Downhauld/cunningham Rigging

Downhaul/cunningham Rigging

Yet another common rigging issue on the boat that is counterintuitive is the tack attachment and downhaul. Again, what was intended by the designers does not work well in practice. The builders expect you to shackle the tack to the boom. If you do this, you can not get the main up all the way.

Instead, we use what we call a "floating tack." It's really quite simple, so I'll let the diagram explain it. It enables you to raise the mail all the way, and it pulls both the downhaul grommet and the tack grommet uniformly when you tighten the downhaul.