Wayfarer Magic Box Replacement

thingiverse

Unlike a lot of other small racing sloops, the Wayfarer class does not tension the rig by tightening the forestay. Instead, the jib hoist is used to apply as much as 300-400 pounds of tension (sue me, I was raised in the US) to the rig. The issue is, my dad's new-to-him boat, #2413, has spent her life thus far as a cruiser. As a result, she only had a bare halyard and the grunt of the crew (me) to put as much tension on it as she could (not much). This is hampered further by the routing of the free end of the halyard out of the bottom of the mast, through a turning block, and thus pulled _upwards_ to tension relying then on the crew's (me) muscles (very minimal especially after a year of HRT). Most racing Wayfarers either use a 40:1 block and tackle set to tension the halyard after the sail was hoist, or a worm-driven friction winch contraption affectionately dubbed a "magic box". Since dad was uncertain whether he would keep #2413, he was reluctant to put the kind of money into her just yet that either of those venerable solutions would run him. In addition, as a not-very-svelte, not-very-graceful crewmember, I disliked the solutions because they are bulky and liable to give me even more things to run into during fast racing maneuvers. Enter my replacement (finally!).