Topping lift, how to get the line through the boom?

[alikolbe]

Hi all! Am getting my H23.5 ready for the season, after being told I had the topping lift incorrectly ran(I was tying it off at the end of the boom) I decideded to try out a suggestion to get it back through the boom well, I taped end to end the topping lift line to one of the reefing lines, and put a piece of fishing line in there as well, well in theory it worked great, got it all the way down the boom, then when it hit the rollers, done, couldn't get it out, couldn't reach the line, so I tried again, this time tying a a bit of fishing line to each end , of course that didn't work eiether, and now I have no lines in which to tie onto, and all my lines now need to be snaked through.
Any suggestions? Those rollers in the end are what is causing the problem..I should of left my topping lift alone and just put a cleat on the end of the boom! Now I am without reefing lines eiether... is there some tool? or a trick?

Thanks in advance!!
Anyone sailing out of Greenwich NJ?
Alison

 

[Rich Stidger]

Can you use a wire fish-tape to run through the boom and then pull the lines you need?

 

[Clark]

A fish tape should do fine. What was the idea of running the TL through the boom? To get it to the cockpit through organizers?

 

[Clark]

Oops, a followup. Do you have an outhaul and is it still in place? Most outhauls have a block inside the boom to provide mech advantage and are a pain to re-thread if pulled out. Just be careful with it.

 

[John T1594]

Almost every boat I have ever seen has the topping lift attached to the end of the boom and the line runs to the top of the mast and then down to the deck. Other boats have a temporary line that attached to the backstay to hold the boom up when the sail is down. Boats with a rigid vang may not have a topping lift at all.

 

[WTA]

I am making the assumption here that the setup on the 23.5 is similar to the one on the 240. The wire fish tape (typically used for running new electrical wiring) would be my suggestion but start at the forward end of the boom and work back to the aft taking the cleats in the forward end out of the equation. Good Luck!

Clarke and John, While some boats do have a topping lift that just attaches to the aft end of the boom, this is not the case on these water ballast hunters. We have the topping lift, reefing line, and outhaul all running back through to the forward end of the boom with three seperate roller cleats up there to adjust the tension on each.

I am not sure but I do not think there is any kind of block inside the boom for the outhaul, this may be more common on larger boats with heftier mainsails to wrestle with.

Fair Winds,

WTA

 

[Guest]

Topping lift

A bit confusing. The working end of our topping lift used to be through the organizers and into the cockpit, with the bitter end tied to the end of the boom. In order to free up an organizer slot and sheet stopper I reversed the order. Now the working end is at the end of the boom through two blocks. Unsure as to why the topping lift runs through the boom.

Terry Cox

 

[alikolbe]

set up

The electrical wire might work, the lines all run forward from the aft end of the boom towards the mast, there is also the fact they have to get over the three rollers in the end when they get to the mast , that is the problem I am having, I can't get them up and over that small space.
I should of left it alone and installed the cleat at the end of the boom, and made off the topping lift there.
Will try the wire tomorrow in the am, let you guys know if it works, any other H23.5 owners had this problem?

 

[alikolbe]

This is probably why I have noticed alot of boom kickers on these boats! I may go that route one day, but I still have to rerun those reefing lines!

 

[alikolbe]

Electrical wire snake, worked Great, got stuck a little ,but got all the lines through.
Thanks! Now to bend on the main.