Catalina 350 International Association

Hi all,
Lately we have had bad sail shape when sailing in all winds and it became apparent the outhaul was not functioning correctly. Now we are not serious racers so do not adjust the outhaul often. But on Wednesday afternoon go sailing social racing it was apparent not all was well.
A few attempts to adjust the boom by more than a few mm was met with complete resistance. Note we do not run the outhaul back to the cockpit but simply hang it on a mast cleat after using the underside boom clam cleats to hold it in position.

A visual inspection of the front of the boom with an inspection camera showed the pulley system installed in the boom to be a tangled mess as shown here: We removed the boom and took it to the workshop for an examination (left the outhaul and two reefing lines still rigged in the boom). Removing the front end cap was the logical approach noting the tangled pulleys are all at this end. To remove it five rivets have to be drilled out. two each side as shown here (The large rivet looking items at left are the sheave and clam cleate pins ): And one underneath, the rivet closest to the end of the boom shown here:
The two rivets to the right in the above picture are part of the problem. They are supposed to hold the retainer ring at front of the boom that the fwd standing line attaches to (part of the pulley system.) After removing all three rivets just in case, it was apparent the front two had nothing behind them and came out very easily.
Removing the end of the boom using a wooden block and a hammer took very little time (surprisingly).
Pulling the end of the outhaul out of the boom was straight forward and the first thing to come out was the retainer ring. It was clear it had broken away from the boom. After this it was a simple matter of re-riveting the retainer in place in the boom. Removing the pulley and untwisting the lines then attaching it to the new standing end retainer. Running a new standing end on the fwd pulley end (the aft end was in good condition and did not need to be replaced.). The pulley sheaves and its line were in very good shape (no UV inside a boom I guess.)

We then had the boom end re-riveted using stainless rivets (thats what was there already so I did not opt to use monel), with decent amounts of tefgel. The boom went back up and all the lines re-rigged, just need to take it for a sail and tune the outhaul but it seems to provide very simple adjustment of the foot of the sail now, which is great.

Hope this information is useful.

Hi David,
Excellent pictures, thank-you.
I have the same Charleston boom but no 4:1 purchase (block system)
Before yours tangled up I am interested to know how well you single line reefing system on both #1 and #2 reefs, worked?
I ask because I may install the 4:1 purchase as without it the 2 line reefing system is pathetic. Front fairly okay, rear wont come down much at all.
I'm told by the local pro riggers that Catalina, Hunter, Beneteau all jumped on this cheaper system and left a lot of owners disappointed.
I re rigged ours without removing the boom or inboard end (a bit of tricky fishing) such that we have a front line to reef 1 front cringle and a rear line to reef line 1 rear cringle. Reef 2 is not rigged which means if we really needed it, its go home time. Not perfect.
I may instead rig the two lines to the rear two cringles and go forward to tie off the two front reef cringles. I hear this is done by tieing a ring either side of each cringle then using pre determined lines with shackles to clip the ring. What some racers do I hear. Im no racer.
Your experience with the 4:1 would be much appreciated. Thank-you

Hi,
My reef 1 works great but reef 2 is as you describe, the back of the sail does not come down nearly enough. Did a race in 25 knot winds gusting to 30 yesterday (Port Douglas race week) and ran into that exact issue. It does not help when the boom is not perfectly parallel either. In our case the back of the boom was a little low yesterday but only noticed it after reef two went in.
Reef two is also poor because of the pressure put on the front of the sail by reef one as the front line of reef 1 usually locks the sail over the reef 2 line. Our solution is going to be as you describe except we will use a hook shackled to the main sail tack shackle to hold the front of the sail and run the reefing lines to only haul down the back of the sail.

Are you sure you don't have the 2 fold purchase inside the boom?

Hello David,

Thanks for this. I like your hook idea.
We definitely do not have the 2 fold purchase as I was in there with my endoscopic camera.
I hear many are like mine and now it would seem from your feedback that the 2 fold purchase is not much better.