Just one more control

As my boat is old-ish (Boon 2005) it doesn't have lots of control line cleats like the new FRP boats from the likes of Winder (or even the newer Boon Solos). The modern boats typically have four cleats per side and two on either side of the thwart like this:

but mine only has three per side and one on the thwart like this:

and I am not inclined to start drilling holes in the boat to try to fit more cleats. But it does leave me with a bit of a quandary.

I had to decide a while ago which three controls I wanted, so I went with kicker, tack inhaul and cunningham. As the thwart cleats are used for the toestraps (as designed) I had no cleat for the clew outhaul. So my clew outhaul is cleated on the inner end of the boom - I added a clamcleat underneath the boom and the control line goes round a pulley inside the boom and out into the cleat. It was the only way I could get the tack inhaul (which I use a lot) led back to the helm's position.

It is not ideal though - sometimes it is useful to adjust the clew. I missed it today when it was quite windy as there was no way to get the sail a bit flatter along the foot when going upwind. The tack inhaul and cunningham worked well on the luff, but I had to make do with how the clew was set at the start of the race.

So I wanted to change that.

Now I don't adjust the toestraps often (very rarely in fact) in the race, though I don't want to lose that adjustment altogether. So what I have decided to do is use the toestrap cleats on the thwart for the clew outhaul and add some in-line clamcleats to the toestraps so I can still adjust them if I ever feel the need. If you have not seen the clamcleats in question they look like this:

So I will be making that change next time I am working on the boat and we will see if that solves the problem. The boat is going really quickly since I sorted out the mast, so I don't need to make a lot of changes now. But I think this tweak will make it easier to get the sail setting the way I want it if the conditions change. ⛵