Boom Vang to Stay Sail Winch?

[Maine_Buzzard]

Having deleted my stay sail, the extra winch and cleat always seemed superfluous.

But it would be advantageous to run the vang to a turning block at the base of the mast, to a relocated sprung block on the cabintop, and then straight back to a bullseye next to the mainsheet sprung block and then to the winch/cleat.

I honestly doubt I'll be winching the vang, as I never need to with the main, but it certainly seems handy to adjust the vang there, rather than going forward to the mast base.

Anyone else ever make a similar change?

[Steve Laume]

Raven still has her staysail and I don't intend to get rid of it, so this is not a question I will face.

It seems like it would work fine if you wanted to bring the vang control back. The question is just how often do you mess with this control? If you are racing, I suppose it could be quite often. In that case the dodger would be down and you might have a crew member just to deal with it.

I just don't adjust the vang often enough to justify having the line cluttering up the cockpit area all the time. Would you ever relocate the vang to act as a preventer? I now have a bail on the end of the boom with a line run forward that I rig as a preventer. In very light air I simply move the vang to a stanchion base. This would not work well with the set up you are considering.

I would probably just leave things the way they are to retain the option of going back to a self tending staysail, Steve.

[Mike Thompson]

I removed the self tacking jib boom from HAVEN and so do not use the winch on the cabin top at the cockpit. I found that the boom vang line can be put on that winch. On the CD 28 the line can go straight from the boom vang to the winch without much interference on the way. I don't adjust the boom vang very much I just leave it be most of the time.

Mike

If the boat goes slower you get more hours of sailing!

[Neil Gordon]

Having deleted my stay sail, the extra winch and cleat always seemed superfluous.

But it would be advantageous to run the vang to a turning block at the base of the mast, to a relocated sprung block on the cabintop, and then straight back to a bullseye next to the mainsheet sprung block and then to the winch/cleat.

I honestly doubt I'll be winching the vang, as I never need to with the main, but it certainly seems handy to adjust the vang there, rather than going forward to the mast base.

Anyone else ever make a similar change?

I did as Mike did. The control line for my vang is at the base of the mast, runs through a standing block on the starboard side cabin top and back to the small winch that trimmed the self tending jib. There's no clutter in the cockpit as the line (which doesn't need to be very long) lives between the winch and the dodger.

To move the vang for use as a preventer would simply require pulling the line back through the block, easily done in about 10 seconds since you're at the base of the mast anyway.

I also don't adjust the vang very often, but I do ease it when raising the main and when I'm reefing so that the boom is free to raise up, then take the slack out. It's nice to have the control in the cockpit.