The bungee cord under the tramp on my Viper popped the last race of the season, so I redid it as I thought it was supposed to be quickly. The halyard was then dragging in the water and I was having a lot of trouble getting the kite down like every other time we needed to douse it. I'm assuming one may have helped the other problem. Anyone have any pictures or explanations on how they have their under the tramp stuff routed? EMSA's season is only a few weeks away, so I need to get started!

It's the single line system on the Viper. Here's a picture that shows where it goes under the tramp and is back on top for a little bit.

Mine is retardedly complicated. And I don't have pictures.

On my boat:

The tack line drives everything for the take up system. It makes a loop which is tied off to the eye-strap that the righting line ends at. At the end of the loop for the tack line is a back to back block, with the tack going through one of the sheaves.

The halyard goes from the cleat, to the eye-strap on the top of the front beam, then through a grommet in the tramp to the underside. From there it goes through a pair of Harken micro blocks, (I'd recommend a ring for both). Then back up through a grommet in the tramp to the topside, through the block on the tramp, then under the tramp again to the spinnaker bag as the retrieval side of the halyard.

The two micro blocks that the halyard runs through are tied off to a single piece of shock cord. That shock cord runs through a micro block tied off to the rear beam on the port side, and the loop end of it goes through a larger block, which is tied off on the port side. The end of that loop of shock cord goes through the sheave on the other side of the back to back block that the tack line runs through.

So when the spinnaker is snuffed, the tack line is pulled into the bag, which pulls on the back to back block, which has the shock cord going through the other end, which both ends have blocks that the retrieval side of the halyard runs through.. That pulls the halyard from two directions keeping it tight to the tramp.

Sorry I don't have any pictures. My boat is in pieces and hanging on a rack at work for the winter. I really like the setup I have though. Miles of slack when the chute is up, but nice and tight when snuffed. It's my 4th generation of tinkering and running it under the tramp, and by far the best setup I've done.



Check to make sure everything is running cleanly. On my boat, the halyard is the closest system to the tramp, (maybe not mast rotation, I can't remember). Everything else, (trapeze bungee, righting line,etc) are under it. It doesn't take much friction from the halyard being being pinched or wrapped around something to make it a real bugger to get down.

Thanks! I'm going to get the mast up in the yard and start playing with it.

If it helps, I made some diagrams for my C2's under-tramp setup which is similar to Karl's (if I understand it correctly). Would be happy to share them.

Sure, I'd like to see them. Thanks

Here it is.


Right-click and open image in new tab for full-size.

I take no credit (good or bad) for the design - I inherited from the previous owner. It has worked exceedingly well for me the past two years.

For the spin halyard/retrieval, the brown portion is on top, the orange portion underneath. For tack line, purple portion (nearly 100% bungie) is underneath. Orange bungie (tied to ring, going through block at stbd side of rear beam, to center block, around dolphin striker and then tied off at the port padeye) is always providing some take-up tension. Purple one changes based on tack position.

Key point is having as much bungie length as possible to allow maximum take-up distance without too much residual tension.

One other thing that is important - when rigging, the only line that is below (closer to the water) than the tack/hal/ret lines is the righting line. Everything else is above (closer to the tramp) to avoid possible entanglement issues.

Thanks! I'll try and use what I can of that on my single line system. I'm assuming that the bungee is going through turning blocks on the rear beam? Are plastic or SS rings preferred?

Yes, there are 4 turning blocks on the rear beam (shown as black ovals and attached by some small line to the tramp tension lacing). There is a block and a D-Shackle at the center position to allow multiple lines to run through and up to the Dolphin striker.

For the rings, I'd go stainless, large diameter (~2cm).

BTW - really sorry - didn't see the single-line system comment until now. Realize what I have provided is not very helpful...