BarelyAwake wrote:
I agree that it is a Dutch bowline. I tied one and compared it to the
original and they match.

The way the line is run is as follows. The outhaul enters the boom, goes
through a block (which is attached to a cable shackeled to the sail), then
the end of the line is tied to the padeye in the boom. It results in 2:1
purchase on the outhaul.

It looks like the bowline has held well for a long time, but with the bad
press that the bowline gets for loosening when the load is removed, I wonder
if I might be better off using a buntline hitch instead. I don't want to
have to take the boom apart again because the knot came untied. As a mtter
of fact, I am even thinking about putting an exit plate on the boom and
tying the line to a padeye on the outside. I just can't understand why they
built the boom with and inaccessible line.

I use a buntline hitch almost everywhere for lines like the outhaul,
reef lines, lazyjacks, etc. I learned it as the stuns'l tackbend and
have had very good experiences with it. The one problem is that it
can be difficult to untie, although if you have full access it can be
teased apart.

However, in this case, it looks like the hitch would slide into the
boom an would be impossible to untie. The bowline, however, will be
easy to pick apart when the time comes. Although a bowline can be
"flopped open" in an application like a jib sheet, I have trouble
seeing how that could happen in this case where the outhaul spends
almost its entire life under constant load. Moreover, the
consequences of that failure are pretty minimal.

FWIW, bowline failures are quite rare - while its often discussed few
people can offer a recent example. I use bowlines on my jib sheets
because a buntline would be too big and would present a danger.

It looks like this is a proper setup; I wouldn't change it at all.
From the looks of it, the line hasn't suffered at all.