boom, underneath, above the reefing lines, the end of the outhaul wire was attached there with a shackle and snapped awy which slackened the outhaul. Need to find a new way now to attach it, or a whole new design.
No, ours doesn’t have a pad eye, it has a strange slot above the reefing line. I’ll put the picture below. A shackle goes through with washers but I can’t work out why it was done like that.
Ah I see. It looks like that was once drilled and the aluminum succumbed to dissimilar metal issues.
You could drill a new hole on another spot on the shive block housing or mount a pad eye like I have which I feel would be a stronger connection. You might have to cut and re crimp the stainless cable to account for a change in the cable run.
