Rigging Guides, Manuals or Photos

[Jetexas]

I've had slow but steady progress on my Starwind 27 project boat over the past few months. The time at the boat on the weekends has been spent working over the diesel, but I've had time at home in the evenings to go through the sails, repaint the boom, etc. The boom is finally back on the mast, all the hardware on the main sail looks good, and all the frozen hanks have been replaced on the jib.

We've purchased two halyards to raise the sails, but now I'm kind of stumped.

I have a box full of blocks and cleats from the previous owner that were originally ... somewhere.

I bought Don Casey's Complete Guide to Sailboat Maintenance and while there's a big section on how to sew and repair sails, there's nothing on how to run lines.

I know that one of the two cleats in the box screws into the stern end of the boom on the starboard side because I can match up the screw holes, but I have no idea what it's for.

I'm guessing the block with the quick lock attaches to the traveler, and the block without the quick lock attaches to a ring on the boom. However, I have no idea how the main sheet is supposed to run back and forth between them and where the end you're not pulling disappears to.

There's also three lines coming through the boom. Obviously the one with the metal lead hooks to the metal line off the mast to adjust the height/angle of the boom, but what are the other two for?

I feel bad asking such simplistic questions, but I've bought several books now hoping for some kind of guide and none of them have addressed running rigging. I've also tried to figure it out staring at other boats in the marina, but the sail covers generally hide all the detail of what's going where.

Does anyone have good photos they could share of how their rigging runs on a 25' - 30' sloop or can you point me to some sort of guide/instruction manual?

(My fingers are crossed that the diesel finally runs tomorrow, so we can buy our sheets and rig the sails on Saturday.)

[johnar]

I will go take some pictures of a boom for you but for now I can tell you alittle about it.

First off you will have a cable in most cases that is called the down hall this is to ajust how far the boom will drop down when the sail is not up.

Second you will have the traveler it will hook to the boom at mid point or back, there are a number of different ways they hook up normal is a block right at the boom then at the traveler there will be another and the bottom one will have a snach cleat.

One of the lines go to the foot of the sail to pull it back.

The other lines i guess are reefing lines, count the reefing points on the sail and see if they match.

I will go now and take a few pic's for you.

Dutch

[Sailmonkey]

this is a good one, especially for running mainsheets and ideas on running all the little control lines.


Harken Tech Corner

[johnar]

i have some pic's but do not know how to post them on here. if you want email me at johnsdutchtreat@aol.com

[johnar]

here are some pic's

[wannago]

For future projects, memorize how it goes together before you take it apart... (If it's together when you get it). Anyhow....

Three lines running up the boom are probably the outhaul and two reefing lines.

The outhaul connects the the clew (?) of the sail, the corner on the bottom to the rear. It'll generally run around a block on the end of the boom and them up the boom to the mast. Where it goes from there is should be the hard part, and every boat is going to be different.... This is used to hold the clew to the boom and control the sail shape, i.e. more shape in light wind flatter in more wind (generally speaking).

On the back edge of the sail you will hopefully find some grommet'd holes for reefing points. They should match will holes in the front of the sail. The reefing lines should go up through these and back down to the boom (generally). The object is to pull the sail down, and make this the new effective clew. I would assume you have two reef points, with the lines starting attatched to the boom (possibly just tied to it) through the reef point on the back edge of the sail, through a block on the end of the boom and up the boom to the mast.

And, when it gets to the mast, the puzzle thickens. My suggestion would be to look at a boat that has a single line block reefing, where the reef line then goes around a block in the front of the boom, up to the reef point in the front of sail, and back down to a block in the mast (or the deck directly under the mast?) and back to a clutch on it's way around a winch into the cockpit. (it wouldn't need it's own winch, but it's probably better if it uses a different winch than the main halyard, cause when reefing you will pull the reef line to bring the mainsail down while slacking on the halyard to allow it to go down.) But, chances are on a 27ish foot boat, this wasn't how it was setup before, the lines probably have a lock or cleat on the front of the boom, or on the mast near it.

Having done this some thing recently (I bought a trailer-able 30' boat that the mast comes down on, and the boom comes off before the mast comes down, and all the rigging gets taken down), I would suggest going over the sail controls that need to be there one at a time, and figure out how they should work, given the pieces you have, rather than looking at the pieces are trying to figure out where they might have come from.

The topping lift will come from the top of the mast down to the end of the boom. This holds the boom up when the sail is down. If the sail is raised, this should be loose, to make sure you aren't hosing your mainsail holding the boom up with the topping lift.

The main sheet should run from the traveler (if there is one) to the bottom of the boom, maybe 3/4 of the way back or so. On a 30 foot or less, the sheet probably runs through a pair of blocks on each end (i.e. 2 pulley block on the traveler and 2 pulley block on the boom) and general a cam cleat on the end with the traveler for control from the cockpit.

[Jetexas]

Sailmonkey, thank you for that link. That solved my mainsheet and traveler mystery.

Wannago, I WISH we had taken it apart ourselves. We document, bag and tag just about everything. Unfortunately, this was part of the stuff that was just presented to us in a box out of the previous owner's garage.

It looks like the cleats and small turning blocks in the box are all part of the reefing system that goes on the outside of the boom.

The down haul was easy to identify as it had a metal leader on it. As for the other two lines running through the boom, I guess they're both out hauls because they're way to large for reefing. Is that possible to have two out hauls?

They're the same size line, and they both enter the boom at the mast around their own turning blocks, run the length of the boom and then exit the boom around another block with little friction levers to lock each one. My photo isn't very good, but you can seem them wrapped around and hanging off the ends of the boom.

[wannago]

the two lines you describe sound exactly like my reefing lines.

But every boat is different (not just every model, every boat). I'm a member of a "club" sorta thing with 6 Catalina 25s, and none of them are the same. I've seen one other boat the same as mine, and it was different. I look at the pictures of the same boat as mine from a members group, and they are all different.

Walk through in your head what sail controls are supposed to be there and what YOU need on the boat, and get them to work with your box of parts. Some things are obviously required, halyard, sheet, etc. but for instance, my boat has a cunningham that I've never bothered figuring out, there's a hook to attach the mainsails tack to and away I go. Having to rig / unrig the boat whenever it gets launched off the trailer, I commonly ignore the boom vang and reefing lines too (I wouldn't recommend that long term).

Basically, you need something to hold the head, tack and clew to the boat. The halyard controls the head, the cunningham would control the tack, or just a hook will do, and the outhaul on the clew, but just tying a line around it to the boom will actually work but won't allow the adjustment that you'll probably want.

Get that figured out and you oughta be able to sail the boat in some nice calm weather. Once you get a little experience with it you can start thinking about how it should work. Maybe sail on some other boats and look at what does and doesn't work with them...

[Sailmonkey]

The lines in your boom are for the outhaul and then the two reef points, the idea is that when you lower the halyard for the reef and attach the new tack point you then at the same time pull one of the lines to reef and close the clutch (friction stopper) to pull in the clew of the sail and act as the new outhaul. it all makes sense when you see it put together.

[barnakiel]

Walk down the dock and look up how others are set up. Every dock is an open book.

b.