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Many, many thanks Dirk .

I see what you mean about the shroud arrangement at the hound on your , but although it is unusual it should allow your mast to rotate.

Oskar's forestay/shroud attachment is unusual too. PO did not like/understand the rotating mast so he welded it solid, then connected the shrouds to SS plates attached directly to either side of the hound bolt. He also fitted a backstay to my . In some ways these mods will make my job easier as all I have to do is drill a new hole to raise the hound, but the shrouds can remain where they are. Now if only I can remember my geometry to work out the distance... lol.

The in situ pics of the new Hifield lever were also very helpful.

Thanks again for going to the trouble of taking and posting the photographs. They are much appreciated.

Gordon

Thanks for that Dirk
Did you use the Johnson lever that you linked to the TSP? I see West Marine have a sale on the ocean Marine ones but they looked a bit light and are 10" long.
Will be heading down to the Paynesville in the next week or so, so will leave it till I get home and then start preparing for this years trek in earnest.
Bob

Hi Bob,

Yes, I purchased the Johnson lever (US$73) and it did fit exactly. Possibly a stroke of luck, but the unit is adjustable and if you turn it around you will have more play, as the adjustable holes connect to the bow end than.
You're welcome to drop by on your way through to Paynesville.

I have the heavier lever from West Marine. I have not installed it yet. I was going to leave the shrouds on the original hound and move the furler attachment 200mm higher. I have thought about using a solid metal tang to attach the shrouds to the higher mast hound. Do we need to keep the attachment point the same for furler and shrouds for stability reasons?

Tested the set-up out today on the bay and it was sooo much easier. Happy to have made the mod. The only thing I still want to change is the wingding, it is a little bit hard to put or take off.

Hi Paj...with my mod, I left the shrouds on the original fitting and attached the top of the furler to the higher hound. so far it has been very successful.
Puggsy

I installed my highfield lever yesterday, it works a treat.

I left the shrouds attached by plates to original hound bolt (my mast does not rotate) and raised the forestay hound 240 mm on a new boat my performed well today in 20+ kts of wind with the new hound/jib height.

For anyone interested, I struggled (not very successfully) to resurrect my high school trigonometry to calculate where to drill the new hole for the hound, then came across a cool site with a triangle calculator. I fed in existing dimensions, (base of mast to tang, base of mast to hound, length of existing forestay) and it calculated all the angles. I then kept the same mast-tang dimension, mast rake angle, and added the length of the lever (220 mm between centres of pins) to the forestay dimension. Voila, out came the answer for the height of the new hound... 240 mm further up the mast.

The Internet is a wonderful resource!

Might have a crack at the calculator when I get my lever, was just going to lay the new lever against the furler angle and then measure off the right angle from the fixing point at the bottom and the top of the lever, It wouldn't need to be exact ? as you can still adjust the turnbuckle or even use the lever adjustments.

Well I have had my new lever and hounds for too long without installing it. We have two different ideas on how much higher to put my second hound listed here, 20cm = 7.9" and 240mm = 9.5". Which is correct? I also have a couple bullseyes to route the furler line to keep the foredeck clear. Other hardware includes stanchion post mounted cleats to hang fenders from, a pulley for the burgee line, drink holders and a winch handle holder. My raymarine S1 autopilot arrived as well so I have a long list of mods to complete. Once again, thanks to everyone for all the wonderful help!

David,

I moved my hound up about 200 mm (8"0) and works a treat with the hifield lever mounted on the bow. Have a search on the mod section and the pictures are still there.

Dirk

Thanks Dirk!

I'll measure twice, drill once and move on to another mod!

Dave

I see that most of the comment here is from M owners. Any X owners out there who have installed the lever? Results satisfactory? Specific comments?

Hi Chinook

I have installed a hifield lever on my X however I installed the lever on the backstay
I have found it to work ok so far

Allan

I have installed a hifield lever on my X however I installed the lever on the backstay
I have found it to work ok so far

Allan

Allan

Have a look at the topic (Forestay Quick Release Lever on :MACX: Update) in the Discussion Forum, what is your take on this?

Thanks
Rod

I just wanted to revisit the archives on this. First I drilled my hole 8 inches above the old hound. Too loose. I found this post and moved the hole another inch and a half. Still seems just a tad too loose. I'm hoping that once I cut the top set of holes off the hifield lever ( in order to use the middle holes ) it will be tight enough. So a word of caution to anyone reading this in the future: do the math!