Furling Line Hardware -- A New Option

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by wchevron

john, couldn't you have flipped the blocks so they were sticking outboard?

WChevron,

Nope. The line would then ride against the mounting hardware rather than on the block. Think about it, you'll see what I mean.

That is the advantage of the Schaefer "Clear Step" and these new Harken OSLBAs. They are designed so the furling line when led outboard is both held captive and runs against the block fairlead.

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by Cerveza

Can anyone answer me what is the benefit of running the furlig line like this?

The benefit is that you don't have a tripping line running across your foredeck!

[wchevron]

Originally Posted by JohnRPollard

WChevron,

Nope. The line would then ride against the mounting hardware rather than on the block. Think about it, you'll see what I mean.

That is the advantage of the Schaefer "Clear Step" and these new Harken OSLBAs. They are designed so the furling line when led outboard is both held captive and runs against the block fairlead.

john, i see what you mean. i just ordered a couple of the garhauer ones. i currently have the clamp on bulls eye type. although a little different than the schafer style. over the years, the plastic has worn a groove in it from the sheet rubbing on it.

[sailingdog]

Andre-

I was using one of the 4702 stanchion blocks, similar to this one:



Given that I had a sprained wrist at the time and a wrist brace on.. and three of the four screws tightened up just fine, and the last one pulled free without even me straining... I seriously doubt it was my "overtightening" it. I didn't feel the block would work under the loads required of it with just three of four screws holding it in place, since they are the only things holding it to the stanchion. I stand by my previous statement—the stanchion mount on these blocks are a piss-poor design and Harken knows it.

Originally Posted by Omatako

How did over-tightening something become the manufacturer's fault. Given that philosophy, a big enough tool will find fault with any design.

[JohnRPollard]

Thanks for the cautionary note, SD.

But I want to add that I had no such problems when installing our OSLBAs.

They snugged up nicely with the allen key. I did not use the "long arm" of the key, as I felt the short arm was adequate to the job.

As a matter of fact, I plan to replace the remaining pulpit blocks with the model SD embedded above.

[Omatako]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Andre-
I seriously doubt it was my "overtightening" it.

Sorry SD, I must be getting "oldtimers" disease. I was sure I read somewhere in your earlier post something like "You can still pull the insert free by over-tightening the screws".

Must have got it wrong again. Damn!!

[Sapperwhite]

Looks nice and clean, thanks for the heads up John.