RE: Down haul on p15

Eric Johnson (ej@tx3.com)
Tue, 15 Dec 1998 03:09:05 -0800


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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> When I bought my P-15 it had the horn cleat on sail groove that has
> been described to you already - It was loose and there was an extra
> pair of holes implying that it had already stripped out once, so I
> made the following modification:
>
> I put an eystrap ($1.00) on the left side of the sail groove and a
> Ronstan V-cleat w/ integral fairlead ($5.00) on the right
> side of the
> groove. Both of these items are at about the same height on the mast
> as the original horn cleat (roughly 8 inches above the cabin top). A
> piece of line is tied to the eyestrap, run through the eye
> on the gooseneck
>
> and secured at the V-cleat. This seems to me to be more
> secure and it also
> gives some mechanical advantage when tightening the
> downhaul. Since making
> the original modification, I have put a spare swivel block I
> had on the eye
>
> of the gooseneck which seemed to be chewing up the line a
> bit. But scraps
> of line are cheaper than blocks, so if you didn't have one
> laying around, I
>
> wouldn't worry about it.
>
> The V-cleat is very quick and easy to use so making luff tension
> adjustments while underway are now much simpler, if you're
> inclined to do
> so.

I came up with an even simpler solution on my P19 - I took a piece of 3/8"
dowel, put many coats of varnish on it (actually the dowel itself began life
as a handle for a foam paintbrush!) and drilled some holes in that to mount
the V-cleat to it. Then I loosely attached the v-cleat with long screws, and
slid the assembly into the mast track, and tightened the screws so that the
cleat and dowel clamp on the mast track. No new holes in the mast. I haven't
rigged a multi-part purchase like you have, but its a fine idea. I just have
a line from the gooseneck down to the cleat. I chose a v-cleat without a
fairlead so i could put a knot in the downhaul line for grip but still be
able to quickly install and remove the boom.

I haven't actually sailed with this arrangement - my old arrangement was
identical but used a standard horn cleat with the dowel, not the V-cleat.
But when we had a thread a while back about all the little things you can do
to speed up rigging and launching, switching to a V-cleat struck me as a
smart idea. Even though I get a slip for my P19, because of the relative
location of the boom and mast slot, I have to move the boom in order to get
the mainsail cover on and it always took way too long to undo the horn cleat
to move it, so I think the V-cleat will make this real easy, plus it should
ease adjustments underway.