What's in the boom for the outhaul?

Well, I've got a winter fishing expedition. Our outhaul's totally jammed. I assume there's a purchase/tackle that lives down inside the boom that's tumbled, or had a block fail, or the like.

Does anyone have a description of how this was put together on the original Kenyon booms. I'd love to have some hints of what I'm going to find before I start fishing.

Looking at the boom, it looks to me like one has to pull the mainsheet bail, or it's going to block the path of any fishing expedition. True? Anyone been down this path recently? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

- David

Just got through rerigging my boom, so here's my two cents.

The outhaul tackle consists of a fixed single block with becket and a floating double block attached to the outhaul wire. The fixed block is attached to a 3/8" throughbolt about 6" from the mast end of the boom tube.

Started to tell you how to build a watch when all you asked was what time it was. If you would like the results of my many mast and boom fishing expeditions, let me know.

Well, I expect when we dig into it, we'll discover it needs a full replacement, so if you have some thoughts, I'd be delighted to hear them.

- David

I just replaced my outhaul last winter. It was the same as described by Jim. I removed the gooseneck fitting for easy? access. I would suggest using your favorite high-tech line to replace the wire and 3/8 purchase. I increased the purchase by one and used small harken blocks. The tail of the purchase now exits through a block in the bottom of the boom, to a carbon clamcleat. From the clamcleat, the line leads to a small bullet block on the bottom of the boom. This last block keeps the line from pulling out of the clamcleat and allows the outhaul to be pulled from and angle. The crew thinks it is a great improvement.

I wrote an article for the J/30 Journal in 1996 that I will send to David and anyone else on request but it's too long to post and a bit outdated. I replaced the Kenyon blocks & 4:1 system with Harken triples 086 & 087 (w/becket). They just squeeze inside the boom, to create a 7:1 purchase. The Ronstan RF5, 'Swivel 180' is the perfect cleat. It has a curved base that conforms to the shape of the boom, a swivel for side to side, a sheave so the line hangs down, and a small cam cleat with a fairlead. Crew can trim or release from the rail up to about 20 knots. Then you have to put some weight into it. You want flexible line or the system won't release in light air. I used 1/4" Sta Set that is fine; spectra would be ok too but an unnecessary expense. You could try some of the newer stronger, small blocks. But don't go so small that you end with a line you can't hold. Instead of the triple, try an 8:1 purchase using a cascading 2:1 high tech line and 4:1 rope purchase of Sta Set.

[This message has been edited by Bob Rutsch (edited 09-18-2002).]

Well, this weekend, I got around to sorting out our outhaul. Thanks to those who provided notes earlier. We did minimally invasive surgery. The outhaul anchors on the bolt that's midway between the vang tang and gooseneck. We pulled the bolt, hauled the tacke down the boom and took a look. Tumbled tackle, mostly frozen block and other excitement. (The block was 90% jammed by a badly installed strap, which probably dates to 1979.) We replaced the blocks, and re-wove the tackle.

For pulling the tackle back up the boom, we dropped a messanger down from the bolt hole, and fastened it to the attach point on the tackle. (With a long looped bowline, this turns out to be important) We then pulled the tackle down to the bolt hole. We then pegged the strap on the block that gets held by the bolt with a thin screwdriver, which allowed us to push the bolt through the strap. We then untied the bowline, pulled the messange clear and passed the bolt all the way through and resecured it.

- David

Bob,
I would love to see the article. Please email it to me!
Gary