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Melissa & Dave - Adventures at Sea

Replacing the Outhaul

The first project was to replace the outhaul.  For you land lubbers, the outhaul is the rope that pulls the main sail out.  The rope goes through the boom (that big beam that knocks people overboard on boat comedies).  The problem is that the surveyor who inspected the boat for us before we bought it broke it.  He thought it was stuck and attached the rope to the electric winch and twang!  Dave figured out later that the cam lock was still locked down (the clamp that keeps the rope from moving).  Oops.  And once broken its like trying to thread a new string through your sweats if you pull the string at the waistband out.  So Dave had Curtis go to the hardware store and buy several 8 foot pieces of 1/2 inch quarter round trim, which they duct taped together.  They then taped a piece of string to the trim.  And they then threaded the string down through the boom using the long wood stick and pulled the rope back through.  And voila!  A new outhaul rope was installed!

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