Boom Balance blocks

aitchem

aitchem

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Joined
11 Nov 2003
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340
Location
Aberdeen, UK
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Hi,
Does anyone have a picture of the in boom single line reefing balance blocks.?
From diagrams it looks like a plate with cam roller bearings.
My old Kemp boom has rectangular extrusions inside to take them,
so's not to re-invent the wheel a pattern to work to would help.

thanks
Howard
 
Howard,

Barton offer single line reefing kits.

Their stuff is good value, but each to their own, I think ball bearing kit really helps more than anything else with reefing gear; you may need a small winch to work non ball bearing gear ( this is not being sarcastic, a true comment ! ).

I'm not crazy about single line even with ball bearing kit but we're all different.

One important thing to remember is the pull on the clew reef/s should be around 45 degrees, aft as well as down so as to flatten the reefed sail.
 
My balance blocks are simple ones, just a pair of plates with two sheaves. Not sure who made them, possibly Barton. My original ones, 20 years ago, were just two single blocks tied together and bound with line, they worked fine.

I believe that the system shown on my website, which is my own, was later patented by Z-spars, forcing Selden to use the system they show in the link above, which to my mind is inferior.
 
Thanks Vyv,
My only concern with your system was the "loose" items floating about in the boom and potential jamming/ rattling at night.
If you say it's OK I'll give it a go.

Howard
 
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