Haven't figured how to rig a preventer without going forward but I do use my barberhaulers in winds up to ten or fifteen knots as a preventer. Normally we rig barberhaulers to pull the genoa clew out and open the slot between the jib and mainsail. It's a simple rig; about twenty five feet of 5/16" line, going through a single block that gets clipped into the toerail at about the widest part of the boat with a carabiner on one end, and the other is led to a cleat in the cockpit. I clip the carabiner onto the upper lifeline when not in use and when I need to pull the genoa out, I clip it into the sail's clew and pull the line from the cockpit. When I need a preventer, the genoa is poled out and the barberhauler is free to be a preventer. Simply hook the carabiner into a rope loop that lives on the boom fitting for the vang, and snug that down, from the cockpit. It's very stable as the vang gets tensioned too, and it prevents the swing from starting if the wind gets on the lee sid e and buys me time to steer to correct before anything bad happens.
For higher winds, a proper preventer should attach to the aft end of the boom and go forward to the bow. Chuck S > On 10/31/2022 11:28 AM Della Barba, Joe via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> > wrote: > > > The first test of the 4:1 mainsheet was a resounding success, it works great > in light/medium air. I still need to grab the 6:1, I can see this being > beyond my strength in heavy air. This brings up a new issue, the preventer. > Since what was my preventer is now my mainsheet, I did not have a preventer > and really hate running wing and wing without one. I rigged up a temporary > solution running a line from the boom to a block on the rail and back to the > cockpit. That worked fine and was IMHO a lot safer to deal with than > releasing a preventer by going on deck and getting if off the boom. I could > have rigged lines to both sides and had it set for either tack from the > cockpit. > So has anyone rigged a preventer system like that you don't need to be up on > deck to use? > Has anyone just forgotten about it and used a boom brake instead? I have > figure-8 stainless boom brake device I have not ever got around to rigging. > > > Joe Della Barba > Coquina
