Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
The guy next to me, see...he's an idiot. He had all that line in front of him when he was raising the mainsail, and wouldn't you know it, he pulled the jiffy reefing line out of his boom. Why he didn't have the foresight to tie off the bitter end still amazes me. The next day I see him trying to feed 16 gauge wire through the boom to act as a leader for the reefing line, but the poor fool couldn't get it to bend around the corner. Any words of advice for this hapless greenhorn? <s>My</s> His sheer stupidity offends the senses!
Boy, the abuse he'd take if he posted that story here!
I don't know the configuration, but here's an electrician's trick (for snaking wires) that might help... Bend a little hook (maybe an inch long) on the end of your "fishing wire", and then do the same with another wire. Run the first hook into the boom on one end, and the other hook in from the other end, and hook them together. Then either should be able to pull the other all the way through, including a turn.
Wire worked for my stupid neighbor twice last year. Unscrewed and took the aft end (cap) of the boom off and fed the wire through the mast (forward) end of the boom. I could see the wire when it got to the end of the boom and then could manipulate it out where it needed to come out. There may be a better way that someone has or knows about......but I was in a hurry and used the wire.
When I rigged my second reef line through the boom, I used an electrician's fish line fed from the aft end of the boom. I took the cap off as well, I just couldn't get the line to feed without being able to see some of the obstacles in there, the biggest one being the outhaul block. It took a number of tries to get it right and into the right (I think) places in the boom. The reefing lines and outhaul lines all run, so I must have gotten something right.
To rewire my mast last year I found that the electrician's snake I bought was too coiled up to be pushed all the way along the 28' tube.
I did suceed by tying a 3" finishing nail to a lightweight string and leading the nail from the hole at the base of the mast all the way to the other end with a 2-1/2" magnet. I fished the string and the nail out of the hole at the top of the mast using a stiff copper wire, then led my wiring harness through using the string. The stronger the magnet, the easier it is to do.
To simplify mainsail reefing, I removed the entire 250 interior boom factory delivered system. I then ran a single line from the luff cringle, down to a mast step block and back to the starboard clutch. At the leech, I put a single line through the reefing cringle and down to a cam cleat with a fairlead I attached to the boom. When it's time to reef, first I secure the luff, then the leech. The sail is tucked into my lazy jacks. Quick and easy. To "unreef", I first pop the leech line out of the cam, then release the starboard clutches and haul the sail back up with zero resistance.
The Catalina factory installed reef system sucks big time, IMOO (in my opinionated opinion
John, I'm amazed that worked! Was the mast vertical or horizontal? The last mast I helped rewire (C25)was full of foam blocks that you'd never have been able to work the nail around. We had to just punch the fish tape through the blocks to get past them, and I think there were at least five of them.
I have also been successful using John's method, however I use a "magnetic pickup tool" which looks like a pen, but telescopes out to be around 2 feet long. seems to work well in a number of applications.
I think both ends of the boom can be removed. That would simplify the process quite a bit.
Frank, we have gone to two-line reefing as well but we use the internal boom line to control the clew. That left only one more line needed to control the tack and that is forward of the boom. So, no new lines or devices needed along the boom and all controls lead to the cockpit.
I very much agree with Frank's opinionated opinion. I put a reefing horn on the book at the mast end. When I reef, I put the luff cringle through the horn then tighten the leech by a line that runs along the boom much like his. I like the horn because you can get maximum tension on it and it can also be used for the second reef.
where did you get the horn? I paid significantly more to get the second reef put in my sail to have those metal rings installed on the leech... and am at a loss to find, what I thought was a pretty standard item. Most reefing/cunningham hooks that I've looked at won't work for one reason or another.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.