On my boat the main blocks are just hard shackled to the bottom of the boom and the traveler which I assume is pretty standard.
Well his was shackled to the traveler but on the top block he had a hook similar to the one pictured below.
On the bottom of his boom he just a double loop of line that was about 10" or long that was basically a pig tail like I think Andrew was talking about a while back. All he did to connect his main line rig to the boom was put the hook through the line and let is hang.
He sails this Hobie 20 solo a lot and my wife said when she was out with him he would just unhook his main from the block and let the main fly loose while he adjusted or did something then he reconnected and took off again. Since my wife was more passenger than crew he was pretty mush soloing anyway. There was pretty good wind that day and he was sailing with just the main only but had asked her if it was fast enough for her because he still had 2 sails to go if she wanted.
I really liked the idea behind this if only for disconnecting while on the beach. Has anyone else seen this setup or used it and how did you like it?
I have since swapped the top shackle on my main block with the quick release one I had been using on the forstay until posts here made me decide to quit using it. That allows for similar use but still could drop or lose the shackle and nearly as easy as just unhooking the hook
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Dustin Finlinson • Magna, UT
Member: Utah Sailing Association
1982 Prindle 18
1986 Hobie 17
1982 Prindle 16
1980 Prindle 16(mostly)
1976 Prindle 16(mostly)
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