[Public-list] some rigging questions

[J Bergquist]

Dear List,

 

I have a few rigging questions. 

 

1.	Have any of you installed rigid boom vangs? If so, what is your
opinion of this gadget? What did you do with your sliding gooseneck?
Keep it? Make it fixed? Replace it? If you replaced your gooseneck, what
did you use for replacement? 
2.	What kind of purchase do most people use for vangs? If anybody
is using more than 4:1, do you find that you are overloading the boom
(does it bend)? Has anybody bought a replacement boom?
3.	My boom rotates. I presume this is because once upon a time
(before there was a vang attached to it), someone used it as a roller
furler for the main, which is also why I presume there was no vang in
the days before my ownership, and why the boom is mounted on a sliding
track for maintaining luff tension, rather than using a Cunningham
through a cringle in the main luff. Has anybody replaced their boom
and/or gooseneck with a non-rotating variety? Is anybody else interested
in doing so (read: group purchase?) I have seen that LinGin #244 has an
aftermarket boom. Tim, does that thing rotate? I suspect not, but I
don’t remember. How about the gooseneck, is it fixed, or can the boom
slide?
4.	Can somebody explain why our class rules do not allow
loose-footed mains? I assume this is because the boats have
traditionally sailed with shelf-footed mains and changing the rules
might necessitate main purchases en masse. Also, loose footed mains
might result in needing new booms en masse as well because of the fact
that the leech load would be a point load rather than a distributed
load. (This problem could be exacerbated by the presence of a powerful
vang
) I for one would be interested in having a loose-footed main, but
I’m curious to know if anybody else thinks this would be cool or if that
opinion is an isolated one held by foolish young whipper-snappers such
as myself. 
5.	I have a harken roller furler. It has worked dandy with my ratty
old jib for 2 years of extensive use (and extensive neglect). Just in
the past couple of weeks, the headfoil has taken to snagging my jib
halyard as it rotates. This drives me INSANE. It has made me wish for
the simplicity of hanks. However, the lazy b**tard in me loves the
pull-it-and-go ease of use offered by the roller furler. I have
jury-rigged something to keep it from snagging which consists of a
hacksawed shroud tube slipped over the halyard above the roller furler
spinning bearing doohickey (what do you call that thing?) This prevents
the spinning headfoil from snagging the halyard, but it’s not pretty and
it affects my ability to adjust halyard tension. Someone at Oxford
boatyard told me about a special block made by harken which will attach
to the mast and basically lower the lead point of the halyard
(http://www.harken.com/furling/acfurlfeat.php - look at the halyard
restrainer). Has anybody else installed one of these? How does it work?
How far down from the masthead did you install it? Is there enough room
up there? 
6.	Otherwise, has anybody else had the problem I described in 5?
Like I said, I never had it for 2 whole years, and then all of a sudden
every time I tried to bring out the jib, it snagged and I was
embarrassed. So maybe even if you’ve never had the problem but you do
have roller furling, it will bite you one day
 Or maybe it’s just me

7.	What size jib halyard, and what material are folks using? I
think mine is oversized, which might be part of why it’s snagging on the
headfoil. It is there mostly because it’s what I had on hand when I
decided It should get replaced
 I think it’s either ½” or 9/16”
sta-set-x. Yeah, flog me. It’s too big. I know. What size do you
recommend?
8.	Anybody using internal halyards? Did you rig that yourself? What
kind of masthead do you have? Got any advice on how to do that?

 

Thanks for reading. I will appreciate any and all answers. Sorry to be
so verbose. I should probably read and post more often, rather than
saving everything up for a rainy day
like yesterday.

 

Ciao!

 

J Bergquist

Calliope #287


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