Fiberglas arch with traveler?!

[Ed Schenck]

What a concept, a fiberglas arch on a sailboat. And the traveler is on top keeping the mainsheet on the boom end but out of the way. It is on the back cover of the Sailing mag that came today. The arch is on the new Beneteau 50!

I've been away from the scene. Maybe this is old news.

 

[Rick D]

Interesting

...but I don't understand why there isn't a proper traveler on the arch. I guess there is a good reason. Pretty boat tho. See this link:
http://www.beneteauusa.com/#/?boat=Beneteau58

 

[BobM]

Hunter has been doing this for a decade! However they usually mount the arch further aft (Hunter 310 for example, made back in 1999). Some of the new Hunters have a stainless arch that is integrated into the stern pullpit. I was amazed at how sturdy it was when I looked at it at the boat show. Love to have something like that on my boat.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Hey Bob, it was tongue in cheek! We Hunter owners remember all the flack from the other manufacturers and non-Hunter owners about how stupid and ugly. I liked it then and I like it on the Bene even though I am an old(very old) traditionalist with a very traditional boat. The Bene design is even nicer except for the lack of a real traveler, almost unforegiveable on a 50 and a 58. But in the link and the picture on Sailing the boom is quite small. So if you want performance I guess you have to buy a First Bene.

 

[packman]

Try this on for size, how about an arch and structure open on the aft side in which to stow bimini or sunshade stays out of the weather and out of sight when not needed.

 

[packman]

continue on to imagine hard or soft dodger panels between the coach roof and the arch. if you want to go whole hawg, think on the opportunity for stay stowage and possibly a roll up weather enclosure. Life is short! Moderation is for monks!

 

[sailingdog]

Of course, Hunter finally got some common sense and went to stainless steel on the arch to handle the loads.

 

[Ed Schenck]

I'd bet there is stainless in the Bene arch. Surely they would not make that mistake. And if you check Rick's link to the 58 you will see that they do nicely fit the dodger into the arch. Now that's a feature I like so long as it is easily folded down or away.

 

[sailingdog]

I wouldn't bet on that...there's a lot of stupid out there... and re-inventing the wheel and making all the same mistakes seems to be par for the course rather than the exception.

I'd bet there is stainless in the Bene arch. Surely they would not make that mistake. And if you check Rick's link to the 58 you will see that they do nicely fit the dodger into the arch. Now that's a feature I like so long as it is easily folded down or away.

 

[Al - s/v Persephone]

Bene finally getting around to a cockpit arch is a pretty lame "endorsement" for the Hunter system, whose main purpose is to mount the traveler overhead, to allow end-boom sheeting without cockpit clutter (not just the bimini).

A more serious endorsement is the fact that Malo has used the Hunter system (with their traveler-mounting "Targa Arch") for years.

You can't get much more "ocean-capable" or up-market than Malo.

Hunter makes a lot of homely boats in order to provide interior volume (even though I love my H36), and had serious quality issues in the late 1980s and early 1990s (finally prompting Warren Luhrs to stop playing boy racer and come back to clean things up).

It's unfortunate that those facts obscure (for many people) the fact that Hunter has consistently been an (the?) engineering leader for adopting new technologies (like the ocean racing B&R rig, or Kevlar collision strengthening layers in the forward sections of FRP) to pleasure craft.

Fair winds,
Al - s/v Persephone

 

[Dan]

it's to get the traveler out of the way?!?!?!

I always assumed it was a roll bar so that when my boat went upside down I'd be protected.

 

[sailingdog]

The way you sail, that's understandable....

I always assumed it was a roll bar so that when my boat went upside down I'd be protected.

 

[Ed Schenck]

'Dog, you are so cynical!