Outhauls for main and mizzen

[Colin Morley]

You will see I am sorting my BR20 for another season and trying to fix the things that have irritated me last year.

1)  The main outhaul has to be long so there is enough rope for reefing. However, this means that when the sail is used without a reef there is a lot of rope dangling off the boom and possibly hitting the crew. What do people do to keep that tidy but also handy for adjusting the outhaul, particularly when the main has just been raised.

2) At the stern end the outhaul for the mizzen goes up through a hole on the mizzen boom, though the sail clew, back down through another hole about 7 cm nearer the boat and then into a cleat near the mizzen. There is quite a lot of friction in this system. Has anyone improved this and if so how?

Colin

[Graham W]

Colin,

I have a small bullhorn cleat right at the front of my boom.  The excess outhaul string goes around this and then (if necessary) back to the original cleat in the middle of the boom.  That gets rid of most of it.

You could try reversing the mizzen outhaul, as in this post http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,1216.msg8609.html#msg8609

[Colin Morley]

Thank you Graham.

I like the idea of reversing the mizzen outhaul. I will experiment with that.

C

[Peter Taylor]

I am now very happy with my mizzen furling system on Seatern. The outhaul goes through a snatch block at the outboard end of the mizzen boom and back to a side-entry clam-cleat with keeper. I had thought of reversing the outhaul but with my present system the outhaul remains attached to the mizzen. This allows me to keep the sail sort of under control during setting or furling and the combination of the cleated outhaul and cleated furling line keeps the mizzen mast from rotating and the mizzen furled without having to use any sail ties.

The bottom part of the mizzen mast is wrapped with "chafe tape" ( http://www.protect-tapes.com/products/chafe ) to reduce friction and the mizzen furls easily by pulling on the furling line between the drum and the eye-lead. Setting the mizzen I have to rotate the mast by hand two or three times before pulling the sail out by pushing the boom aft.

Peter

p.s. construction of the furling system is described in  my Seatern blog http://www.seatern.org.uk/SeaternDiaries/diary_2015_june.php - look at the 7th June entry.

[Colin Morley]

Thank you Peter. I think a furling system is just what I need. I will look at the details you have given.

What happens to the Mizzen pole while furling? That is often a problem when trying to roll up a flapping mizzen.

[Peter Taylor]

What happens to the Mizzen pole while furling? That is often a problem when trying to roll up a flapping mizzen.

When furling the first thing I do is entirely remove the out haul from the boom and throw (sorry "gently place") the boom on the cockpit floor to get rid of it. I'm then holding the outhaul in one hand while pulling on the furling line with the other. Once the sail is partly furled, pulling on the out haul neatens up the way it's furled around the mast. If it's rough I tend to clip myself tight to Seatern's boom gantry so I can use both hands for furling and don't have to hang on since I'm doing this perched in the vicinity of the outboard well.

Peter