This sounds pretty good and usable,
thumbing through some catalogues lately I was having a look at some
different vang systems, you know the type where there is a larger and
smaller pulley inline with each other rather than side by side. Some of
these have an integral V cleat too, and they arent madly expensive. I could
pretty easily get some good purchase this way, and have maybe just a quick
lock shackle to tie it in to the tail of tha halyard. While it is nice to
have all that extra purchase (especially for my partner who is smallish) the
big advantage for me is being able to tweak a little when on the water. We
sail on a lake, and sometimes you just need that extra inch of tension on
that halyard. With the current horn cleat around the front of the mast
setup, you really have to come back in to sure to do it - there is little
hope of fighting against a wind to get tension on it from behind the mast.

I'll probably leave the main halyard as it is. Was also thinking of
changing my jib sheet system over to 2:1 as well... does this make any
problems? Just having a block at the clew, rope tied to the same point that
the cleat is, then up to the clew and back down to the cleat. Again, this
is mostly for my partner who sometimes struggles with the jib sheet.

"Garland Gray II" wrote in message
...
What I did on a G cat we got was to cut the halyard about 2 feet above the
cleat when the sail is raised and tie the resulting cut ends to opposite
ends of a becket block.. After raising the sail, loop the halyard under
the cleat (or you could mount a cheek block below the cleat to thread the
halyard thru) back up thru the becket block and now you have 3:1 purchase,
less friction. Cleat the halyard and you are done. This also reduces the
loose halyard tail.
Fine tuning details: The location of the becket block will restrict how
far down the halyard shackel will go, so depending on how low you want the
head of the sail to be when lowered, you can adjust the cut. Having the
"cut" higher will "waste" more halyard tail when the sail is raised.
If the tail doesn't have to be threaded thru the lower turning "block" you
can leave the tail permanently threaded thru the becket block. When the
sail is raised, just pull some slack from the loop, and hook it under the
cleat or whatever.
I think Herreshoff used this system a lot.
I hope I've made this clear enough.

"Shaun Van Poecke" wrote in message
...
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