Mizzen Boom Rigging

[Rustic Charm]

From the photo you can see that my Mizzen boom only has one pully which is attached to one of the life line ends. To swap the Mizzen to port, I have to undo this and let it travel to port and then clip it on and rein it in.

The Tiller isn't showing. But presently I have no way of centralising the Mizzen. That's the way it was when I purchased her.

Can someone suggest what to do, which would keep in mind the life lines?

[JPA Cate]

RC, that looks like a traveler for the mizzen boom at the aft end of your cockpit. Would it work for you to secure it to that? You might want to add double preventers to it, so you could control it all the time.

Ann

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

RC, that looks like a traveler for the mizzen boom at the aft end of your cockpit. Would it work for you to secure it to that? You might want to add double preventers to it, so you could control it all the time.

Ann

Im not sure what your looking at Ann, but there is no traveller?

If you mean the pipe thats simply laying there, its for the top of the solar panels.

[GILow]

I'm thinking some kind of bridle is the way to go. Elegant, light, and with the right fittings could be made to act like a traveller by sheeting the bridle to one side.

Matt


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[UNCIVILIZED]

I think what Ann's referring to, is the stainless steel bar, which is just behind & above the cockpit's aft coaming.
As, assuming that said bar's structural, then to use it as a traveler, you just need to put a Spectra Loop/Shackle, or Carabiner, around it, & then attach the sheet hardware to same.
In addition, of course, to adding control lines, to regulate the sheet's athwartship's position.

Or, you could bolt a more standard traveler in place back aft. One with a track, & a commercially made slider car, with connections for control blocks on it.

That, & option #3 would be to simply go with one block & tackle led from the boom, to either stern quarter. And use them to adjust the boom's position.

[GILow]

UC, I think that bar is just sitting there, it is not attached. But there are two objects that look like some kind of cleat on the inside of the coaming. Might these have been the foundations of a traditional bridle style arrangement over the tiller?


Also, any kind of traveller back there is going to foul the tiller, so not ideal.


I do like UC's option #3, but only as a second option to my bridle idea.


Yeah, ok, so I like my bridles. Maybe I was horse in another life? But they work.


:^)

[Mainstreet]

Hi everyone. I agree with Gl. Funny you mention "horse". My grandfather, a commercial schooner captian, used the term for an iron bar mounted like a traveller on the foredeck that allowed the club footed jib on his boat to self tak by attaching a double purchase block and tackle to it and the end of the boom or club.

In RCs instance, I favour a pair of light double purchase main sheet blocks and tackle with cam cleats on the fiddle blocks. Set up one on the port side, the other to starboard with their upper blocks attached to the end of the mizzen boom. I used this as a main sheeting system on many outboard tiller rigged boats.

[Rustic Charm]

Any chance you could draw a rough sketch guys?

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

Any chance you could draw a rough sketch guys?

I started to do something in MSPaint, but frankly, it was embarrassing.

However, through the magic of Google, here is EXACTLY what I was thinking.

OK, not exactly, that's a bit under-nourished for what you need, and maybe an extra pair of blocks at the top of the bridle would give you better purchase to pull the sheet over to one side such as the blocks on a traveller, but anyway... back to the subject, here's a picture.

(Note, happy dinghy sailors not messing around trying to keep a keel boat floating... food for though here.)

[Mainstreet]

I found this drawing on
Shuttleworth Sailing Catamaran Malihini - improvements - Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii
It is exactly what I was describing.

Drawing here:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/att...-mainsheet.jpg

Hope this helps?!

[GILow]

Ooh. Tacking that would be a bit of a handful!


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[GILow]

RC, looking at the photo in your profile this seems to be a conventional mizzen right? Significantly smaller than the main? So we are talking maybe 15 square meters of sail? Maybe less.


Looking at the current block arrangement it looks like there are only very manageable forces on the sheet. I don't know how the mizzen mast sits in relation to the rest of the cockpit, but how about you run the sheet forward along the boom, just like the dinghy in the photo, but all the way to the mast, I imagine it might make for a very easily managed setup.


This may, depending your layout, bring the sheet for the mizzen up to the same place as the mainsheet, which might be very nice in terms of managing sail trimming without running around the cockpit. And with the mizzen self tacking just like the main, you are free to manage the jib or whatever foresail you have


(Unless you have a club footed foresail in which case you can tack one handed and only have to move to the other side of the cockpit to prevent spillage of your G&T, which is most certainly my kind of sailing.).

Matt

[Mainstreet]

Sorry, the drawing shows a main sheeting system for a cat rather than a mizzen sheeting system. Tacking the mizzen is rather automatic. The mizzen simply follows the preset position provided by the length of the windward sheet tackle. That windward tackle becomes the leeward tackle after the tack. Depending on how far outboard the two tackles and positioned, the leeward tackle becomes a bit of a vang to haul down on the boom end to flatten the mizzen if required. In practice it's similar to setting running mizzen back stays in that the sheets are led to the port and starboard of the cockpit and trimmed from there.

[Mainstreet]

GI has the right of it! Self tending all the way.

[Lodesman]

If the pushpit is solid enough, you might consider mounting a bar between the current attachment points and putting a traveller on that. http://www.harken.com/content.aspx?id=3914
Or seeing if you can rig a self-tacker, such as: Self-tacker in action : Seldén Mast AB
And I echo what GILow said about running the sheet forward to the mast; then you can lead it to the cockpit beside the mainsheet.