I'm having some trouble figuring out the boom vang that came with my DSII. After much experimentation, I finally figured out how the line is supposed to go through the blasted thing ...
... so that's pretty well sorted out. And it was pretty clear pretty quick how it attaches to the boom; it's a simple pendant in a buttonhole sort of arrangement:
But I cannot figure how it connects to the mast.
This is a view of the foot of the mast, looking from the starboard side, so the leading edge is towards the top. I know that the cheek block on the side (and there's another one on the other side) are for halyards, which come back to the aft edge of the cabin to two cleats. But how is the vang supposed to attach to the mast? Do I run another line to that cleat that's pictured bolted into the mast track on the aft edge? Why is there another bullet block on the bottom of the vang? Seems reduntant to attach a pulley system to a fixed object with yet another pulley. Am I missing a piece?
I assume that the small bullet block on the leading edge of the mast (it's flipped over to port in the picture) has something to do with a spinnaker (which is my default assumption when I encounter hardware that I can't figure out what it's for), because it would be at a very strange angle to attach to the vang.