This subject has been discussed before but his weekend I received a call from a Texas sailor who was not aware of the discussion. His outhaul on his 1989 Catalina 30 is jambed in place. I describe my mod but unfortunately his small marina is closed and he couldn't perform the mod if he wanted to.
The problem is two fold. First, the internal design is crappy and even if you take the boom apart after drilling out the pop rivets and manage to avoid cracking the pot metal end cap, as I did, and fix the system it will only jamb up again. The second part of the problem is the outhaul slug that rides in the bolt rope track. The pulling motion of the outhaul line is downward causing the slug to dig into the boom.
Why is it important to to have a working outhaul? The outhaul controls draft position. If the outhaul is not functioning it means the setting is like the broken clock - it's correct for one point of sail and wind condition and wrong for all others.
I removed the slug and used 2 Harken triple blocks but any triple block will work. Then you have to figure out how to attach them, I used shackles.To make the pulling motion horizontal I attached one of the shackles to the topping lift tang. I attached a turning block to the boom and ran the outhaul line through a few pad eye's to a cleat near the original opening. Worked great and later I modified the system to run to the cockpit.
The problem is two fold. First, the internal design is crappy and even if you take the boom apart after drilling out the pop rivets and manage to avoid cracking the pot metal end cap, as I did, and fix the system it will only jamb up again. The second part of the problem is the outhaul slug that rides in the bolt rope track. The pulling motion of the outhaul line is downward causing the slug to dig into the boom.
Why is it important to to have a working outhaul? The outhaul controls draft position. If the outhaul is not functioning it means the setting is like the broken clock - it's correct for one point of sail and wind condition and wrong for all others.
I removed the slug and used 2 Harken triple blocks but any triple block will work. Then you have to figure out how to attach them, I used shackles.To make the pulling motion horizontal I attached one of the shackles to the topping lift tang. I attached a turning block to the boom and ran the outhaul line through a few pad eye's to a cleat near the original opening. Worked great and later I modified the system to run to the cockpit.