outhaul thoughts

[andyp]

Now winter's arrived I've turned to thinking what needs doing to improve our Feeling Foolish (3465)and most thoughts centre around the current outhaul arrangement with which we have never been entirely happy. In it's current form it gives us three main problems
1 there is not enough purchase for the crew to be able to pull it on hard when sailing in a blow going from a reach to a beat
2. in a bid to make the foot of the sail slide easily i added a sries of 'stoppers' (balls) to the outhaul bridle which helped but it has caused the boom to now be 6 cm lower meaning i get hit by it on most tacks (maybe I'm just too old?)
3.The outhaul doesn't slide back up the boom anything like as easily it does on my laser (this has elastic to pull it back)
So: Ideas please to improve all these points in one go, I guess the boat currently has an 'out of the box' set up with the outhaul controlled from both sides of the thwart to a single line that appears to travel inside the boom as a straight 1 to 1 puchase, then out the end of the boom through the hole in the foot of the sail and ties off on the end of the boom. The sail is held to the boom via a shackle attacked to the rope bridle threaded though the above mentioned stoppers
Would a standard HD laser set up work or are there better solutions?
ps Also is it easy to get the centreboard out as I need to replace one of the screws in the friction plate as its bent and i cant get to it in situ
 
All suggestions greatfully received :-/

[Antony (Guest)]

Andy,
Answering your second question first:  To remove the board you need to roll the boat on to its side and remove the screw that closes a slot in the board that sits on a built in pin within the boat.  You are likely, although not certain, to find that you need an Allen Key rather than a screwdriver to do this.  You do this with the board in the case, and then pull the board down until you can pull it out from the 'inside' of the boat and it comes off the pin smoothly.  This makes it sound complicated, once you have had a good look and done it once it all makes perfect sense.  How easy it is depends on how stiff the board is in the case, ours is so snug that this paticular job is a bit of a pig!
Outhaul:  There are many ways to do this, none of them perfect and most of them adequate.  We basically have the same arrangement as you, but with the sail tied directly to the loop with the balls on it, cutting out the extra space between sail and boom created by your shackle.  Our string has a loop of balls and then two 'ends' to tie the sail, so that the balls do not fall off when you un-tie the sail!  I usually end up pulling it on, sometimes once we are going upwind if it is really breezy, but if you add more purchase to pull it more easily you end up with more string, more friction, some elastic to pull it off.. etc... which seems worse than the simple option.  There are some fancy arrangements that put a metal rod into the carbon boom with an inverted block on them for the sail to run up and down, they are probably better when done right but an expensive piece of kit if you do not want to cut up your boom yourself!  Some people have the outhaul on the boom, well forward, with the advantage that the crew can put their weight on to it but the disadvantage that they have to be in the middle and well forward to do it... we had this on one boat and did not repeat it.
Antony
N3514

[MikeDay]

Andy - I have never been a fan of the low-tech set-up that you and others have, for the reasons that you describe.  I have one of Antony's 'fancy arrangements' - a rod inset into a slot in the boom with an inverted block running on it.  This works perfectly under all loads and hasn't failed once since I've had the boat.  I think the overall power ratio is 4:1 - I have the string fixed to a point on the end of the boom, from where it goes through a block fixed to the clew of the sail and back to a sheave inset in the boom.  I get another doubling of the purchase from the free block attached to the end of this string hanging by the mast that allows the control line to be split and led back to behind the thwart on either side.  I appreciate that the method of a single cleat on the underside of the boom is simpler but it does mean the crew has to come forward in to the centre of the boat in windy conditions.  Now, you just need the courage to cut the slot in your nice carbon boom ...
 
Mike D
N3496

[Just another John (Guest)]

Thanks chaps for raising the subject for I too have been pondering the outhaul question.
My boat came with a purchase system set up within the boom, with the 'tail' led out at the gooseneck. The control lines are cleated at the thwart and run forward to a small (free) block which in use is tied off to the oputhaul 'tail' which in turn runs up over a sheave and into the boom. It worked absloutely terrifically until the day that some nameless muppet let the tail retract back inside the boom. Since then I'vepulled out the guts'n'gubbins and rethreaded it a number of times, trying different ways each time in the hope of replicating the original setup and never once has the outcome been remotely as good as before.
There are actually two double blocks in the boom. If I rigged them for maximum purchase that's great for ease of action but the clew adjustment is restricted because the 'tail' has to work in the available limited free space beneath the gooseneck. It's getting tiresome to keep extracting and re-rigging the innards of the boom!
A poosible improvement came to me while reading your thread.  My two control lines that cleat on either side of the thwart are actually the two ends of one line that run over a block rising fom sheaves close to the mast step that in itself gives a 2:1; doubling up the purchase within the boom.  the control lines could be bettered without getting too messy.
I figure if I retain the (free floating) block beneath the gooseneck to which the outhaul tail can be tied off to after exiting the boom then I can rig a line to run over that block with the two ends running down over each of two sheaves fiited by the mast step to then run aft (that's like the control lines now) EXCEPT I'm going to cut those short so each finish alongside the c/b case and attach a block to the line (one each side); I'll anchor a new line at the thwart to run forward and over the new block lying alongside the c/b case and back aft to the thwart mounted cleat.   Put simply, as the control line runs aft alongside the c/b case I'll just drop in aonther 2:1.
Now at the point where the block is above the mast step I have a total 4:1.  Anything else I do at the boom will be bettered by four times.
Next I'm going to get my tape out and measure the range benaeth the gooseneck where I would like that block ( the one the outhaul tail will tie off to) to operate. For the argument lets say that's twenty inches. If I play with sail and decide that I want to be able to adjust the clew a total of five inches than mathematically speaking the most purchase I could rig at the boom would be 4:1. 
I'm not sure what final total purchase I'll settle on but I'll start at 8:1 so I'll  need just another 2:1 at the boom and I'll try the simplest set up first. I can anchor the dead end of the outhaul at the boom end, run that to a small block at the clew then back over the boom end sheave and down inside the boom to exit at the gooseneck where it can tie off with that block.
Intuitively 8:1 sounds about right. If I added another block within the boom then I could have 16:1 all told and that would seem like overkill. Imagine, to stretch the clew by one inch I'd have to pull sixteen inches of control line at the cleat..........
Ah well, .........Knit one; pearl one............

[Martin]

For me the issue with outhauls on all of my boats (N12s and other boats I have owned in the past) is the ease or not of which the outhaul runs free when let off. In the majority of my boats the system fitted has not been particularly good.
My Foolish 3426 appears to have the standard set up including small plastic stopper balls around a close fitting bridle made of seriously thin string, a shackle, some purchase inside the boom and a shockcord to ease the let off.  I have to say the system works really well (ie just enough purchase to get the outhaul in without pulling yards of rope and it eases in all wind conditions including drifters when the cleat is released. I am not aware that the boom is hanging low because of the bridle arrangement.  It sounds like the bridle might be a bit too big for the job on AndyP's boat.

[martin 1262]

Andy
I had the same system as yours when I bought White Heat and to be honest I could not get on with it. I ended up biting the bullet an cutting a slot in the boom after chatting to Steve Sallis. I have added the stainless bar and ball block and to be honest I have had no problems, the outhaul is easy to pull on in any condition, and an elastic fitted making letting it off in light winds easy too.
I recommend that route, I might even have the offcut for the stainlesss steel if you want for for free. Only cost will be a stainless drill bit and ball block.
Let me know if you are intersted.
Martin
3458

[andyp]

Thanks for everyones input, by my reckoning I can get 164 to 1 purchase if I adopt all the methods suggested!
Seriously I think I may bite the bullet and go for the metal rod, Martin, your offer of the offcut would be much appreciated, the only thing I'm still not sure on is how's the metal rod anchored inside the boom?
In the mean time I'll alter the bridle to get rid of the shackle and use thiner 'string tied myself' as Anthony suggested
Martin is your e mail in the N12 book?

[Lukepiewalker]

If you have purchases inside the boom, it could be worth adding internal elastic too. Keep enough tension on to stop things getting tangled.

[martin 1262]

Andy. Just found the offcut.
Email is martin_clarkeatbtinternetdotcom.
Perhaps if I share with you what I did, it should make it easier.
 
Regards
 
Martin

[FuzzyDuck]

Martin,
Tell me as well I have the same set up on PP as Andy.  Plus mine is also off the boom which is going to have to change.
Simon

[Dare Barry (Guest)]

Have you thought of using a inhaul instead of outhaul? Gives a bigger sail and less string.

[Martin]

How does an inhaul work?  How do you set it up?