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Ensign Sailing Forum

Foreguy / Pole Downhaul
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Although, the Allen Snatch 55 is too large (I attached the wrong link above...).

Use the 30:


On Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 9:49 PM Bud Brown <sailorbud1085@gmail.com> wrote:
The Harken Bullet blocks for the twings aboard Lorelei are attached by shackle to the aft lower shrouds. The actual twing line passes though those bullet blocks and have an AlIen Mini Snatch Block at the end for the spin sheets. I have found the Allen Mini Snatch Blocks to be wonderful... easily rigged, never open unless you want them to.

The cleats for the twing lines are located on the top of the coaming board's transition piece to the cabin side.


Feel free to call / discuss...

Bud Brown
#1085

281.468.6909 cell/text



--
Best regards,

Bud Brown

281.468.6909 cell and text

The Harken Bullet blocks for the twings aboard Lorelei are attached by shackle to the aft lower shrouds. The actual twing line passes though those bullet blocks and have an AlIen Mini Snatch Block at the end for the spin sheets. I have found the Allen Mini Snatch Blocks to be wonderful... easily rigged, never open unless you want them to.

The cleats for the twing lines are located on the top of the coaming board's transition piece to the cabin side.


Feel free to call / discuss...

Bud Brown
#1085

281.468.6909 cell/text

Follow-up question on this, I believe the recommended twing fairlead location on the deck is 6–12” aft of the shrouds on each rail. Can we confirm a recommended location? 
I need to add this in the off-season.

Bryce, #1529 


Bud, thanks for the insight . I am finding out that a lot of the rigging setups are driven by personal preferences.

Scott Fox

Seawolf 1514

Scott,

I've seen various rigs and strategies...

Some poles have bridles for both the toppinglift and foreguy. A bridle on the foreguy is a forgiving strategy for the prevention and recovery of the pole 'skying' and a bridle on both transfers the loads to the ends of the pole and puts the pole into compression. A central attachment point for either is simpler but increases the bending moment through load transfer at the center of the pole, which is not necessarily ideal in all wind conditions (especially heavy air). Compression and bending moments need to be considered when engineering a pole.

Some boats are rigged with the foreguy block directly in front of the mast while others are rigged at the foredeck cleat. Think about how you want it rigged when the pole is farthest aft because current racing courses rarely have the pole near the forestay. 

Aboard Lorelei, we only deploy a foreguy in bumpy conditions when a need to stabilize the pole becomes obvious. The rest of the time, the twings provide enough downward force to control the height of the pole.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Bud Brown
#1085



--
Best regards,

Bud Brown

281.468.6909 cell and text

How are people rigging the foreguy/pole downhaul? End of pole to block mounted forward of deck cleat then back to cabin top ? Middle of pole to block mounted behind deck cleat or just using twings ? Thanks

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