Barberhauler

[Don Guillette]

I was looking over old posts and saw one dated 5/8/08 from my good friend Rick Macdonald. He was saying he wanted to attach a line to the boom and use it as a barberhauler to pull the mainsail to the center line but he could not find anything to attach the line too other than the stanchion.Rick, how about the lazy winch?

 

[Rick Macdonald]

The angle to the winch is not very good

The only winches are on the cabin top near the companionway opening. The angle may or may not work. The only other option is the cleat at the stern corners, and that angle is just as bad. I'll give both a try.I have some traveling to do in June (Houston, Montreal and Toronto), so this year I won't get to launch my boat until July 5th!

 

[novelman17130]

Don,I simply attach the lower end of my boom vang to an attachment near the rail on the up-wind side. This gives you full control of the position of the boom and mainsail. In fact I use two boom vangs which are permanently attached to the up-wind side of the of the sail/boom as well as the down-wind side for the second boom-vang. In fact I have two boom-vangs permanently attached to the boom (at mid-boom or less) and the outer edge of the boat. In this way I can control both the location of the main/boom AND use the appropriate one as a preventer. It gives the best of both worlds. If you need further info I could e-mail you a photo the next time I visit the boat.Duane "Novelman"

 

[Don Guillette]

Duane: Please post it here on the forum so Rick can see your setup. He might pick up an idea from your setup.

 

[novelman17130]

Bob,What is the make and size of your boat? What I use on my 22' Venture might not work as well on a much larger boat. I won't be on my boat for two weeks to take photos but could diagram my set-up if that's okay. I find that using the boomvangs increases my speed by several tenths of a knot. A true barberhauler is used on your jib/genoa to decrease the slot between the main and the jib/genoa. I have used them on my Catalina 30 when I had it. I can diagram that for you also if you like. It's an easy thing to set-up and use.Duane "Novelman"

 

[Bill Roosa]

Boom control

Many cruisers use a "double sheet" setup to control the mainsail boom. By using two sheets (attached to port and starboard toerails) you can get much more control of the boom. Accidental jibes are impossible and you can do jibes in any conditions in a controlled fashion. You do have an additional set of ropes to negotiate when going forward however.A barber hauler is normally a device to bring the clew of the foresail further inboard to increase the pointing ability of a boat without adding a cabin top jib sheet track and car. They really work great and a snach block and line to the windward toerail is all you need.

 

[Rick Macdonald]

Toe rail

I've seen (read about) the two lines on the boom. Great idea.There isn't a lot of hardware on my boat. No toe rail, no jib rails or cars, no cunningham, no traveler. The only winches are on the cabin top. There is nothing on the coaming walls between the cabin and the stern. I think using the winch or the sterm cleat would be too much of a forward or backward angle to center the boom.For testing, I could maybe run a jack line of sorts from the shroud chainplate (U-bolt) to the stern cleat, and then connect perpendicularly from this line to the boom.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Angles are important

The best arangment is attaching to the end of the boom and the toe rail where the end of the boom would pass so that the direction of pull when the boom end is directly over toe rail is straight down.The vang takes care of downward flattening of the sail for angles beyond that.

 

[novelman17130]

barberhaulers

Don,Since I don't know the length or make of your sailboat the best place to find what I did is to look up the April 2008 Sail Magazine and read the article "Geezer Think Smart". It shows the setup for larger boats. BUT, if you have a 21-25 sailboat you can use the setup I have on mine without having to use wenches or extra gear. With mine I simply took the regular boom vang attached to the base of my mast and the ring on the boom (located about 3' from the mast on the boom) and attached the lower end to a pad eye on the starboard edge of the boat far enough forward to be able to use it for a "preventer" also, then added another boomvang to connect from the ring to another pad eye on the port side. As for the barberhauler on the jib, I uses an additional sheet from the clew attached to a small block attached to my hand rail on the top of the cabin. This allows me to pull the clew of the jib "inboard" thus reducing the slot between the jib and the main. This allows me to point a few degrees higher when beating. Another thing, I use "snap shackels" on both ends of all of my boomvangs to simplify the moving of them.Duane "Novelman"

 

[novelman17130]

Don,OOPS! The article is in the May 2008 issue of Sail mabazine and is titled "Boom Time". The article shows and explains the set-up better than I did. If you want more info e-mail me at novelman@roadrunner.com. Good luck.Duane "Novelman"

 

[RichH]

Have a traveller?

Why not simply pull the traveller across the centerline to the windward side. A barberhauler on a boom adds needless complexity, especially if one already has a 'decent' traveller.

 

[Rick Macdonald]

Rich

Rich - this thread is an off-shoot of another where I was echoing the desire to maybe someday add a traveler to my boat. I don't need or miss it that much that I'm _seriously_ planning to do it, especially as the years go by and I find that I do fine without it. I mentioned the idea of rigging up something to pull the boom over those last few inches to the centerline when my buddy is gaining on me. The problem is the lack of anything to attach it to.

 

[oldiesrocker2001]

Barberhauler vs sheets inside stays/shrouds

Since even though I've adjusted the rake a bit more than when I started sailing it, I've noticed that my V21(masthead rig but barely 100% jib) doesn't point too well . Going dead downwind, it's also difficult to keep the jib full with the sheets inside the stays except on reaches. Should I be considering using the adjustable padeyes(rigged on tracks on the cockpit coaming) for the jib sheets being run outside the stays and some form of barberhaul to drag the jib(CDI furler) more to centerline when beating or even a usual point?