It works on a cruiser fine. If you think about it, a traveller (on our boats) really only allows one to sheet in 2-3 feet to windward. Now I'm not saying that 2-3 feet doesn's make a difference (it does), but by how many degrees ? For a racer, pointing ability is what's most important so a traveller is critical. For the cruiser it is more of a convenience...potentially shortening enroute time to your destination. Remember though that even in a race boat, pinching to-close to windward slows you down...so the time it takes to reach a given point is not always the most direct path. And if you have to tack one more time in a cruiser before reaching your destination, no big deal.
A race boat will always sail faster, closer to the wind than a cruiser no matter how clean your bottom, new your sails, light-weight your gear, of expensive your lines.
What I mentioned in my post is that you can get all the benefits of a traveller without the expense by simply running one or two extra lines. What I've done is looped a line around the end of the boom behind the outhaul to a block which I shackle to the windward toerail (just like the jib sheets). I trim the sail with the main sheet and, if I need it, I can bring the boom over center by pulling on this secondary trim line. There are several options to this arrangment:
-Two lines around the end of the boom so one doesn't have to unshackle/reshackle the trim line to the opposite toerail after tacking.
-A block attached to the end of the boom to give you 2:1 trim power.
-A block attached to BOTH the boom and the toerail to give 3:1 power.
-...and so on, etc....
I had a few spare blocks, so I got my end-boom, fine tune sheeting on the cheap. Maybe not as efficient as the traveller, but as I have a limited range of travel on my existing system (and the fact that my stock traveller is mid-boom) I now have a wide variety of end-boom trim angles and only one extra line (now 2:1 on my boat).
Many old, wooden working sailboats simply sheeted the boom to the opposite rail and never had any kind of center-line sheeting point to begin with. Something to think about anyways. I have some old-fashioned notions of what is really needed on a modern boat. What is fashionable today is usually race-oriented, lightweight, and expensive...the antithesis of what the cruising sailor needs. (Don't even ask me about my three-strand nylon sheet lines as it could start an uprising.)