Boom - Clew Attachment

[Stephan]

Hey guys,

I'm really excited now because I finally got "Das Boot" into the waters of Lake Michigan this weekend.
There was minimal wind, so I motored from the storage place about 40 miles to my harbor - the 5 HP Honda outboarder pushed me at a little over 5 miles/hour (that would be a little less than 4 knots I guess).
When a very slight breeze picked up I put up sails and tried to use the wind a little, but it wasn't much - never got more than 4 miles/hour.
The wind stayed very weak and kept changing directions, causing the main to flap around a lot and the boom to suddenly move across and try hitting me in the head when I wasn't looking - it managed just once, but that put me back in my place.

Another problem I had was getting riding turns on the halyard winches - attached is the arrangement my boat has. The angle of winch to the roller on the mast just seems to be promoting those running turns - how can I avoid them? Is the position of my winches wrong somehow?

Thanks for your help, guys!

[Bill]

Your photo #1 shows the Pearson original clew attachment. Some skippers install a block here to make it easier to tighten the foot of the sail, while others have installed an outhaul. An outhaul "search" of earlier posts will show a number of outhaul solutions.

Your photo #2 shows a winch located where . . ?? Primaries on most boats are along side the cockpit coamings. Cabin top winches are usually found closer to the aft bulkhead of the cabin trunk and are usually for vang, outhaul, cunningham or douwnhaul, reefing lines and halyards. Unless it's a very high clew foresail, sheets generally are lead back to blocks attached to deck level tracks. Check the track layouts in the gallery on Ariel #100, and the tech forum for track on 76, 77 etc.

[Stephan]

Ah, Bill, you were too fast for me - I realized while I was posting that I should have another look at the boom - outhaul before I ask and removed that part of the post (but I didn't realize the subject lines stays..)
The winch I mean is the one on the cabin deck (there's another one on the other side). The photo doesn't actually show the halyard on it, since at that time I didn't have either main nor jib up - but I assumed that the halyards go from the rollers on the mast straight to the winches...

[Mike Goodwin]

You have to lead a line to a winch from an angle below the winch if the winch is mounted on deck or you get wraps on the drum.

Using that winch on that halyard has 2 problems;
The feed is too high and the angle off the mast is wrong , the winch is trying to rip the block away from the mast .

Is there a winch or the mast ?

[Stephan]

I have no winches on the mast, that's why I thought that these can only be meant for the halyards. I have the bigger winches for the jib on the coaming pedestal, of course, and they work well. The PO has spinnaker gear, but I didn't consider that the winches would be used for that.
Here is another photo of the winch more from above:

[Mike Goodwin]

This is a Commander , right ?
If so, those winches are for the working jib , led to the block in the lower left of photo and back to winch .

For those winches to work with the halyards , they would need to be very near the centerline of the boat or have some other blocks in the path from mast to winch bringing it down to cabintop level then turning it toward the winch.
As it is you are "side-loading " the blocks , not good for blocks or lines .