Recently I've been working to upgrade my old Tornado from a soft rig to the prebend rig so that I can start using a more modern sail (still a pinhead though). This newer Ullman sail has a downhaul kringle located about 8-10 inches from the very bottom edge of the toe of the sail. The additional sail cloth beneath the kringle also has a slider that goes into the mast track. The quadruple block of my 8:1 downhaul cannot be attached to the kringle...it can't go directly beneath the kringle, attaching by a large shackle like on my old sail.

I've rigged up two separate double blocks on either side the sail, each shackled to its own 6 hole adjuster plate. With the plates either side of the kringle, I can use a quick release pin to hold them together.

While this seems to work, it's all a bit clumsy. Is there another simpler solution out there?

Instead of using plates to hold the blocks to the cringle, use a bit of line ("pigtail") and leave the blocks in the sail when you store it

The pigtail sould be spectra (slippery). Sounds like the
ring is a little low, if so a sailmaker can install another one higher for
pretty cheap

I did consider a bit of line...but having to re-rig the 8:1 line everytime seemed like too much work. Perhaps a easy to release shackle holding blocks to the line would do it. Any concern about the line letting the blocks become uneven as one side is loaded more than the other during tensioning? The plate setup won't allow this to happen.

Why do you think it's low? There's plenty of distance to adjust downhaul tension.

The bit of line tying two single blocks together is how the Nacra 6.0's come factory - I've never heard of anyone having any trouble. I never worry about mine being even either. There's something like two feet of sail that continues down the luff track below the downhaul gromet.

There is only a single line that goes through the pulleys and ends in a v-jam cleat on the side of the mast. The other end of each line attaches to another double pulley that, through a series of sheaves and headbangers achieves 8:1 that is then doubled through the single pulleys on the sail to 16:1. Blah Blah Blah...the bottom line is that when rigging the boat, you only need to run two single lines through the two pulleys attached to the sail and end them in the v-jam cleat... want a picture? Let me know - I'm rigging the boat at my house this weekend for some setup checking.

Tying two lines together through the grommet in the sail always seemed like to much trouble for me, so I did a simple conversion. I took one of the line and tied a loop in it. On the other side I added a ball to the line. Now all I have to do is push the line with the loop through the grommet and wrap the loop around the ball on the other side. Once the slack has been taken out of the downhall ther is no risk of the system coming undone.

Alec

Yes, use two spectra cored lines each tied to a double 16 mm Harken air block. On one side tie a bowline... On the other put about a half inch diamter stopper ball (also tied to the double 16 mm air block). Adjust the lengths of the spectra cored line so that the loop with the captured ball are on either side of the sail cringle and long enough so your double blocks don't bottom out at max downhaul. We store the downhaul by putting the bowline knot into the mast groove and the ball back in the loop and taking the slack out of the downhaul to keep it taut on the mast.

We use a 1/4 inch line for the down haul which is led back into the front beam and bungeed to the other side for a take up.

Take Care
Mark

Tie a spectra line to each double block. Install a camcleat on each side of the mast. Run the lines through the grommet and cleat them. This gives you an additional 2 to 1 multiplier on your downhaul. It's a cheap light way to increase purchase.

Hints:

Use 1/3 line and the big Ronstan cleats, the small ones break

Before you drill any holes, make absolutly sure the cleats are in the right place.

When your are rigging the boat, let you downhaul out all the way and pull the lines tight when you cleat them (basically pretension the sail to the minimum downhaul). This gives you the maximum travel for your downhaul

I have a 10:1 downhaul, double blocks on one side, triple on the other. I have a "cunningham hook" on each set of blocks, it's very quick to drop the hook into the eye at bottom of sail. And it's quick to de-rig coming into or on the beach/dock.
Seems similar of your idea of adjuster plates on either side, with pin through hole. But easier to hook in and unhook, also I think the hooks are stronger than the pins.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...&catalogId=10001&productId=71965

or http://apsltd.com/Depts/dept1139.asp
scroll down to see hooks
I use RF8450 on my mainsheet, and I used something like SC7645 on my mainsheet downhaul blocks.

The spectra line loop with ball on other side is also very quick to rig & de-rig.