Rigging a preventer

[Renaissance]

For our longer distance cruises on our SO 43DS, I would like to rig a preventer to have peace of mind when we go downwind. The easiest would be to rig one to the toe rails using a block with a cam cleat but I am not sure if the toe rails are strong enough for that.

Has anyone done something similar? How did you rig it? If you have photos, will be greatly appreciated.

[Zanshin]

I have a soft-shackle around a cleat with a block that leads the preventer back to the cockpit. The angle of the preventer isn't great, but it does the job. I just used it the past 2 days for a passage from Antigua to St. Martin with the wind right behind me and a 2m swell rolling me around.

I'll see if I can get some pictures taken and post them.

[Renaissance]

Thank you Zanshin, photos will be great. To make sure I understand, you use a block attached to bow cleat using a soft shackle? If so, do you have blocks on the stanchions or the toerails to bring the control line back to cockpit?

[Charlie-Bravo]

I use the midships cleat but no block, my cleats have a well rounded large gap between the securing bolts to pass the line through, many times I just loop the line over the forward horn of the cleat and not through it , never had the line come off that way, but it does eliminate the risk passing the line through the cleat, then take the preventer line along the deck to the aft mooring cleat to tie off making release easy from the cockpit. For longer trips I pre rig one on each side.
Bow cleat would give a better angle, but more rope on the deck, all depends on your midships cleat position .

A toe rail or stanchion attachment I feel isn’t going to be as strong as a cleat, but I have seen various boats use them ……. choice’s.

CB

[Zanshin]

I use my middle cleat on my current boat, and while it is rounded and I could do it without a block, I happened to have the block and soft shackle available. My old 43DS had the perforated aluminum toe rail, but the forces on a preventer can be quite high and I don't think that the toe rail is designer for such loads.

[Andrei]

I have a block attached to bow docking cleat via a soft shackle. Going all the way to the bow provides the best angle.

I also run preventer in two pieces. I have a short run of preventer line permanently attached to the end of boom which runs along the boom to the mast and ends there. This way I can rig preventer to that line even when the boom is already out and its end is overboard.
The longer line runs from the cockpit to the block in the front through a spare clutch on cabin top, is kept in the block by a knot on the end.

[chinagirl]

On our SO41DS we have small blocks attached to the forward deck fittings that the jackstays are connected to.  We too have a short permanently fixed line from the after end of the boom to the mast which we attach the much longer preventer line to when we believe we may need it. This system has prevented crash gybes on a few occasions.