New Boom Outhaul Car

[ErBrown]

Howdy Folks,

In an embarrassingly long winded post last month I mentioned that during our first offshore trip with the new boat, we ran into some issues with our outhaul. Specifically the PO, who was otherwise utterly excellent with maintenance, had replace the outhaul line (spec'd as 3/8") a couple sizes larger with 5/8th. What probably seemed like a good idea at the time, resulted in some massive friction due to the line binding up on every in-boom block in the system. The resulting load on the car caused it to fail during our passage. It was still usable but meant someone had to go forward for furling and unfurling.

Anyway, as the boat's been waiting for our return in Abaco, I've been hunting for a replacement. Thanks to the folks at rig-rite, I was able to track down a replacement. They weren't exactly friendly about it, but did help me figure out the right car so I was willing to deal with the attitude.

Once I found the part, and $550 later I had a replacement and couldn't wait to give it a try. Since we're heading back to Abaco for Christmas my plan was to tackle this and replacing the actual outhaul with the properly sized line as soon as we got there. Enter our delivery skipper Blaine Parks, who was taking another boat to Marsh Harbour and volunteered to pick up some new line and verify the car actually fit while he was there.

So we shipped him the car and he picked up the line for us from WM and today installed it for us...free of charge. Talk about above an beyond the call of duty. And even better, we now know for sure the replacement car works and don't have to worry about dealing with that over our vacation this Christmas and for the return trip to Texas.

Probably not the most exciting story in the world, but an exciting one for us...pics below.