Lines to cockpit

A long overdue post showing the results of the spring efforts to run all our lines to the cockpit. Despite sailing on a relatively protected lake, it’s very cold and when it gets choppy (or we get whiplashed by ski boat wakes) heading onto the foredeck isn’t the funnest thing ever. So, to that end we ran some new lines back to the cockpit. Both halyards, both first and second reefs, and we ran a jib downhaul back to the cockpit so we can drop the headsail even under pressure.

I have some more close up pictures if anyone wants them, but for now here are a few little video reviews… below the videos are links to the parts I used:

Halyards to Cockpit (30 seconds):
Both mainsail and jib halyards are now run form the mast, through blocks in the mast organizer plate, and through the blocks in the deck organizer, and back to the new cleats at the cockpit… I decided against rope clutches because I was afraid I would have trouble dumping them under high loads, and we have no winches on Turnstone.

Single Line Reefing (1 minute 6 seconds):
It was not initially my intention to do single line reefing… we had double line reefing previously and it worked fine as you could reach the aft line by standing in the companionway, so I was just planning on running the forward reefing line back to the cockpit. But once the blocks were all in place it seemed easy to just go all the way to single line reefing. So for each reef point there is one line that runs from the aft reef point, down to a block on the boom, up to a block at mast, up through the forward reef point, down the other side of the sail to a block in the mast organizer, then through the deck organizer and back to a cleat in the cockpit.

This works well although there’s a lot of friction in the system… raising the main after having had a reef (or second reef!) in it can be tough to get the reef lines to run smoothly through their grommets. I’m thinking next year of getting smaller diameter, higher tech line (so same strength as the braided line we have now) in the hopes it will slide more smoothly through the grommets and not come as close as it does to overwhelming the small blocks on the boom.

Jib downhaul (39 seconds):
To avoid having to go up to the foredeck to douse the jib, we rigged a small line as a downhaul… might not work in the burliest of winds but it’s certainly sufficient to put some downward force on the jib even if you’re not pointed into the wind.

Parts used
Mast block organizer: Dwyer DH 2890 Halyard Organizer Plate
Deck organizer blocks (doubles): Harken 6054
Single blocks (used in Dwyer plate): Ronstan 50 Series RF51100
Jib downhaul block: Ronstan 20 Series RF20100
Cleats: 5″ Open Base Cleat Schaefer 70-95