Harken Battcar System Headboard Mystery...

[akio.kanemoto]

Greetings Folks,

I have recently had my mast refurbished, new rigging etc... and while doing this, I also had a new Harken Battcar System installed.

The rigger seemed to do a good job on the track installation itself, however he also installed the mainsail onto the track/boom/mast and I'm not sure he knew what he was doing.

If you look at the pic, you'll notice that the headboard car tangs/cheeks have started to chafe through the webbing through the lower grommet in the headboard. There is also notch in the top aft corner of the headboard - which to me looks like chafe against the backstay.

I've only sailed 2-3 times since, so hopefully haven't caused any terminal damage to anything.

But these two observations have led me to have a look at the Harken manual:

www.harken.com/pdf/4248.pdf


At the bottom of page 12, there's a section about headboards. Based on the measurements provided, my installation is incorrect.

The two questions I have are:

1. You're supposed to drill an 11mm hole, (100mm) 4" from the top of the headboard. This however will end up right on the top edge of the lower vertical "slot" you can see just above where the headboard car is attached to the headboard right now. To miss the hole, I need to go up a few cm (say an inch) - which leaves the distance from the top of the headboard to the pin at only 9cm (3.5in) or so - will this be OK?

2. The manual says that the halyard should be attached to the aft hole of the headboard and if a second hole does not exist - then drill a new one 63.5mm (2.5in) aft of the forward hole. Well, I have two, but the aft hole is maybe 13cm (5in) aft. Does this matter or should I drill another hole? I'd prefer to use a buntline hitch and no shackles, so the current aft hole is nice and smooth/usable, but is it too far aft?

(on that note, is there any reason Harken want the aft hole used and not the (more logical) fwd hole?)

3. On repairing the chafed webbing - can I just put another length of webbing through the grommet and just hand stitch it at a few places and call it "fixed"?

Thank you very much in advance!

[akio.kanemoto]

By the way, if anybody has a Harken battcar system and has a pic of their headboard, I'd greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

[S/V Illusion]

That's completely opposite the way my rigger installed mine. When in doubt, go with Harken's recommendation