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Thought for the Day - Self tensioning topping lift sorted

How many of us have suffered the jib topping lift getting caught behind a spreader and losing a race because of it. It is an annoying trait of IOM's with the A and B rig. My initial solution was to put and elastic band from the topping lift wire to the boom but this was a crude inelegant solution and the band would perish quickly and break.


So the elegant answer was to put a small bit of thin bungee inside the jib boom. Here is the detail

I use wire for the topping lift and create a small loop at the end. I use a micro bowsie and 35kg cord which goes through a small hole in the top of the boom. A small fishing ball provides a stopper for the chord. The thin bungee is attached to chord using a fisherman's knott which is then secured with super glue. This knot butts up agains the stopper. The other end is attached to chord so I only need a small hole in the boom to secure the other end with a Sailsetc micro ball on the outside of the boom. The whole system takes less than 10 minutes to setup.


As the boom moves up and down in gusts and lulls, the bungee easily takes up the slack in the topping lift and prevents it from wrapping round the spreader.


Here is how it looks on the boat.



If you zoom in you can just see the yellow ball stopper inside the end of the boom and the micro ball underneath the boom at the right of the picture.

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