mystery piece of hardware

[Duckworks]

this thing is used to attach the sheet to a boom while allowing the sail to roller furl at the same time. What is it called and where can I get one?
boom2.jpg

Chuck Leinweber

[Gerarddm]

I would hope that sail is reinforced at that wear point.

[Duckworks]

I found out that it is called a claw. Yes it would be hard on a sail - probably only useful on sailing canoes and similar tiny sailboats. Here is a link:

http://www.greenboatstuff.com/dacobrrecl.html

[outofthenorm]

I have one I'll never use that is looking for a good home. 3.25 in ID. About 5/8 in gap between the rollers. If it fits, you are welcome to it.

- Norm

[Ian McColgin]

Not the sheet. On roller furling booms the sheet is out at the end and turns just fine. This, as the pic clearly shows, it for a vang. Really the only way to rig a vang on a roller reefing boom. The contact point on the better units have a longish hard rubber roller to allow the sail to be rolled up with the vang in place (but best if you slack it a bit), and to both spread the stress and eliminate chafe once the sail's rolled. The boom for a roller-reefing rig must be totally clean of fittings between the sheet attachment at one end and the gooseneck at the other. This includes a recessed track so sail slides won't damage the sail.

[outofthenorm]

Ian is correct, it is normally used for a vang on a roller reefed sail. You would definitely have to slack the vang before you reefed. The rollers are plastic and have no bearings.

- Norm

[John Bell]

My old O'day Daysailer was supposed to have one but it was lost before I bought the boat. The reefing claw allows mid-boom sheeting with roller reefing around the boom. It's a terrible set-up compared to jiffy reefing in my opinion. In order to reef the main underway it would take at least two, if not three pairs of hands to pull it off.

[John Bell]

Ian is correct, it is normally used for a vang on a roller reefed sail. You would definitely have to slack the vang before you reefed. The rollers are plastic and have no bearings.

- Norm

I'd agree with that *if* the vang was rigged also as a preventer attached to the rail. They won't work as a vang where one end is attached to the base of the mast.

Reefing claws are also used on boats with mid-boom sheeting and a roller boom. This is a terrible idea, but there were a few boats that used that method.

[outofthenorm]

Agreed. It only works where the load is more or less perpendicular to the spar. I've had it for more than 30 years - maybe 40 - and never found a use for it.

[rbgarr]

We had one on our family's Rhodes Swiftsure (32' cruising sloop) when I was young. I vividly recall having it set from the roller furled main boom to a leeward deck eye as a preventer and vang while we surged downwind from Casco Bay around Seguin Island. It was a rough day bucking the current, made rougher by the outgoing flow from the Kennebec River into the teeth of the strong southwesterly breeze.

We took a serious roll to windward that brought green water down the weather deck... but the boom didn't jibe. My dad commented "And THAT'S why we need that claw...."

Ours was on a snap-shackled purchase with a cleat on the top block which made it quicker to cast off (and reset) when jibing than an end-of-boom preventer. I had to heave all my thirteen year old weight on it to get the twist out of the sail, even when reefed. The boom was a round section, with a boltrope, so we used it quite a bit and left it near the gooseneck with the purchase trussed up until we needed it. We did get some "WTH is that?' comments, even then.

[Peerie Maa]

Agreed. It only works where the load is more or less perpendicular to the spar. I've had it for more than 30 years - maybe 40 - and never found a use for it.

They were also fitted with a rod leading to the topping lift swivel on the end of the spar to stop the claw moving back and forth on the boom.

[Paul Pless]

Here's another one that I photographed on a sailing canoe that belongs to Milo. It may actually be better to rig this on the end of the boom instead of over the sail.

[Jay Greer]

They were once offered by The South Coast Co. of Newport Beach CA. Theirs were made of web cast alluminum.
Jay

[Hwyl]

They were also fitted with a rod leading to the topping lift swivel on the end of the spar to stop the claw moving back and forth on the boom.

Or to the mast, they were standard issue on the Laurent Giles designed Scimitar.

Another way to effect a vang in a roller reefed mainsail is to roll a strop in with the sail, still a pretty awful solution. On the Wayfarers we were supposed to roll the main around the boom with the sailbag rolled in and the vang (kicking strap in those days) was attached to the draw string of the bag..... a patently silly method

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

I've had it for more than 30 years - maybe 40...

Eric Hiscock mentions them somewhere, so they've been around a good long while.

Mike

[Binnacle Bat]

My Thistle originally was set up for roller reefing, but I couldn't get a decent set to the sail when reefed. I put in jiffy reefing, two sets worth, and it would take a lot of convincing to go back.

I didn't mind end boom sheeting at all, but some of my smaller shipmates weren't strong enough to helm with one hand and sheet with the other, so I went back to the usual setup with the running end in a swivel block on the centerboard truck, accessible to both helmsman & crew.

Allan

[Nicholas Carey]

Davey & Company makes them. The catalog lists them as "Bronze Reefing Claw" on page 29. Catalog numbers are 9447/AB/100 (4-inch/100mm @ £99.48 MSRP, ex-VAT) and 9447/AB/125 (5-inch/125mm @ £106.74£ MSRP ex-VAT).

You can order them in the US from the Wooden Boat Foundation's Chandlery in Port Townsend, WA. They're the West Coast distributor for the USofA. The distributor for the East Coast is R&W Rope in New Bedford, MA. Other distributors and contact info are listed at http://www.davey.co.uk/where_to_buy_davey_and_co.html

Toplicht Gmbh, auf Deutschland, seems to carry a non-Davey version, along with a means of bridging two claws. Sizes are different from Davey: 90mm (for 80mm booms) and 125mm (for 100mm booms). Prices are, ex-VAT, € 41.60 and €128.57, respectively.

http://www.toplicht.de/en/shop/takel...schlag-messing

[Graeme Forrest]

Francis B Cooke mentions them in several of his books first published about 1910 and consistently states they are a stupid idea.