new cam cleats

[smithel]

just got a 1980 DS2, sailed it a couple times, going to rig up a milk jug or something similiar to cover the mast hinge, jib lines get caught up a lot unless you really come about FAST!, any body rig something up like that?

Also, not happy with the standard jib cleats on boat, hard to engage and disengage, has anyone changed them out or moved them so they work better?

[Sean McGuire]

I don't have much advice on the tabernacle cover - my hinge is mounted flush with the top of the cuddy so the jib sheets don't get fouled up as much. As for the cleats, I assume they are mounted on the sides of the boat on slider tracks like mine. I toyed with the idea of moving mine over to the centerboard trunk but found it was a lot easier to take the cleats off and bend the base plates in a bench vise. Now I can sit much further aft and set and release the cleats easily. It seemed like the original design had them angled the wrong way and you had to be sitting almost at the cuddy bulkhead to use them.

Sean McGuire
1984 DSII "Iona"

[talbot]

Are your jib cleats on swivels? If so, it should be possible to operate them smoothly from a position no further forward than the main sheet block on the trunk. I've never been sure which way the jib cleats should be canted. If the line from the sail comes in on the high side of the cant, it seems to feed smoothly, but is hard to engage in the cam (I use my foot). If the cam is on the high side of the cant, the line is easy to engage, but has to be lifted at an odd angle to keep it out of the cleat, as when sailing in heavy weather.

The milk jug might work. Let us know. One thing I found to be important is to use a bolt just the right length, particularly for the forward attachment on the tabernacle. And use a standard nut or nylok, not a wing nut.

Actually, as the tabernacle bolts mainly just serve to keep the mast from sliding off the tablernacle, I've been sailing with just the aft bolt in place. (Some dinghies don't have any fixed attachment for the mast; it just rests on top of a lug on the cabin sole.) Besides letting the jib sheets cross more easily, this prevents me from trying to lower the mast without removing the forward bolt. Seems like that accident used to happen at least once a season. I took to carrying a rivet tool in the repair just for reattaching my tablenacle plate. Let me know if anyone thinks I'm compromising something else by not having the forward tabernacle bolt in place.