Can anyone tell me what type of fastener is used on the underside of the wishbone for fastening the cradle lines. My current setup has the cradle lines just wrapped around the wishbone and I would like to clean that up a bit. Thank you.
Tom Beilein
Cracklin Rose NS30c
I’m surprised: your boom doesn’t have rings, eyestraps, or padeyes underneath for this purpose? (The tan and the red lines in the above pic.) Since they also serve as guides for the aft reefing lines, topping lift adjuster, etc., how do you get by without them?
I can’t say that I’m happy about the corrosion surrounding mine, but that’s a known future maintenance issue in my case.
– Bob
Hi Tom,
Soave has Wichard Stainless Steel Eye Straps on her wishbone for securing cradle lines.
If she didn’t have them, I’m not sure I’d be in a hurry to add them. I’m thinking there must be a good constricting knot that would do the trick without adding yet another stainless-aluminum interface to maintain.
Corrosion is a challenge on our Nonsuch boats. If you add the eye straps, Forespar TEF45 MareLube is a reasonable way to provide isolation between the dissimilar metals. In my limited experience it easily lasts 2 years. ( we’re starting our 3rd season with Soave )
Smooth sailling,
Rob…
Mike Quill has some new ones. They have three eyes so the reef lines are not running in the same eye. https://www.mqyr.com/TUPopUp1.html?1=./reef_line_guides.jpg&2=480&3=640&4=Reef%20Line%20Guides&5=1&6=1#
On my boom there are just some tiny eye straps or pad eyes riveted on the bottom. Too much friction.
Tom
It’s amazing how much our boats can differ. Mine have a divider bar to keep the lines separate and seem like they were custom made for the boat.
RonB.
Yea, the evolution of wishbone rigging kinda diverged when the option for internal reef lines became popular. Soave uses internal reef lines. The picture I posted shows the pink mousing line that I’ll use to pull Soave’s reefing line in the spring when I recommission.
Maybe the first question to ask when suggesting the eye-strap should have been… Do you have external or internal reefing lines ?
Rob…
Hi Tom
You don’t have eye straps on the underside of the boom?
Thank you.
My 26 and my 22 both have fairleads similar to the Ronstan product in this link. RONSTAN FAIRLEAD FORGED “LOOP” 1-7/16
Handles the reef line and the cradle line, if your lines are consistent with spec and not oversized.
https://defender.com/en_us/ronstan-narrow-saddle-eye-strap#493=54089
Hi Mike, that link doesn’t seem to work, please check.
Thanks
My guess is that typing RONSTAN FAIRLEAD FORGED “LOOP” 1-7/16 into your browser search box will find what you need.
– Bob
I do Kevin, I assumed they were for the reefing lines only as the cradle lines were wrapped and ties off around the boom, Thanks.
Yes, but with Discourse, he could just edit his post to correct the erroneous link. Isn’t that one of the benefits of Discourse that we didn’t have with Google Groups?
Tom
My cradle lines are tied to the bottom loops. How ever my loops are divided in half by a small rod. My cradle lines are to Nonsuch spec (3/16”I believe) and are tied with a bowline and left that way. When we remove the sail and MacPack we undo the sister clips just above the cover. After looking thru some of the links on this thread I wish we had the 3 separate loops although that may be overkill. I have never had friction problems with the clue reef or topping lift lines.
That I know of. Perfect is the mother of good enough. 
Brian
I was trying to save time for anyone who didn’t want to wait for that, but yup, you’re right.
– Bob
I use very small blocks attached to the padeye (where Bob Neches’ photo shows his cradle line passing thru). These lessen the wear on lines.
However, my cradle lines each run to two attachment points on a stackpack, so my method may or may not be of help.
Before the stackpack, my lines incorporated a flat woven strap with D rings on either end which were clipped to a line coming from the boom… I do not recall how they were attached to the padeyes on the boom.
The flat straps prevented excessive wear of the sailcover due to the sawing effect of a single round line rubbing on the underside of the sailbag.
I will look for photos.
Peter
Peter
Please provide pics of that
Brian
I have heard of a criss cross pattern from the boom to the cover and may have even seen it before but can’t remember the photo.
