I know it's not realy nautical but on my 17' siren I used to Make a
truckers hitch up above the cleat then a turn around the cleat and tie
it off that way

Hi All,
I have a 16' beach cat and the halyards are a source of bother for me. Like
most of the beach cats Ive owned the method of tensioning the halyards is
less than ideal. There are of course no winches. The only thing there is,
is 2 horn cleats; one for main and one for jib.

Its not so bad on this cat since there is a mast top halyard lock for the
main, then luff tension is adjusted by downhall, but for the jib it's
another story. It is very hard to get enough tension on that jib halyard, I
try the usual method of putting a half turn around the horn clean then
pulling out on the halyard (above the cleat) while trying to retension the
tail. By this method i can bootstrap my way to some reasonable tension, but
if the wind is blowing hard it's only a matter of time till that horn cleat
slacks off a little. It really doesnt take much loss in tension to have the
jib luff up there flapping in the wind.

How do people solve this problem generally? Whats the best method to get
some purchase up here so i can retension while on the water? i was thinking
maybe 4:1 or better yet 8:1, but hopefully something simple and lockable....
maybe with a cam cleat rather than a horn cleat?

Thanks,
Shaun