What are they for? ...Lars?
Two things in my 411 I never really understood the use.
1) Two holed and strong aluminum flanges at the aft end of the side gunwale.
2) A single offset hole in the aft end of the boom where a line comes out (in the picture the line is bow knotted and white). It does not seem related to main reefing which is performed otherwise.
The pictures I show are not of my boat but... they fit. Thank you,
Daniel, 411/004

Dear Daniele,
1) Spinnaker sheet's block
2) on my 38 there is a "never ending screw" (hope my English could be understood...) to set the main's base
Fair wind
Matteo (38/067 Only You)

I agree, I use the fitting aft for my spinnaker or Asym sheets on my 40. This is more or less a standard approach. I think the eye on the end of the boom is for a preventer. i.e to stop the boom from flying across during an accidental jib. Have seen the results of not using one (not on my boat). Broken booms cracked heads.... Lars will know better but as it looks like you have a boom jeefing system (i.e. roll the main onto the boom, this would probably be the only place to put a preventer.
Hope this helps

Mike
Storm Svale

Looking again at the picture, you have a hard vang. So reefing is probably slab not roller as I first suspected. Was this vang original? Also your main sheets?? seem different. Another option is that the eye is for end boom sheeting?? Anyway, to me it is not clear what is original on your boom. The eye is and I have seen people use this as an attachment point for the main sheet. We need enlightenment from the professor!! or others with a similar setup.


Mike

Storm Svale

I am sorry but I am not totally convinced yet.
1) The aluminum flange with the eye seems rather oversize and I thought that the second sheave of the large double block discussed lately in another thread could be used for spinnaker sheets.
2) The boom has 2 sheaves for slab reefing and one sheave for main base tensioning. The eye off-center on the flat end of the boom is something additional and it could be used for a preventer line but it does not look totally right. I often use a preventer but prefer to attach it to the lower part of the boom, near the main sheet sheaves.
This time I am enclosing an actual picture of my boat: sorry it is not very high definition. As you can see I use the eye of the aluminum flange for tape lifelines! Maybe you can notice, also, that the large eye (of the flange) is not just an ordinary eye like the one I have shown before, it is rather well and unusually finished.
Daniel, 411/004 LunaMenguante.

Sorry, I forgot the picture!
Daniel

Hi Daniel,

Looking at the pics, it seems the setup is different between the port and starboard side?! Did I get this right? Anyway, in my racing days we always put a snatch block for the spinnaker sheets in the fitting forward of the transom. I.e that section sitting on top of the toe rail.
As for the Boom fitting... I think I would like to hear what Lars says.

All the best

Mike
Storm Svale

Mike,
I am sorry I confused things. The first pictures I posted were not of my boat while the last picture is indeed of my boat where the starboard and port side are, fortunately, the same.
I start to agree with you and Matteo that the spinnaker sheets are better positioned by a block on top of the aft toe rail than by the mentioned double block. But still: it looks more fancy than necessary.

I am also waiting for the authoritative response...

Daniel, 411/004 LunaMenguante

Dear friends

The lugs at the aft end of the toerails are for the attachment of the spreacher blocks (spinnaker&reacher). These blocks originally came from Palmer Johnson in the US, the only supplier of big blocks at the time. The blocks had two sheaves in tandem, you can see similar ones in the Harken catalogue, but they are called spriddle.

The hole in the boom endplate SB is for the topping lift. The dead end was attached to the eye on top of the boom end, and the line led up through a small block on the lower end of the lift, down into the mentioned hole, and forward to the cleat on the side of the boom.

It is advisable to use very flexible line both for the tail and the lift in order to avoid frequent adjustment. Originally the lift was wire, but should better be replaced by line to reduce chafe on the sail.

Today only boats without hard vangs use topping lifts

Kind regards

Lars

Gentlemen;

On my 41 /018 I have a jack-screw main foot tensioner which is visible in the attached photo. The hole into which it fits is offset from the centre of the end-plate. I have rerigged my jib sheet attachment to the much stronger eyes at the bottom of the boom-end ring via 2 shackles and a "D" ring, again as can be seen in the picture. I believe that before the hard vang was installed the original topping lift would have attached to the single eye opposite the current sheet attachment. 

John

John

Nice picture! For the people not familiar with the mainsail foot outhaul for roller reefing booms - the adjustment is done by inserting a winch handle in the socket and cranking away. Inside the boom is a long screw and the outhaul lug moves along it.

The boom end fitting center bail is strong enough for the mainsheet. It appears you use a spreacher block for the mainsheet tackle, which brand is this block?

It is correct that the eye on the upper edge of the boom end fitting is for a topping lift.

Lars

Professor;

I have been replacing all of the running rigging blocks with modern Lewmar polycarbonate blocks. The end plate on my boat appears to differ from those under discussion.

The picture is a freeze-frame from an avi video I took while in the Straits of Georgia off the British Columbia coast last September. The wind was about 35 knots, she was double reefed and going like a bat out of hell!

John