Traveller
Hey Paul; When you refer to upgrade, I assume that you presently have the basic mainsail sheet / block connected to a little bit of braided cable off of the backstay like I had. It was a certainly novel arrangement, as the wind increases the load on the mainsail, the backstay tension similarly increases, lending to bending the mast aft which I understand to be beneficial to windward performance. Just how much difference this makes on a 22 foot trailer-sailor with a masthead rig and a deck-stepped mast is beyond my understanding! I used an old trick from my days sailing Lasers. My "traveller" is a normal three-strand bit of 1/2" line (not the typical braided) fed through each aft cleat with a figure eight knot at one cleat and the other tied off to the opposite cleat. The mainsheet block had a loop for a fitting to connect it to that little bit of cable mentioned earlier. I fed the traveller line through that loop and tightened the traveller line down by making a good cleath hitch on the free end of the traveller. In reaches, I keep the traveller tight and can move the location of the mainsheet block on the traveller line by sliding the block with my hands. The course texture of the 3-strand line more or less keeps the block where it is on the traveller line. When downwind sailing, I loosen the traveller by undoing the tied end on the cleat and letting it slacken a bit. It's basic and most of all cheap, and it works pretty good. Downside is that the aft cleats are used all the time, making tying up docking lines tricky. Need photos? let me know and I'll try to either post them or send you one (if I can find any!) If not I can draw up something, scan it and get it to you. Good luck! Stu "Karakahl" 1979 O'day CB
