Boom and Bust

Had the Pica out on Frenchtown Pond a couple weeks ago (perhaps I should post more promptly?) and the wind was very good.  Sadly is was winging out of the northeast, which creates weird wind shadow problems.  It was also gusty and fickle, which amplify sail shape problems

Problems?  Well, actually, when all is working well, the balanced lug I have on my Bolger Teal works great.  However, due to some construction shortcuts (no....) I have been bothered by my sails sometimes, and the most recent sail pointed this out in spades.  The main point of the problem is the outhauls slipping and causing the lead edge of the sail to bag, which makes the sail much more difficult to control when trying to point into the wind.

Just a note to indicate that outhauls provide tension to the top and bottom edges of a sail, and downhauls provide vertical tension against the halyard (in very general terms).   A great discussion of rigging a balanced lug, especially for performance, can be found in this article by Mik Storer at:  http://www.storerboatplans.com/GIS/GISRigging.html

Why would the outhauls slip?  Possibly because they are wrapped and tied around the end of the boom and yard with no cleats or eyelets or anything to hold them in a particular position, save friction.  If the knots remain undisturbed, things are great, but if something gets loose....look out!  Obviously if I had built the Pica to the stock plan, the leg of mutton sail detailed by Phil Bolger would have no outhauls and darned little fiddly rigging to hassle with.

Of course the Leg of Mutton (Spritsail) cannot be reefed either, and that seems like a bad idea if weather conditions can vary as much as they can locally. 

So, maybe it's time to deal with those slipping outhauls and wandering rigging by putting some cleats on the upper boom.  The lower boom gets by with a couple screw eyes to restrain the lines, though that should be upgraded somewhere down the road.   So the simple solution is to run down to the nearest chandler (brick and mortar or online) and pick up the required cleats.  Being a more frugal (cheap) sort, I elected to make them out of wood.  I've have other wooden cleats on the boat, so why not more?

At this point I can't point out photos of these beautiful little gems.  Okay, that might be pushing it, but I did make a pair of regular cleats for the outhauls on the upper boom, and a thumb cleat to limit the movement of the halyard.  Subsequent sailing has shown the problem to be remedied.  I'm posting this blog without pictures because I have another post to put up (and don't want to get all out of order).  However I will put up pictures shortly.