Rigging details at this point.

Hoisting the sail with the various reefing points showed me a need for a more positive parrel to hold the yard to the mast near the hoist point.  The deeper the reef the more the yard wandered back.  I've been coming out of the dumbsheave, through a clock at the yard lash point the forward around the mast and tying it off at the fore end of the yard.  works great at full sail and not bad at the first reef.  next two reefs it's not cutting it.  Just go back and look at the photos showing the reefs.

I looked at all of the suggested options for the balanced lug, and wasn't thrilled with any of them.  Ring idea seemed like one more thing to juggle or fall overboard.  Parrel beads and snap hook with stopper knot wasn't really 100% removable from the yard and needs a fixed chock.

I went with a yard hauling parrel just like on a chinese junk.  I'm gonna be making a junk sail for the boat at some point anyway.  The bitter end just falls down along the mast and I cleat it off on top of the Halyard at the mast base.  The thing works great.



This is my yard lashing.  Just a ring on a multiple pass loop  extra knots on the side showing were just to use up slack and also help keep the ring centered over the narrow edge,

Next step is to tie off the halyard.  I use a Bowline.

Then I take the yard parrel and pass it through the center of the ring first and out forward and around the mast, returning on the yard side.  I tie it off to the ring with another bowline.

Next on the change list was the Goat style bleater I had.  It's nice to be able to adjust the fore/aft position with this, but having it cleated off on the back side of the boom from the slot was a pain in the ass.  I figured why not bring the cleat over to the mast side and pass around the mast to keep it from getting squeezed/chafed.  Has the side benefit of holding it tighter to the mast than a standard bleater setup.

 Simple loop around the mast.  Can be raised or lowered.

 Here's a shot of the sail hoisted and the yard sucked up nicely with the new parrel.  Don't need a lot of tension on it.  When the sail is on the "Bad Tack" it's up against the mast and not hurting the shape at all.  I really wonder why more Lugs aren't rigged this way.

The side benefit of all this is even without the block, friction raising and lowering the sail is MUCH reduced.  Just shoots out of those new lazyjacks and right back into them.

  I've been asked about my downhaul.  Here it is.  I have a loop at one end that won't go through the eye of the downhaul cleat on the mast.  i pass the other end through the eye from stern to bow then pull the loop tight against the cleat.  End goes up and through the lashed on/moveable block,  then down and through the loop.  I put a trucker's hitch just below the block and come back up and through that, the down and cleat off.  Gives me a 3:1 and no problem getting tension.  Just need to make sure and get that trucker's hitch high enough to not run out of travel before you get enough tension.

And here's the yard hoisted after a fury quick and dirty job of tying in the last reef.  That hoist point was over a foot behind the mast with the old parrel setup.

I'm looking forward to getting out on Hagg lake this weekend with the Coots and running with all of this on the water.  The two previous trips to Rooster Rock in the gorge were way too exciting.  It's close to my house though.  Probably not my smartest decision ever to start the sail trials there, but on the flip side i showed up the rig's weaknesses pretty much Immediately.  Also pretty much proved my mast won't break under reasonably excessive strain.

She's getting there.