Choosing Hardware

Or, As plain as black and white

When I bought this boat, she had a "StackPack" for the mainsail. A Stackpack is a Sunbrella™pocket attached to the boom. It catches the mainsail when you drop it, and then zippers closed. The Stackpack looked as if it were fairly new, but the white zipper was broken, and the top of the sail was exposed to the sun's UV rays. The top was also so high up that I really couldn't reach the zipper.

Now, there can be several problems with a stackpack. As you can see from the photo, it remains up while the sail is deployed. It can interfere with sail shape. You lose any benefit you might gain from having your mainsail loose-footed. But in addition, on my boat the stackpack itself acted as a sail. Combine all that with the broken zipper, and I removed it. I used the Stackpack lines to create a "lazyjack" system.

The photo above shows "lazy jacks" in position to catch the sail. Later I'll show how mine are positioned

while raising the sail and while sailing. I include the information now just for those who aren't yet

familiar with these sail management systems.

I mentioned the color of the broken zipper for a reason: that zipper was constantly exposed to UV rays, and for reasons I don't understand but can only report, white plastic is damaged more by UV rays than black. It seems counter-intuitive to me, since black absorbs all light while light reflects it, but maybe that only is true for the visible portion of the color spectrum. 

I recently upgraded my topping lift because I had an extremely hard time using it. In fact, I couldn't use it. I should raise it while reefing, but I simply wasn't strong enough to pull it. So I dug through my collection of random hardware, and found this:

double block

and this:

double block with becket

Using these two pieces of hardware, I was able to change the purchase, or ability to pull, from a 2:1 ratio to a 4:1 ratio. It's still a bit of a tug; the topping lift raises the boom with the mainsail on it, and it's heavy, but it's much more manageable now.

Now, here's the point: I had my choice of blocks with white sheaves in them or black sheaves, and I chose the black ones. I also had a double block with becket the right size in my collection but with white sheaves, and when I looked at it, one edge of one of the sheaves was all chewed up and chipped. This is UV damage, and that rough, jagged edge would not have been kind to my topping lift line.

When you buy hardware for your boat, whether you buy it new or pick it up at a marine "yard sale," choose the ones with black plastic. they're far less likely to fracture when you need them most. 

If you get something like a Stackpack that requires exposed zippers, instruct the canvas maker to use black zippers. When it comes to cockpit netting, it becomes a judgment call. Some boats look good with black netting, but mine isn't one of them, and black zippers on white netting wouldn't have been much better. However, zippers on netting are a lot easier to replace than a zipper on a Stackpack, and a lot more visible. 

Right now I am laid up with what is probably a torn ACL I'm limiting how much I climb around the boat until the ACL can be dealt with, and that's keeping me from photographing things. I'll provide picture of both my improved topping lift and the damaged double block I found among my old hardware. 

I'm going to say one more thing about all of this. Serious racers can be quite compulsive about keeping every possible ounce of weight down on their boats, and I get that. I understand they want to give themselves every possible edge.

But unless you're going to do intensive competitive racing on your boat, I vote in favor of keeping your lines a little long. Because my topping lift line was a little long, I was able to make this change without buying new line. I'm still going to dig through my stash of line, though, because the diameter of the line is unnecessarily small, making it harder to grip and harder to pull (just make sure your line isn't too big for the sheaves in your blocks, or you'll make the problem worse -- not better).

At 68, I have to expect that parts of my body are going to occasionally holler if they're overworked, and it's worth it to me to have more purchase and a larger line on my topping lift, but I also believe in being proactive. You can do these things even if you're young and fit -- you will still get plenty of exercise sailing your boat. Keep your running rigging easy to use. You may still have to give it all it's got if the ship hits the fan and you're trying to adjust things while the boat is heeled 20º.


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