Outhaul

[Grim1089]

Hi all,

Having just bought a very cheap old Laser, I'm a bit confused with the outhaul rigging. I've spent a few hours searching the internet and cannot find anyone else with a similar setup. Basically, the line from the clew goes along the boom and through the clamcleat (1st picture), and then there is an arrangement of two pulleys (2nd picture). I've tried looping the end loop around the mast, but it isn't long enough. I then attached it to the end of the boom near the mast, but when I pulled on the outhaul to tension the sail, I was left with the whole pulley arrangement dangling from the boom, nearly taking my head off every time I tacked!! Has anyone seen this before and got any ideas?

Thanks

Graham

 

[AlanD]

This is just a hybrid system of the original system with pulleys attached instead of going around the mast.

If I'm picturing this correctly, you may require a shackle to attach to the gooseneck fitting. It would also be a good idea to put a shockcord loop around through the knot holding the pulley near the handle and have this shockcord form a loop around the boom to hold the line up.

I've attached a picture of the equivalent system, but with the modern system with it being fed to the deck.

 

[LaLi]

The way I interpret that is that the boom came from a boat that had a deck-led outhaul (the scale at the cleat indicates that there used to be a floating block there), and someone then tried to figure out, as Alan said, a "hybrid" system for a boat which had no deck cleat for the outhaul. The loop at the mast end of the system is most likely intended to be attached to the gooseneck, which means that the part of the line that goes from there to the aft block is useless - it just goes slack when you tighten the outhaul.

That system can be modified to work in either of two ways: the simplest is to cut off the useless part between the forward loop and the aft block. You'd have a very clean and simple 4:1 then.
The other would be to emulate the most common pre-2001 system by removing the forwardmost knot and having the line run at that point through a block attached to the gooseneck. The purchase ratio depends on the pulling direction, but it's 8:1 at 90° to the boom.
Either way, you first need to reposition the knots and blocks more forward. The line seems to be long enough even without undoing the braided handle (I hate those but that's another discussion). You can judge the need for any elastic "anti-dangle" loops when the system is otherwise working.

By the way, it looks like the boom is pretty badly corroded at the vang fitting.

_