Traveller track location

[Don Guillette]

Traveler track location

Sasha: In my opinion, there is a problem mounting the traveler on the arch and it has to do with the pulling angle of the mainsheet. I'm not an engineer and I'm not sure how to explain this but if you picture the angle with the track in the cockpit and then visualize the same angle on the arch you'll see that it is smaller. The farther out the boom goes the worse it gets and you loose a lot of mechanical advantage.My good friends Mark or Guido at Garhauer Marine, in Upland ,Ca can explain this better than I can. If you decide to contact them, tell them I told you to call. They may be able to design a better setup for you.

 

[Sasha]

I am currently doing a total rebuild of an Endeavour 26 with a view to creating a decent small cruiser. putting the track on top of the cabing is not a practical option with this boat's setup (nor is it all that friendly to the boom), This leaves me with the two tracks I currently have to chose from. The "racing" setup lives across the companionway deck while the older "cruising" setup lives behind the tiller and is for end-boom sheeting (actually a nice setup). I am going over to wheel-steering, which is going to put the helmsman right in the way for the friendlier end-boom sheeting track.But, there is hope!amongst the other additions is the ubiquitous solar panel/bimini archway, that will also host a bunch of other sensors and gizzmos. If the arch was suitably reinforced....could it mount the traveller track and sheeting mainsail sheeting hardware?Would raising the track off the deck to a height where it is actually ABOVE the boom by half a foot or so result in a still workable and trimable mainsail?Would the sail introduce too much pull on a raised point and screw up my centre of gravity or just pull the stern around too much and introduce lee-helm from hell. It would certainly be nice to have the track completely out of the way, but this modification is one I want some input with before "experimenting".And ideas would be gratefully heard and you would not be held accountable.thanksSasha

 

[patrick]

Don't understand your idea

"Would raising the track off the deck to a height where it is actually ABOVE the boom by half a foot or so result in a still workable and trimable mainsail?"I cannot see how this could be possible. Got a picture?I have considered doing something like this myself on our 37.5 Hunter. There are some real attractive benefits of doing this and I think some others have already done it. The traveller now is forward of the sliding hatch and it is difficult to access for adjustment plus the fact that it doesn't give much leverage.As to the second question of " Would the sail introduce too much pull on a raised point and screw up my centre of gravity or just pull the stern around too much and introduce lee-helm from hell."I do not think that the traveller placement will make any difference to the center of gravity or give you lee-helm. The same forces are at work overall and if it is properly designed, it should make no difference to the sailing characteristics. It would certainly make the traveller easier to deal with.

 

[Jim Boernge]

Engineer

I'm thinking about that mechanical advantage point-of-view. If you had your traveler above (and beyond) the end of your boom, then the sheet length would become longer as you reach, thus more sheet to haul for a sail adjustment with respect to the other two setups.If I understand what you propose, the sheet would have an upward pull on the boom requiring a boom vang to pull the boom down for sail trim. A boom vang has a rather tight angle and thus a heavy load to it already. If you fight the uplift of a traveler above the boom you would cause significant load on the vang. Any upward load, say 10 times the horizontal length of the vang would rewquire 10 times the vertal load at the vang and say 2 times that for the actual vang tension.Perhaps we mis-understood you.