What Are These Horseshoe Looking Things?

[aa1bflyboy]

Yes, please let us know! I have one of these silly looking things stashed away down in the depths of one of my lowest parts of my boat. Could someone please post a photo of one these in use?

[Rorzech]

Yup Roller furling for boom vang .It's so you can roll your boom to furl your main sail.

[JoeRobertJr]

Googling "reefing claw" produced many pictures, like this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49391875@N02/4723248089

[jmschmidt]

They look like horseshoes to me. What breed do you have, quarter-horse or thoroughbred?

[BrianGJS]

It looks like a roller reefing and fuller claw.
http://i.imgur.com/ycA4ICf.jpg?1

[roverhi]

It’s a boom claw for a roller reefing boom popular in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Because the reefing wrapped the sail around the boom you couldn’t have things like a vang permanently attached. Used with multi part tackle Vang to the deck. Roller reefing was one of the dumbest things ever invented. Fortunately most of these booms have been converted to slab/jiffy reefing.

[straightman21]

Originally Posted by roverhi

It’s a boom claw for a roller reefing boom popular in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Because of the reefing wrapped the sailnaround the boom you couldn’t have things like a vang permanently attached. Used with multi part tackle Vang to the deck. Roller reefing was one of the dumbest things ever invented. Fortunately most of these booms have been converted to slab/jiffy reefing.

Try telling Robin Knox Johnson that after sailing Suhali around the world with roller reefing [or me with my lovely roller boom reefing :-)0

[Mikado]

Ok, so now I finally know what these devices are and I can get rid of them. Thanks everyone for your detective work :-)

Jeff

[JoeRobertJr]

I love these threads with the hardware mysteries. I am still surprised at the result, since looking at the picture, I would have sworn the pins are not sturdy enough for the load of a vang. I learned something cool today!

[Sailmonkey]

Here ya go

http://www.wayfarer-international.or...l_Reefing.html

[roverhi]

Originally Posted by straightman21

Try telling Robin Knox Johnson that after sailing Suhali around the world with roller reefing [or me with my lovely roller boom reefing :-)0

And I'll bet RKJ was swearing at it the whole way. Rolling the sail around the boom results in a bar tight leech, a big bag in the middle and a mass of bolt rope around the gooseneck. Had roller reefing on my first boat. First passage hard on the wind across the Molokai Channel in lousy conditions permanently stretched out the brand new main's leech ruining its shape, Sail was so baggy causing heel and control issues finally dropped the main altogether which became the standard practice in lieu of the lousy reefed shape. Have had a couple of boats since with roller furling booms but they were converted to slab reefing. Night and day reefing and the set of the reefed sail. There is a reason that roller reefing died out as soon as an alternative existed. Actually slab reefing is ancient technology, can't figure why anyone went to the trouble of designing the roller boom. It's complicated gearing is prone to corrosion seizing and of course what do you do when the crank handle goes overboard. If you can get a decent setting reef with a roller boom more power to you, I was never so lucky.

[Larry Chamblee]

They are bolt rope feeders that help you insert a roller-furling sail into the furling extrusion that is around the forestay.

Your feed the bolt rope of the sail into the ring and tie the ring down below the opening of the forestay extrusion so that the sail feeds fair into the extrusion.

[Paul Howard]

They are the sheet attachment points to be placed over the sail rolled along the length of the boom when reefed. They were often seed from about 50's through the 70's, but since 'jiffy reefing' and reef points became more popular and gave a better reef.
I had a boat with such a system, the reef was dreadful, as the luff is shorter than the leech and the deeper the reef the lower the end of the boom sagged. Many boats with roller reefing booms had end-of-boom sheeting, but if the boat was rigged with mid-boom sheeting, the sheet tackle was taken off the fitting mid-boom, the sail rolled along the boom and the boom claw slid over the boom and rolled portion of the sail and the sheet re-attached to the boom claw.

[stnick]

Yes they are for reefing , the horse shoe fits around the boom . Can be used to attach a vang but there are better ways today ! If you have not used them by now , get rid of the clutter !

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Larry Chamblee

They are bolt rope feeders that help you insert a roller-furling sail into the furling extrusion that is around the forestay.



Your feed the bolt rope of the sail into the ring and tie the ring down below the opening of the forestay extrusion so that the sail feeds fair into the extrusion.

Not by a long shot