Looking for suggestions on how to improve my headsail sheeting. From day one I've found my sheeting arrangement to be less than user friendly. I have the typical setup; lead blocks on the tracks, Arco 5 winches and cam cleats. The PO must have had a first mate who managed the headsail as the cam cleats were mounted just ahead of the winches and angled forward. I found them to be awkward to use from the helm so I relocated them just behind the winches angled aft. This helped but they are still difficult to use.
The winches have been serviced and function properly so they are not the issue, but the lead-in and exit angles are hard and cause a lot of friction. Also, when I try to lock the sheet into the cam cleat, the combination of these angels and the mounting of the winches (tilted outboard) cause the top turn of sheet on the winch drum to bear down hard on the bottom turn which makes it really hard to pull through the cam cleat. I find that it takes both hands to get the sheet into the cleat which leaves no hands on the tiller. You may recall that this happened to me last season while hauling in on the sheet. I attribute it at least in part to how much friction is being applied to the system.
So I'm thinking perhaps a foot or cheek block mounted on top of the upper coaming just ahead of the front leg of the stern rail to improve the lead-in angle. Then a riser block under the cam cleat so I'm not locking the sheet on top of itself while pulling downward into the cleat. Maybe even a wedge shaped base under the winch to make it plumb. Before I do anything I wanted to see what you all thought about these proposals and what other things have you done to improve the sheeting.
The winches have been serviced and function properly so they are not the issue, but the lead-in and exit angles are hard and cause a lot of friction. Also, when I try to lock the sheet into the cam cleat, the combination of these angels and the mounting of the winches (tilted outboard) cause the top turn of sheet on the winch drum to bear down hard on the bottom turn which makes it really hard to pull through the cam cleat. I find that it takes both hands to get the sheet into the cleat which leaves no hands on the tiller. You may recall that this happened to me last season while hauling in on the sheet. I attribute it at least in part to how much friction is being applied to the system.
So I'm thinking perhaps a foot or cheek block mounted on top of the upper coaming just ahead of the front leg of the stern rail to improve the lead-in angle. Then a riser block under the cam cleat so I'm not locking the sheet on top of itself while pulling downward into the cleat. Maybe even a wedge shaped base under the winch to make it plumb. Before I do anything I wanted to see what you all thought about these proposals and what other things have you done to improve the sheeting.