wolly bugger
Member II
I bought the boat a couple of weeks ago, the previous owner had never taken the mast down, but I had to for transportation. I read and reread the booklet about mast raising as well as many posts from this website. Everything seemed easy and made sense except those boom guys . It all went well for the first 2/3, but in the last seconds, the boom went sideways, the mast went down, my friend went running and my first thought was that I just bought a sailboat without a mast! (I don't want to find out how much it will cost to have a mast shipped to Alaska) I was lucky that the only things that broke were the 4 bolts that hold the tabernacle to the mast step and an inch off of the corner of the forward hatch.
A couple days ago I finally got the guts to raise my mast. I built a crutch to support the mast as high as I could lift it from the back of my truck. I figured that will take care of the worst part of the process. Then I made sure the boom guys were tight, and I started grinding at the jib halyard. My strongest friend was positioned, ready to catch the mast. In the end, he actually wasn't needed much, but I think it is nice to have somebody there to take a few pound off the whole system and keep it going up straight. Taking it down should be just as easy now that I know how it works. I will do in a couple of days.
Now here is my question. I learned to sail on a boat that have a loose footed main sail so the boom thing is new to me. The whole thing seems to work fine, but I'm not sure how to attach the clew (outhaul) to the boom. (see the attached picture) It will make sense to use one of those two sheaves but they are not far enough aft. That only leaves the clam cleat, but I'm not sure how much I trust that.
A couple days ago I finally got the guts to raise my mast. I built a crutch to support the mast as high as I could lift it from the back of my truck. I figured that will take care of the worst part of the process. Then I made sure the boom guys were tight, and I started grinding at the jib halyard. My strongest friend was positioned, ready to catch the mast. In the end, he actually wasn't needed much, but I think it is nice to have somebody there to take a few pound off the whole system and keep it going up straight. Taking it down should be just as easy now that I know how it works. I will do in a couple of days.
Now here is my question. I learned to sail on a boat that have a loose footed main sail so the boom thing is new to me. The whole thing seems to work fine, but I'm not sure how to attach the clew (outhaul) to the boom. (see the attached picture) It will make sense to use one of those two sheaves but they are not far enough aft. That only leaves the clam cleat, but I'm not sure how much I trust that.