Anyone out there have ideas or pics for a homemadeself tacker? I have the trac and a peice of 1/4x 1 1/2 alum to back it up, need ideas for attachment to the beam.

A couple of the 4.3 guys made their own tracks. Bill Gillespie, IIRC. The trick was getting the radius of the bend right.

How about some pics of the atachment to the beam? I think I can get the radius pretty close with my current straight self tacker.

My T track is free to pivot up/down. The track is bolted to alloy rod with 3/16" machine screws. The rods are attached to the main beam via "T"-shaped stainless fitting rivetted to the beam. The rods have slots cut to fit over the "T" fittings, held on with a pin:


Better view of one of the "T" fittings at the main beam (also a nice shot of my snazzy spin halyard cleat system):

Thahnks for the pics mike.
I think I can figure it out from those pics. Where did you get those t brackets?

Oh Mike, where to get that Spinlock pivoting exit blk?

Dave

Not exactly sure...my boat came with the track already setup. Have good look in a fittings catalog, they might be standard parts of other boats. I believe this setup was used on several boats setup by Robbie Daniel (you can contact him at Fun In The Sun in Florida).

Mike.

The spinlock flopper is a standard offering now...I got mine from a local West Marine. They can be had on line at Layline, APSLtd, MauriProSailing and maybe this site.

Marstrom now supplies them as standard fittings on the carbon mast downhaul system. My mast came with a custom carbon flopper bracket and old-style Spinlock cleats mounted. The carbon brackets would tend to bend and crack under race action. New Spinlock floppers can be retrofitted.

Thanks Mike!