Running lines aft on OD25

[Paul Palmer]

I am planning on running the lines aft to the cockpit on my OD25. There is very little room between the sliding hatch cover and the hand rail- about 1 inch at the forward end. I have considered taking out a section of the hand rail to make room for the deck organizer to turn the lines aft or setting it ontop of a spacer block to raise the lines over the hatch corner or stacking the turning blocks vertically. Any ideas for an efficient method would be appreciated. Thanks

[Don]

Paul, if you go to the Yahoo, O'Day club, I have posted a picture of this (you have to join to see them). I doubt I could post it here (sorry), due to the size limitation. Yes my lines lie close to the handrail, but there is no chafe. The only drawback that I have seen is it traps some dirt against the deck, but easily removed. I suppose you could take out a foot of handrail to open this deck space up a bit, but it sounds fussy. Raising the lines above the hatch would create a tripping hazard.I have lines running off of both sides of the mast, through 2 deck organizers. Its worked well for me over many years. An excellent project for all boat owners.Don

[Herb]

I did mine a little different. I ran my main halyard diagonally across the hatch and lined it up with the jib sheet winch. I had the same problem on my OD26 with not much room to run the lines without mounting a lot of turning blocks etc. I mounted a heavy-duty swivel block at the base of the mast on a long u-bolt that was bolted through the cabin top. This gave me enough height to allow the hatch to slide under the line that then ran through (under) the hand rail. I mounted a lever-lock rope clutch (also at a diagonal, to hold the line, on the side of the cabin. This allows me to raise the main with the sheet winch. The only problem that I have is that line wants to ride up on the winch and then wraps on top of the first wrap, so I use a single wrap until I am ready to raise the last 6 to 8 inches. It's simple and you don,t need to mount another winch. My jib is on a furler so I only need to raise the main. Any questions comtact me at <wave@rockisland.com> Herb

[Bill Robb]

You will find that the 1 inch of space you refered to is big enough for 2 lines per side if you angle the deck organizer enough that the lines are almost touching. You will have to put the organizer almost under a loop in your hand rail and lead the lines to a double rope clutch. No problem!