Hi. I bought a 26C and an am preparing to rig her for the first time. I didn’t have an opportunity to see her rigged before buying and have never even sailed on one!
I have the manual which has line diagrams etc. but if anyone has a few pictures of what some of the rigging looks like in real life that would be very helpful. Particularly the the choker run, mainsheet, and reefing lines.
Thanks very much,
Ken Julian
1981 NS26C, Hull#9
“Idyll Ours”
Saint John/Fredericton, NB, Canada
Ken,
Congrats on your new boat.
I’ve rigged mine just slightly differently from the manual, but perhaps these pictures are close enough to still be helpful.
I don’t have pictures of how the aft reefing lines run from their turning blocks on the inside of the boom through the sail and back to tie off on the other side, but once you know which side they’re coming from, that becomes fairly clear.
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C, #143
Thanks so much for your reply Bob. Those pictures are just what I was looking for & will be very helpful to me tomorrow! I’m sure I’ll still be scratching my head but not as much:)
Bob, I’m confused about the topping lift. I understand how the blocks attach at the bottom of the topping lift at the stern, but what is the topping lift line you have running down the mast, through a turning block at the base of the mast, & then aft?
Hi Ken and Bob -
First off, congratulations, Ken. You have bought a superb boat. I hope that you join the INA if you haven’t as yet. Bobs’ collection of photos and explanations is, honestly, the best group of pictures that I have seen regarding rigging a Nonsuch.
I own the smallest model, a Nonsuch 22 outboard edition but the rigging is, I believe, identical, certainly to an N26 and larger.
I’ve attached a “COVID is here and I have nothing to do” little basement project. Someone was having a problem coming to grips with the choker rigging so I laid out my line on a piece of cardboard and came up with this goofy but accurate plan of the rigging. Regarding the topping lift, you will end up with a line, in your hand, that slacks or tightens up the topping lift. That line ends up RAISING or LOWERING the aft end of the boom, right ??
Well, sir, instead of having that line come from the tackle at the aft end of the boom right into your hand … (which is impossible) it TRAVELS up and along the boom, forward, until the location where the boom meets the mast. It then, snakes down the mast, to the turning block and then aft, to you.
You pull the line, the aft end of the boom goes UP.
That is the bulk of the philosophy of a lot of the rigging on a Nonsuch. VERY SIMPLY put, all the lines come to you in the safety of the cockpit. But, this means that the topping lift line, the clew lines for the 1st and 2nd (and, if you have it) the 3rd reef and, only slightly, the choker line must travel along either side of the boom until they can hit the mast area (not neccesarily the mast itself) and head straight down to the base of the mast and, then, like magic, into your hands.
This means that you must have all of this spaghetti pre-laid-out on the boom BEFORE before you raise it and then work off of a ladder to get it hung, etc.
OK - enough for now. Here is the photo. I’ll attach a few other photos in subsequent posts. You’ll get the hang of it and spend as long as you own the boat, figuring out newer and better ways to do this. you’ll see !!
Bob - Sorry, i didn’t mean to “answer for you” … I just got carried away !
Ernie A. in toronto
Ken -
As promised, in no particular order … other photos that show various odds and sods of rigging.
All the best,
Ernie A. in Toronto
Ken,
A lot of people have tried different things with the topping lift, and so it’s likely there are differences between the manual, your boat, and my pictures. So, it’s not surprising if something’s confusing. But it’s hard to know without seeing your set-up what difference is the source of the confusion. So, I’m going to provide a few more pictures, then cover the waterfront and hope the answer you’re looking for is in there somewhere. (Despite being labelled “New set-up”, these pictures are actually older than the ones in my previous post, and thus show some other possible things you could be seeing.)
If these pictures and the long essay below don’t help, post a picture of your set-up and we can take another pass.
Let’s start by noting that the, with a wishbone boom, we use its weight and angle is to control the sail shape instead of having a boom and boom vang. That’s why its height at the aft end needs to be adjustable. (There are reasons to do this while sailing if you’re a hardcore sail trim tuner, but it’s also really important when raising /lowering the sail or when reefing.)
Nonsuch 26’s were spec’ed in the manual with a 7 x 19 wire “boom topping lift” which runs from the top of the mast back towards the aft end of the boom. It is not supposed to be directly attached to the boom, but terminates in an eye, to which two things are usually attached. One is a short piece of “keeper line” that goes from there to an eye on the back of the boom. The keeper sets a bottom limit on how far down the boom end can drop – ensuring it can’t land on our fragile skulls. The other thing on the eye at the end of the wire is a block. The purpose of that block was to allow you to adjust the vertical angle of the boom up or down.
In the original set-up, this was a single block. The “topping lift control line” used to adjust the boom angle (i.e., its height above the cockpit) ran from the same eye at the back of the boom, up through the block hanging off the wire topping lift, back down from there to a cheek block on the starboard outer edge of the wishbone, and from there to a cleat a few feet forward on the starboard outer edge of the boom. (At least, this is how my boat came to me.)
However, people found several problems with this arrangement. The boom is frigging heavy, and a single block doesn’t help much in handling the weight. The boom is moving around, and it’s not exactly safe trying to pull and recleat a line on its side while it the boat are bouncing around on the water. The topping lift keeper line could catch on the cheek block or cleat when flopping around while raising the sail, so that you couldn’t fully drop the boom as needed for sail shape.
Thus, a number of people made two kinds of changes, the devil being in the details of how they made them. The differences between what you see on your boat and what my pictures show depends on whether you have a set-up like described above, or some version of one or both of those changes.
One change was to increase purchase by replacing the single block hanging from the wire boom topping lift with a pair of (usually) double blocks, one shackled at the boom and one hanging from the boom topping lift. I’ll ignore choices of block arrangements beyond observing that what I showed in the previous post is not the most common way. If you search this group for “topping lift blocks”, there’s a lot of good information there and some better ideas.
The other change was to replace the topping lift control line with a much longer line that could come back to the cockpit with the reefing lines. I.e., it runs forward along the bottom of the starboard side of the wishbone boom, to a hanging block on the bottom of the forward end of the boom (next to the block for the reefing line), down to the mast, and back to the cockpit. This second change means that this longer topping lift control line would run parallel to the aft second reef line pictured on the 23rd and 26th pages of the Nonsuch 26 manual. If what you’re seeing on your boat is the original shorter topping lift control line that cleats off on the boom, maybe that’s what’s confusing you.
Also, there are several ways to lead the longer line, and that could be another source of confusion. Many people use the cheek block to lead the line forward and just bypass the cleat on the boom, as depicted in the attached “Old topping lift w problems noted” pic. (And yet another approach is shown in the pics that I see Ernie Abugov’s posting while I type this.)
I chose to do a floating block and run the topping lift control line between the two sides of the wishbone in one step, shown in these pictures. In a later step, I upgraded the blocks and used a thinner, more flexible, high tech line to get to the set-up shown in my original post.
Running along the bottom of your boom on both sides are a series of eyes or blocks for routing lines forward. Depending on what you’ve got, there might be separate sets on starboard for the aft reefing lines and the topping lift control lines or the lines share them.
Ernie’s right that all the boats are rigged about the same, except for scaling block size with boat size. He’s sailed his a lot longer than I have mine, and generally seems to be smarter than me, so his posts may make this unnecessary. But, having typed this much, I’m gonna hit “send” anyway.
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C #143
Ken -
Bob is very mistaken - I am not smarter than him. I might be shorter than him. Hell, maybe I’m older than him and … I may weigh more than him. His photos are better than mine. And, I do not who is actually better looking - him or me.
Regardless, I, eventually used his approach to the “floating block” on the topping lift. My photos showed a floating block that I tied to the original (nasty liittle) cheek block on the starboard side of my boom. I tied this with a length of Dyneema.
Eventually, I ended up with a floating block that sits in the middle of the aft end of the boom as in Bob’s 1st photo of the latest 3 that he has sent. I moved this floating block to eliminate friction from the topping lift line that was occuring as the line was “wrapping itself sround the boom”.
A very expereinced Nonsuch sailor named John Newell, who owns the very first Nonsuch built (Mascouche), correctly advises all that our greatest enemy is needless friction on all of our control lines. So … I have substitued the odd pulley for a padeye and skipped the odd “organizer” hole in muling lines back to the cockpit, in order to minimise friction in whatever line I was fiddling with. It works, big time.
Sure, carefully check out what the diagrams in the owner’s manual indicate. They are coorect. However, … just think of what would happen if you left out the odd padeye (wrong term, sorry) when running these lines along the boom. Less friction.
It’s just something to think about.
Yuh, maybe I have owned my adorable little boat longer than Bob (I dunno, 8 years ??) But, somehow, I think that he is a more experienced sailor. (Although, my boat has a flat-screen TV and an air conditioner … but, that’s for a different post.)
Best,
Ernie A. in Toronto
Bob, nice description.
Ernie,
You are too modest while I do not suffer from that problem. I am pretty certain that I am younger, better looking and richer than you. Also my nose keeps growing longer as I type (think Pinocchio).
I want to point out that John Newell owns the first Nonsuch 26 (built in 81), not the first Nonsuch ever built (that was a 30 built in 78).
Mark Powers
La Reina 26C
Vancouver, B.C.
P.S.
Ken,
If you look at the pictures that Bob posted you will see a black horn cleat on the starboard side of the boom. That is where the original topping lift was made fast. If you run your topping lift tackle up to the mast, down to the cabin top and back to the cockpit as Bob described (you should) I would strongly recommend that you remove the horn cleat. Once the topping lift is re routed the only purposed served by the horn cleat is to snag one of the reef lines as you hoist the sail. Very frustrating.
Bob,
The second photo you posted appears to show a lot of twist in the topping lift tackle. I have found that if I get ride of the twists the boom is easier to lift. I have different blocks than you and you may find that the twist is not an issue.
I have attached a shot of my topping lift set up. As the line twists it wraps around it self between the blocks and causes a lot of friction. IN the photo you can see where the old horn cleat used to be located.
Mark Powers
La Reina 26C
Vancouver, B.C.
Mark’s pictures illustrate a really nice set-up and his picture also illustrates a beautifully upgraded boom end fixture with welded-on bails. As you peruse this discussion board, Ken, you’ll always find his posts well worth looking at.
You’re absolutely right about line twist, Mark. I didn’t discuss that point, but it’s utterly crucial to avoid it in rigging this part of the boat. One factor in doing so is how the lines are routed. Another is keeping the blocks from rotating; it seems trivial, but it’s actually important that the blocks have fixed rather than swiveling shackles.
As a matter of pride, I need to point out that the picture with twist that Mark’s discussing is from an intermediate stage in the evolution of my boat’s rigging. The final stage appears in “Solar Wind rigging (9).JPG”, which was attached to my original post at the beginning of this thread.
In the set-up depicted in “Old topping lift w problems noted.jpg” (the picture in my later post which I think Mark’s referring to), the only way to adjust the boom height was to put the line on a winch and crank. In the final set-up shown in “Solar Wind rigging (9).JPG”, you can just pull the line with one hand.
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C #143
Bob,
Sorry about that. I could not stop myself from pointing out the twist. I figured you would know about it. Feel free to point out the bad typing in my post or to correct any error in what I contribute.
There are many positives about the Cressman boom extension. The downsides are that it is no longer available and it weighs a great deal. If it can be engineered to be strong enough out of aluminium I think it would be better. The alternative is to use lashings to move the mainsheet back.
Mark Powers
La Reina 26C
Vancouver, B.C.
It’s actually good that you brought up the issue, Mark. No one’s really finished tweaking their rigging plan until they’ve figured out how to avoid line twists, and I’d forgotten to mention it.
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C #143
Thanks for supplying all this great info guys. I really appreciate the thought and time you have put into your responses. I’m sure it will be invaluable as I attempt to rig Idyll Ours today.
I have another , probably dumb, question for you guys. how important is the rod that is put through the mast at the collar on the deck? I see the 2 holes in the collar but the previous owner has sealed them and I’m not sure if he drilled holes in the mast.
Ken Julian
Ken: I’m going to assume that your boat had a recall early on and the lower section of the mast was replaced with one that did not have those holes. There’s a write up about that in the discussion list somewhere.
Joe
Ken,
I want to expand a bit on Joe’s comment, with the caveat that everything I have to say on the topic is “book learning” – not deep expertise.
I know there were several early problems with some Nonsuch masts. The attached document, which I believe the factory put out in 1984, describes them and the fixes. As I understand it, it’s important to check your mast for at least two issues, both of which involve minimizing the number of holes in the mast and being careful about their location:
There is a recommended way of connecting the upper and lower sections of the mast together to avoid loosening of the connecting bolts. According to the attached document, “The third and current method of securing the sections is to through-bolt with specially designed aluminum barrel nuts and studs. Nonsuch 22, 26 and 30 are fitted with two of these through-bolts which penetrate the spar diagonally…” Mike Quill, a yacht rigger who is highly respected in the Nonsuch community, shows pictures of this repair on his web site at Joint Repair
There was a change in the way masts were held down. The same attached document says, “it is very important that no hardware be added or holes drilled into the spar, especially at deck level or for several feet above.” It goes on to later say, “On Nonsuch 26s and 30s built prior to the spring of 1984, a pin was fitted through the collar and mast at deck level to prevent the spar from jumping the step. It is important that your dealer be contacted before the spar is re-stepped this season, so that he may install a new tie down system. [italics added by me]”
So, I hope what you’re seeing is the result of a previous owner having gotten the new tie-down system. There should be no holes in your mast at the deck collar. Down below, in the locker at the forepeak which gives access to the mast step, there should be a turnbuckle arrangement tying the mast to a vertical interior bulkhead. At least, that’s what was done on my boat.
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C #143
nonsuchspars.pdf (176 KB)
Good‘un, Bob.
Joe Valinoti
S/V iL Gatto NS30U #221
Sea Harbour YC
Oriental, NC USA