Outhaul Jammer

As I continue to work on my book on "Faster Cruising" I found myself feeling like the cobler with no shoes for his children; I don't always follow my own advise, even when I know I'm right. In the book I argue that cruising boats are often lack the rigging and hardware needed to make basic trim adjustments quickly and easily, as though cruisers don't care about efficient sailing or understand the fine points. I care, but I have to admit my cruising cat doesn't have the quick access to fine trim that my performance cat had. I aim to fix that.

Case in point. My PDQ 32 came with a good boom and internal reefing, but the main outhaul was secured to an undersized cleat . To tension it under load, you take the tail to a mast-mounted winch, wrap the line under the cleat, and lift the line sharply when taking the line off the winch in an attempt to minimize slippage before that first wrap is on the cleat. Boy scout at best.

A few days ago I removed the undersized cleat (closely spaced holes on the seam) and I tapped four new holes to secure a proper jammer. Now I can ease the outhaul in a blink and tighten with a winch in control.

The smaller line is for the lazy jacks.

Why a double jammer? The few times I have found myself sailing with three reefs (winds gusting to over 30 knots) I found I needed a better way to winch the clew down. The tack is easily secured with a loop through the reefing tack and under the gooseneck, but there is no internal rigging for a 3rd reef. Thus, I tie a bowline around the boom under the reef clew (like the other reefs), go up through the reefing clew, and back to a snap shackle-equipped snatch block at the main outhaul. From there the reefing line is threaded through this new jammer, allowing a mast mounted winch to tension the clew outhaul.

The only challenge is to remember to thread the reefing clew while hoisting.

[The jammer came courtesy of freecycle--it patiently awaited re-purposing for several years in one of my might-need bins. Whooppee!]