by Guest » Mon Jul 10, 2000 12:00 am
I read all this stuff about claws carefully, and was worrying about how I was going to find this exotic antique casting with it's complicated fo'rard and aft lines, and then the guy with the sailcloth plan got me thinking...
the next time it looked really blowy down at the lake, I took a length of cord, slipped off the block the main sheet runs through mid boom, tied my piece of cord into it's attachment, rolled the mains'l four times around the boom and tied the mid boom block onto the unwrapped end of the cord. It's a little bit sloppy unless you get the cord length dead on, but it worked pretty fine that day. With both sails up the boat points into the wind like a charm, and with the mains'l area cut down like that the gusts dont put her on her side.
Am I heading for trouble with this simple minded resolution to the reefling claw shortage? Could someone let me know if I'm likely to tear my sail or something dumb like that. Thanks . F.
Felix Graham-Jones (felix.graham-jones-at-snet.net)