It was pretty quick and simple. I put a pad eye on the rear of the mast above the dumb sheave for the halyard. I tied rings on to each end of a 10ft piece of 3/16 paracord, and did a cow hitch loop in the middle of it at the pad eye. 2 more pad eyes on each side of the boom, another pair of lines with spring clips attached using Albright knots that can slip but have a fair amount of friction. That way I can slide the knots and raise the whole bundle higher when it's furled to get it out of my way.
It's really simplified both raising and dropping sail single handed. the bundle tidies up fairly nicely with just a few ties after it's furled. The lazyjacks just happened to come out a nice length where I can clip the hooks together and store them on the mast belayed around the halyard cleat.
The other thing I've done to simplify single handed raising and lowering is put in a Paradox style steering loop in the cabin. 4 fairleads in the corners and a simple chunk of rope tied to the tiller end, works well. I'll have to get some pictures of that up as well.
Just curious about the boom downhaul purchase--can't make it out in the photos. Mine needs to be very hard to shape the sail going to weather, but I'm also using a Duckworks sail designed for a Piccup Pram--quite a bit of draft in it.
ReplyDeleteJust put a new post up showing the downhaul as well as the halyard and parrel setup. Got some good photos of it for you.
DeleteI'll try to get a picture up, but until then here's a "verbal picture". I tie a loop at one end of the downhaul line, then fee the other end through the middle of the cleat on the mast from the stern side forward. I take that end up and through the block hanging from the yard. From there I take it back down and through the loop that's up hard against the backside of the cleat. I then put a trucker's hitch in the portion coming down from the block and through the loop. This hitch is as close to the block as I can get it. I then duck the bitter end down and tension the whole thing and belay it on the cleat. It gives me a 3-1 purchase and a bar tight luff. Only issue is if I don't get the hitch high enough on that last pass I run out of travel and can't get enough tension.
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