Vang mount distance from mast

Moderator: GreenLake

Re: Vang mount distance from mast

Postby tomodda » Sun Sep 04, 2022 4:58 pm

@rhm:

I very much agree with what GL wrote to you. It's all about controlling the sail without having to reef. An "intermediate gear," so to speak. Read up on "Vang Sheeting,' I like this explanation here:

http://www.sailingbreezes.com/sailing_breezes_current/articles/Aug00/dell0800.htm

As they show in the illustration, snugging down the vang will bend the mast, noticeably flattening your mainsail. Add an outhaul and a Cunningham and now you are totally controlling your main source of power on the DS - the main.

As for a hard vang, it seems to be an unnecessary complication. Other than doing away with the topping lift, what does it gain you? And do you have the space at the bottom of your mast to add yet another fitting (whatever the hard vang attaches to?) along with whatever tackle arrangement the vang uses?

I'll give you a perhaps useful trick to make a conventional topping lift more useful. Instead of running a topping lift from the end of your boom to a small block somewhere on the masthead and then down to a cleat at the base of the mast, I do it the other way around. I attach a light line to the very top of the mast, right below my windex. Then I run it down to a cheek block at the end of my boom and back forward to a horn cleat at the middle of my boom. Advantage is that I can adjust the topping lift as needed from my usual helm position - sitting on the rail somewhere around the aft end of the CB. Not that I have to constantly adjust the lift (so I'm not using a cam cleat), but I do adjust it for running in light airs (belly out the sail) and sometimes I have to slack it off upwind to avoid catching the line on my battens (downside of a topping lift)! And it makes life much easier when I'm reefing or dousing sail, having a controllable topping lift close at hand. For what it's worth, I use an open-backed cheek block for the topping lift, meaning I can just lift the line off it when I am stowing the boom (i.e. I leave the line rigged to mast and boom cleat when trailering). Anyway, you're thinking of a hard vang because a topping lift can be a pain in the butt, then think about my "reverse topping lift" method, it may help.

Tom
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