Leading control lines toward stern

Submitted by sjohnhughes on Sat, 03/20/2021 - 15:54

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Having had my boat rolled while at the mast lowering my sails, I want to lead halyards etc aft for safety reasons.
Has anyone done this, or have suggestions re routing and positioning of lines and cleats?
My boat is fibreglass and the centreboard case will probably need beefing up if cleats are mounted there.

62816inBerlin's picture

62816inBerlin

Tue, 03/23/2021 - 13:27

Having considered this (but decided against it), I reckoned that a pair of blocks, one on each side of where the boom vang (kicker) block is mounted on the forward bulkhead would do, from there passing the halyards back to one cleat on each side of the rear of the CB case where the wood is thick enough to screw on the cleats.
Running the lines at thwart level would be an option but they'd chafe against the kicker.
As I cruise occasionally and the cockpit to either side of the CB case is packed with stuff on those occasions, I decided against leading the lines back and rely on sitting on the baggage when or raising sails while the boat is afloat. I suppose one could pass the halyards through some conduit tubing to prevent them being jammed by camping/cruising gear, however.
Re: fibreglass boats: has anyone tried just gluing cleats etc. to the material instead of bolting/screwing them on?
Cheers and enjoy whatever solution you find!

sjohnhughes

Tue, 03/23/2021 - 18:25

Thanks for all your comments.
I also cruise and it was while doing so going down a river that I was swept between two yachts and their ropes caught my daggerboard and flipped me. I had considered myself to be in clear water, but by the time I had moved forward and started to lower the jib everything changed. My conclusion is that lowering the jib from the stern would have enabled me to keep looking forward and clear my view.
My centreboard case is only 2mm thick so something else will have to be added, I didn’t think glue or epoxy would take the load.
Your suggestion of conduits is a great idea, I had been wondering about chafe and jamming.

curlew's picture

curlew

Thu, 03/25/2021 - 19:22

My Mirror is wooden and has a long pivoting-centreboard case. But I thought I would mention that I do sometimes lead the halliards back to cleats on the centre case. They normally lead over blocks at the foot of the mast, then back up the mast a short distance to cleats. This arrangement gives an excellent purchase for hauling halliards up tight. But if my hood is in use, this is inconvenient, so I take then back to the centre case, which is completely satisfactory, but If a crew is carried it does get in the way. David
Curlew

sjohnhughes

Mon, 03/29/2021 - 01:37

Your arrangements hadn’t occurred to me and I will look at my boat to see if it will work for me. My centreboard case has a wide strengthening lip which may make running the lines from mast area to the case a little difficult. Taking the lines higher does mean avoiding my cruising clutter. How do you arrange your blocks? I never have crew so that your scheme wouldn’t be a problem.
I have looked at the daggerboard case strengthening “lip” and it was unfortunately too wide when I tried running lines back. Really good idea, though, and I’m grateful for your suggestion.
Regards
John
Yasmi

curlew's picture

curlew

Mon, 03/29/2021 - 17:53

Near the foot of the mast, I have a cheek block each side. The halliard passed around this then up again to a horned cleat.
David

sjohnhughes

Wed, 03/31/2021 - 10:02

I haven’t seen or thought of that arrangement and might try it as well. Presumably the blocks are placed so that lines can also be led aft if you are using the canopy.
John

curlew's picture

curlew

Wed, 03/31/2021 - 20:27

Yes, there is a choice of where to cleat the halliards. If I have a crew I cannot use the canopy so cleat on the mast but if using the canopy I cleat on the centre case.
The cheek blocks let you get a good horizontal pull on the halliards, but I still tend to lose a bit and so generally sweat them up.
David

curlew's picture

curlew

Wed, 03/31/2021 - 20:32

I wanted to mention that I do not lace the luff of the mainsail to the mast, but I have recently added a single parrel line around the mast about half way up. This is a ring of rope with parrel beads around the mast, and is attached to the sail using a piston hank. This is really good and easy to use.
David

sjohnhughes

Sat, 04/03/2021 - 01:21

I don’t use lacing at the moment (can’t remember whyI removed it) and have seen parrel beads mentioned somewhere, do they help with raising the halyard or tensioning the sail?
Also, do you have two cheek blocks together for main and reefing halyards?
You mention sweating the halyard at the mast and it did occur to me that I might not get the same tension with the lines led aft.
John

curlew's picture

curlew

Sat, 04/03/2021 - 11:21

HI John
Yes I have two cheek blocks one above the other for the mainsail halliards and another on the other side of the mast for the jib halliard.
I had not laced the mainsail for many years, but my crew thought a single tie might be helpful, so that is why I now have a single line half way up and this seems good. But you do need lots of luff tension. That is why sweating up might be necessary. If you take some weight off the boom with the topping lift, that is helpful, and also I use the tack downhaul to get the final tension on the throat halliard. David

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curlew

Sat, 04/03/2021 - 11:23

John. Incidentally the single parrel line has no effect on mast raising and lowering and does not catch on anything. david

sjohnhughes

Sat, 04/03/2021 - 20:28

David, your info has been a great help, many thanks.

John

Jollyboy

Thu, 06/10/2021 - 19:28

I've just belatedly seen this thread. I am experimenting with two clamcleats, which are placed to port of the mast base. I have a standard halyard and a reefing halyard. I'm just in the process of gluing a block underneath the foredeck to strengthen the fixing points. I haven't tried it out yet.
John
Red Kite 53814

sjohnhughes

Sun, 06/13/2021 - 20:22

I have installed 2 twin blocks by the kicker/vang and led the lines to cleats under the thwart. I reinforced the c’bd case with ply and wood. Works well using David’s tip to use topping lift when raising main.
Have been cruising twice with all kit aboard since the changes and all appears fine.

PuffinInTegel's picture

PuffinInTegel

Thu, 06/17/2021 - 21:42

I'm happy to hear that everything works.
So now we need some cruise stories ;-) .
Summer has certainly hit now.
Cheers,
Gernot H.