Is there anyone out there that has seen an outhaul mechanism like the one in the attached photo? I bought this ‘old girl’ a few months ago and can’t figure out how it’s suppose to tighten the sail. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. FROCKY
Outhaul for a MORGAN 28
- Thread starter FROCKY
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Is there anyone out there that has seen an outhaul mechanism like the one in the attached photo? I bought this ‘old girl’ a few months ago and can’t figure out how it’s suppose to tighten the sail. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. FROCKY
Isn‘t figuring out stuff on a boat fun!
Where does the cable I circled go? I would suspect it goes over a sheave at the end of the boom, then through the boom to the mast…but then where? On my boat, the outhaul goes into the boom, back to the mast, then down to the cabin top and through a line organizer and back to the cockpit so I can tighten it on a cabin-top winch. Yours appears to be cable…so maybe it does to a cable winch?
I am assuming the car on the boom somehow attaches to the clew of the sail, and if the car is moved back, it pulls the foot of the sail tight?
Where does the cable I circled go? I would suspect it goes over a sheave at the end of the boom, then through the boom to the mast…but then where? On my boat, the outhaul goes into the boom, back to the mast, then down to the cabin top and through a line organizer and back to the cockpit so I can tighten it on a cabin-top winch. Yours appears to be cable…so maybe it does to a cable winch?
I am assuming the car on the boom somehow attaches to the clew of the sail, and if the car is moved back, it pulls the foot of the sail tight?
Isn‘t figuring out stuff on a boat fun!
Where does the cable I circled go? I would suspect it goes over a sheave at the end of the boom, then through the boom to the mast…but then where? On my boat, the outhaul goes into the boom, back to the mast, then down to the cabin top and through a line organizer and back to the cockpit so I can tighten it on a cabin-top winch. Yours appears to be cable…so maybe it does to a cable winch?
I am assuming the car on the boom somehow attaches to the clew of the sail, and if the car is moved back, it pulls the foot of the sail tight?
View attachment 229330
[/QUOTE “Thank you for your response. YES ….the clew of the m’sail does attach to the car. I’ve not removed the backplate of the boom simply because I didn’t know if I might be opening a ‘Pandora’s Box’. I had one friend say he thought the boom on this MORGAN may have been equipped with a rolling boom that served as a reefing tool but that makes no sense to me. If I can’t find someone that KNOWS how this set up works, I’ll remove the backplate and see where that takes me.”]
Your explanation makes tons of sense but so far, I have not seen any sign of a winch that would enable the outhaul to be adjusted at all. Maybe someone ‘out there’ will see my cry for help.
That may be a wire to line connection and the end you pull may be a line at or near the mast..don't know, need more photos.
dj
Aside from where the cable goes I'm wondering why the cart has to be such a beast? And it's on a track from what I can see. What are the dimensions of the track? I'm wondering why in the wide world of sailboat hardware couldn't the OP find a smaller less intrusive cart? Maybe the whole system needs re-working.
G’morning Greg and others. I have a video that hopefully helps ‘splain’ (as Ricky Ricardo from “I Love Lucy” used to say.) but when I try attaching it, I get an error message. . The cable that’s attached to the car does turn down in the aft end of the boom and goes inside. I haven’t figured out where it ‘goes’.
On the forward end of the boom there appears to be something that may accept some type of crank but it’s not like anything I have ever seen.
another note: since the boom was designed to roll, the outhaul would not have been led aft at the bottom of the mast, rather it would have most likely exited underneath the boom. The wire lead may have led to an internal block; a line may have been anchored internally on one end , led through the internal outhaul block then exit under the boom near a stopper of some kind, like a small cleat or clam cleat. I dunno
Hmmm, I'd think the outhaul likely exits near an end so it can be accessed with the sail rolled, at least that's how my roller furling boom works. I have a very different system however so I don't know. I would really like some photos seeing the whole boom.
dj
The R/F boom crank point is the male SS stud that shows at the bottom of the black anodized gooseneck fitting. The crank point for the outhaul would seem to be bigger of the two holes in the boom. Once you start roller-furling with a r/f boom there is no way to adjust the outhaul. The sail wraps around the boom and that's that. This is one of the problems with roller-furling booms - the leech of the sail keeps slipping forward because there's nothing to hold it aft and the sail sets poorly. The same handle may work for both the roller-furling boom and for the outhaul, or there may be two different handles. In any case you will need to find a way to turn the stud in the boom's hole and see if it works the outhaul.
R/F booms are not a good system because there is no outhaul for the leech and the sail sets poorly. Because of the way the sail rolls around the boom it is practically impossible to get the battens to line up parallel to it so they lie flat when rolled. The battens therefore poke holes in their pockets or break as they get wrapped around the boom by the sail. Meanwhile, pulling tight on the sheet to flatten the sail stretches the leech and makes it slide forward - making the sail baggier. This is the opposite of what you want in higher winds, which is why you reefed in the first place. Attaching a vang also becomes problematic, requiring sliding a specialized fitting over the end of the boom that can be dangerous to do in the conditions where it would be useful. R/F booms have essentially died out because of these problems. In-boom r/f looks a bit neater but has many of the same problems. For mainsails, slab reefing has fewer moving parts, is quicker to do or undo, and maintains better sail shape.