I have me a real dilemma here, as you can see in the
photo below. The traveler for my mainsheet is right in the way of getting from the tiller to the winches. I know this vessel was setup for
racing and the builders expected the crew to operate the winches while someone was at the
helm. But, now that I’m running it
single handed I have to go upon
deck then back down in the
cockpit to adjust the winches or halyards then back again. Or, I can step over the traveler banging my shins or catching my toe in the traveler lines almost falling on my face. I plan on putting in a
steering station just behind where the traveler is. The
cockpit was built for one but never installed.
I would like to move the traveler forward over the
gangway but I would need to put in an arch to keep from banging ones
head coming from or going below. And then the mainsheet blocks would be so close to each other they would bind or get tangled up. If I go farther forward on the boom then it would be overlapping the
boom vang.
So it seems more logical to go farther aft. Well, the end of the boom is right over the middle of the tiller and if I attach the traveler to the aft end of the cockpit, after a
steering station is installed, the mainsheet would be at about a 30 degree angle down to the traveler hitting the coxswain (me) in the
head while motoring behind the
wheel.
It seems my only alterative is to extend the boom another 2’. I have 2-1/2’ to the backstay. So would this look or be out of proportion with a 16’ boom and a 14’ sail foot. I plan to buy a new
mainsail in the future and it could go the 16’ but the roach might be hitting the backstay on a tack or while motoring with the main up. A 15’ sail foot might
work. And by extending the sail foot another 1-2’, what would this do to the tuning of the
helm. Would I have more or less
weather helm?
Any ideas out there?
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