Beneteau 311 Traveller Line - What Works for You?

[CapitalistSailor]

I am finally upgrading the stock traveller on my Beneteau 311 with all new parts from Lewmar. I have ordered a new mainsheet car (Lewmar part 29431312BK) and a pair of ends with double sheaves and cams (Lewmar part 29471836BK). The purchase will be 4:1, I have mid-boom sheeting, and the mainsail area is 277 sq. ft. It will still take a pretty good tug to move the car to windward when loaded up. Lewmar says the gear is sized for 5/16" (8 mm) control line. My default choice for the control line would be a standard polyester/Dacron double braid like XLS, but the line diameter is not very big and the sheave turns are pretty tight, so perhaps something that is more supple, easy to grab in cold, wet weather, and not too stretchy would be better. What advice can the forum offer, and what work's for you? Thanks in advance.

 

[sail sfbay]

I use XLS Extra or XLS Extra-T (maybe replaced with XLS3) for control lines because of their high breaking strength and stiffness, i.e., low stretch.

 

[fullbore]

Just replaced mine (OE I think) from 2004.
I’d go with what Sail SFBay says.

 

[CapitalistSailor]

Sail SFBay, When you say stiffness, do you mean stiff as in not bendy, like Sta-Set X, or do mean low stretch? The blocks for the traveler are not very big in diameter, so the line will have to bend around the small sheaves easily.

 

[sail sfbay]

Stiffness = low stretch

 

[DougM]

I use Sta-Set... I’m not all that concerned about stretch simply because, even with the double sheave setup, the line isn’t all that long in comparison to a mainsheet or a halyard.
With a double pass, at most would 12 feet or so of line in use between the traveller car and the cam cleat. For example Even if the stretch was 5% the overall line stretch would only be about 7 inches divided by 4 line segments between sheaves and car or around 1-5/8“ . Unless you are an avid racer that’s not worth thinking about in my opinion.