Which Adjustable Outhaul Chinook or Sailworks

[kmf]

Scargo, got a picture?

KMF

[dllee]

I used to use adjustable outhauls on all my sails, for around 5 years, back in the early '90's.
Now, no way, no need. When you loosen the outhaul, the sail indeed bags to a deeper pocket, great for downwinding, which I never do. That deep pocket for me is useless for early planing, because I pump really well, and a tighter leech sail pumps better than a big bag.
However, when I get older and lazy, I'll re install my adjustable outhauls once I get to lazy to pump my sails.

[scargo]

KMF -- I'll try to take a picture this weekend.

But it's basically routed the same as the chinook system, you just use the Harken 406 instead of the burger. I got the instructions off the web years ago, but the link is now dead. The whole kit cost me quite a bit less than the Chinook setup though. Same 8:1 purchase, but even less friction. And the author of the article made the same point about leaving the lines threaded at all times -- rigging is as fast as snapping on the shakle.

Do I need an OA? No, and truth be told, I don't fiddle with it a whole lot once I'm on the water. But I love being able to set my OH at a neutral position, with a couple of cm of adjustability in either direction. That way, I can tweak it every couple of runs, glance down at the gps and see how it affects speed, point of sail, etc. And of course, when the wind comes up, it really is nice to be able to flatten the sail without breaking stride.

I normally only have an hour to sail, so to me it's worth it to be able to adjust on the fly, and not have to come in and rig down.

[techno900]

I have AOs on my larger sails, 6.6 to 11.0. Not much value on the 6.6, but as you go bigger, their usefulness becomes significant. "Race" sails usually have the plastic hooks like the photo of the Maui Sails rig, which make rigging simple. However, if you use the same boom on different sails, you may need to adjust the lines, but that depends on the type of AO you have. With dedicated booms = no issue.

[joethewindsufa]

[PeconicPuffin]

[techno900]

The Chinook system is pricy - $80, but once installed, rigging can't be any faster. Adjust anytime on the fly, but what you will find is that if powered, you can't pull the sail flatter unless you luff the sail, just too much tension on the lines, even with the pulleys. Also, the plastic clamps with the cleats that clamp on the booms, do have slippage problems. The kit comes with two different sized clamps, but I have had to put rubber shims under the smaller ones on some of my booms.

I raced Formula and it was/is critical to flatten the sail on upwind legs and bag the sail on downwind legs. Just out and back reaching, not so critical, but in gusty conditions, you can adjust the sail power to suit the wind changes.

As I said before, the Chinook system will need some line lengthening or shortening (two knots) if you change sails with the same boom.

You can go on line and google "Chinook adjustable outhaul" and see images and pricing of the kit.

[Brian_S]

[scargo]

Re the slippage problem on the plastic boom clamps, what I've found works the best--as ghetto as it sounds--is to build up some layers of electrical tape. Wrap the boom a couple of times, and make it so that it's thicker toward the clew end, i.e., a bit of a reverse taper. That way, if the clamps try to move, they only wedge themselves harder onto the electrical tape, which in turn binds more strongly to the boom. The doorstop principle.

As for bagging the sail, I'll again plug a the harken double block at the clew. The burgers have a fair amount of friction, substantially undermining the 8:1 leverage potential, whereas the harken blocks are going to run smooth even under lots of load. That said, I accept the basic premise that there is a point where you're so overpowered that you have to luff the sail for a minute -- and, as others have noted, the two seconds that takes beats heading in or dropping your right to re-tie the outhaul.

[Xxwindsurfer]

It looks like the single side Sailworks AOH wins
Thanks for the useful info