Outhaul

[GreenLake]

In the paralell thread on the vang Mike Gillum mentioned that he has the outhaul tight enough to cause of crease in the foot of the sail.

Now I wonder how people set up their outhauls. My boom end fitting has two holes and the boom came with a cleat at the end. I used to just loop a line from the clew through one of the holes, back to the clew, other hole, and then to the cleat (horn cleat).

Then I thought I might want to adjust things while under way and also have less friction.

I lashed double micro blocks, one to the clew and one to the end of the boom and installed a Jam cleat further up the boom. That looked great, but then I began to notice that the whole setup would go "chock-a-block" with the sail looking distinctly baggy. In other words, the blocks took up just enough distance to reduce the maximum distance that the clew could othewise have been pulled away from the mast- probably by almost 1".

With the original setup, there's so much friction that pulling the outhaul tight a any time other than the dock seems hopeless. So I wonder what other people are doing. I assume pretty much nobody really has longer booms or shorter sails (except those that do). The sails are Jotz and really shouldn't be to long in the foot, the boom looks original stock.

[ChrisB]

I have a small shackle on the aftmost hole on the boom end casting and a small block on the innermost hole. The outhaul line runs aft along the boom to the turning block, forward to the clew of the mainsail, then aft to the shackle. Its a high friction setup but it works acceptably well. Going upwind on windy days, I tighten the outhaul to get the crease in the foot of the mainsail. Off the wind, I ease the outhaul to relieve the crease to put more curve in the sail. The cleat is about 2/3 forward on the boom and was there when I bought the boat. At first, I thought this was a strange location for the cleat. However, if I want to make an adjustment when sailing off the wind, I don't have to lean out over the leeward side of the boat to reach the cleat.

[K.C. Walker]

I use a 4:1 outhaul that works pretty well for me. It's cascading and low enough friction. It is set up where I use spectra line permanently attached to the front hole in the boom end cap this goes forward through the clew and back to a micro block attached to the back hole. I run this forward to a quick connect ring that is attached to another micro block. That micro block has the line run from a Ronstan version of the clamcleat that has a way to secure a line under the base and also a fair lead. This creates the cascade. I run the 4 mm line forward through that cleat and about a foot forward through another micro block. The tail end of the line dangles from the boom about a foot aft of the cuddy top and has knots tied in it for a handle.

In use it's pretty quick to operate. To tighten the outhaul I just grab the handle and tug. To loosen the outhaul I grab the line between the block and the cleat to uncleat it.

[Mike Gillum]

I usually set the outhaul on #2772 at the dock just after raising the Main for the anticipated conditions of the day and very rarely adjust it usually only releasing it prior to lowering the Main back at the dock after racing as its tight enough most of the time that it holds the Boom up somewhere between horizontal and laying on the aft deck as I lower the Main.
I have a 4:1 Outhaul that was probably installed by Ballenger Spars when the Boom was new 20-30 years ago and haven't got around to updating it by replacing the 1/8"-7/19 Stainless Steel Wire & SS Shackle with a spliced 1/8" Spectra & Ball. One of these days?
Other than possibly easing the outhaul going from flat water to chop there really isn't a need to adjust the Outhaul as you don't want to ease it downwind rather you want the clew of the Main as far outboard as possible for projected sail area downwind to "catch" as much wind as possible.
The other advantage of not easing the Outhaul downwind is that I don't have to remember to pull it back out again at the leeward mark!

[GreenLake]

Looks like I should make a change to my setup. Mulling.. mulling..mulling..

[K.C. Walker]

Mike,

So, what do you look for in, say 10-12 kn true wind, for out haul tension? Closed shelf? All the way to the black band?

You'll know when it's time to switch to spectra from stainless by the bloodstains on the sail.

[GreenLake]

I have the most lovely trail of bloodstains on my sail now, but they were caused by my interaction with a bronze cleat. Not sure spectra would've helped.

[Mike Gillum]

K.C.,
Closed shelf 99% of the time as most of the venues we race are predominately flat water and flat sails rule in flat water.
Because of the small to moderate chop we experienced most days on the Cheasapeake Bay for 2013 DS NACR's I did ease the Outhaul 2-3", Mainsheet 2-3", Barberhaulers 3-4" outboard and Jib 1-2" to power up both sails increasing boatspeed overall that in turn generated more lift off the foils allowing me to be able to sail around most of the chop without stalling either the sails or foils.

[Mike Gillum]

Over XMAS vacation a couple of years ago my brother Chris (professional Boat Builder/Rigger) taught me just how easy it is splice Spectra and I've been hooked ever since then using it for everything possible as it weighs next to nothing and is 2-3x stronger than the same sized 7x19 SS Cable so its a no-brainer.
I keep 100'+/- of 1/8" Spectra in my Rigging Bag and pieces of 3/16", 1/4" & 3/8" Spectra around for larger projects.
All you really need to splice most sizes are a couple of splicing tools, scissors, black magic marker, patience and some masking tape.

[TIM WEBB]

A couple months ago I replaced the coated galvanized cable topping lift I had with spectra. Love it! And it's now adjustable, thanks to the ease with which it is fingertrapped.

I'm not sure if this is the correct term, or if it's the same as what you guys are calling splicing?

We've been doing it in the parachute industry for years. Essentially, you use a thin wire fid to pull the running end through the sheath. You can bury the end (always trim off at an angle!) and lock it off by bringing the resulting loop through itself, or by putting a bartack near the entry point. Or, you can bring the running end out of the entry point, and make the fingertrap adjustable. This is what we do when we're fine-tuning the linesets/trim on new canopies, and what I did to make my topping lift adjustable after considerable urging from folks on this forum!

Mike, the biggest I've ever worked with is 1500#. Not sure what that translates to in diameter - maybe 3/16"? How is it working with 1/4" or 3/8"? Are those single braid?

[GreenLake]

Tim, I believe you are trying to describe what is known as the Brummel splice. A Brummel with buried tail is about the easiest splice I know. For some cool things you can do with Spectra look for the splicing instructions on http://l-36.com

[Mike Gillum]

Brummel splice it is but we go about it a different way using different tools and methods to achieve the same finished product.
Skip Dieball comments everytime I see him splicing "So easy a monkey can do it!" and he's 100% correct.
Only downfall of Spectra is that it doesn't like UV exposure and my brother says to replace it every 12-18 months regardless of use.
Being somewhat cheap I have stretched that out to 24-36 months but have had the previous Spectra Topping Lift on #2772 fail at the SS Topping Lift Hook while gybing but that might have been caused by a sharp edge on the SS Sister Hook chewing through the splice at the SS Topping Lift Hook?
I had Mardi jump up on the foredeck to quickly tie the pieces together as I flew the Spinnaker threading us between Craig Lee and Steve Lowry to win the race!
Less than an hour and a cold beer or two later the new Spectra Topping Lift replacement was fabricated and installed for the next day's races.

[K.C. Walker]

Thanks Mike! Good info on sail settings.

Do you mark your control lines and sheets so that you know when you're at optimal settings? Or, do you do it by feel and observation of sail shape?

[Mike Gillum]

K.C.,
I'm a visual kind of guy so no numbers, colored bands or other reference aids just what looks "good/fast" to me!
Right after fully hoisting the Main I grab the Outhaul at the Harken Bullet Block hanging off the bottom of the Boom just aft of the Gooseneck pulling hard as I can and then a touch of Cunningham to even out wrinkles on the luff.
Like I said I almost always have a horizontal crease in the foot of Main running parallel to the Boom.

[K.C. Walker]

Mike, thanks for the further info, especially the tugging on the outhaul as hard as I can part.