The old system: original jammer-style rope clutches, a mess of deck fairleads that no longer turned, lines crossed on the deck. The jammer-style clutches are frustrating because they can’t be released under load, which means that to drop a halyard for example you have to wrap it around the winch put the handle in and crank an inch just to be able to release the clutch. We tore out all the old deck fairleads and rope clutches and installed all new. We drilled and cored all the holes at the same time (old and new) and filled them with epoxy plugs. We cut large plates from our sheet of 316 stainless for backing blocks, and laboriously drilled all the necessary holes. The one bank of clutches needed to be elevated slightly off the deck for a fair lead; we used a piece of our UHMW (ultra high molecular weight) plastic to do the job. Everything was bedded with lifecaulk. In short, it was all done BTB (by the book). The new system is a dream–the boat is far easy and more pleasant to sail, largely because the friction is a fraction of what it was. It was worth every penny of the ~$1500 we spent on clutches and fairleads. I have to rank this as the most satisfying modification to our boat so far.
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