Centerboard uphaul line location

[TIM WEBB]

Ah, OK, I think I get it now ...

I understand your uphaul cable coming out of it's CB trunk hole and wrapping around your windlass, but is the other cable on the windlass the downhaul cable? If so, what's confusing is how you're making the 180 with that cable, since the other photo seems to show the downhaul exiting the top of the CB trunk and pointing aft?

Sorry, my boat's config is more like Roger's, and I'm trying to visualize how your DH system works ...

Oh, also, by what method are you planning to turn your windlass?

[hectoretc]

Ah, OK, I think I get it now ...

I understand your uphaul cable coming out of it's CB trunk hole and wrapping around your windlass, but is the other cable on the windlass the downhaul cable? If so, what's confusing is how you're making the 180 with that cable, since the other photo seems to show the downhaul exiting the top of the CB trunk and pointing aft?

Sorry, my boat's config is more like Roger's, and I'm trying to visualize how your DH system works ...

Oh, also, by what method are you planning to turn your windlass?

Hi Tim,
Now I understand you're confusion... no, the "other cable" is just a length of 3/32" SS wire rope that used to be part of my jib halyard. It goes into the cockpit, transitions into a rope line through a 2:1 or 3:1 block (just like what it used to do in the cuddy rigging) and then is cleated off on the side of the CB housing. The downhaul is maintained separately although I guess it could be a continuous line for simplification. As a matter of fact, that is a good idea, and I think I'll look at that.

[thumb=1206]

The drum is less of a windlass than it is a... "drum" or a multi-turn block or maybe even a fairlead. It serves no active function. It's a passive device simply used to change the existing direction of the uphaul cable from CB housing toward the bow, to be from the CB housing toward the stern. It could have been a simple block, (read this thread from the beginning) where the uphaul cable comes out of the CB housing, goes around the sheave and through the cuddy bulkhead out to the cockpit, except "just doing that" would have required that I replace the uphaul cable with a longer wire rope. The existing loop and crimp sleeve on the uphaul would have to pass through the fairlead in the cuddy bulkhead each time the board is raised or lowered. It's just a function of the existing length of the uphaul wire rope. Rather than pull the CB out to change the cable, I'm using the drum as a cable extender. The existing cable wraps around it, and a new cable (wrapped the other direction) goes out into the cockpit to be transitioned to rope, and cleated off.
I guess it's sort of like a furler spindle in that respect. When the CB is down, the uphaul cable is wound off the spool and there will be 3-4 turns of the "pulling" cable extension wound around the drum. When I want to raise the CB partially or fully, I pull on the cable from the cockpit, that turns the drum unreeling the cable I'm pulling on, while winding up the CB uphaul line around the drum, pulling up the CB.

I'm not sure how else to explain it... Does that help?

[TIM WEBB]

Yes, definitely makes sense now, that it works more like a furler drum. Now I understand better why you had me measure the UH cable on my boat!