Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on September 10, 2003 at 20:02:02 from 62.253.32.7 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: Re: Travellor posted by Ross Cossar on September 10, 2003 at 12:07:39:
I agree that it is simply not possible to hold the mainsheet directly from the boom in a 14 foot dinghy. The sail would be over 100 square feet (sorry metric enthusiasts) and would pull far too hard.
I don't see the problem in my own mainsheet arrangement. The only thing it can't do is pull the boom further in than the corner of the transom. In my standing lug dinghy this is quite far enough - she won't point any higher and would just stop if the sail were to be pulled too far in. In my bermudan rigged 22 foot Kestrel estuary cruiser the main always seemed to come in far enough for close hauled work - anyway she won quite a number of races in her career. Certainly in either boat it pulls the boom down as well as in but I don't see that this ever does any harm - it stops thge sail from twisting without the need for a kicking strap. In the Kestrel the sheet was cleated on the port quarter having got it in and the sail set the same on each tack without needing to touch the sheet. I agree it would work just as well with a block and a cleat at each end, but I don't see that you would gain a lot from the extra complication. In the dinghy, where of course the sheet is never cleated, you have to hold the sheet at a different place every time you tack, but that isn't a problem.
My present cruiser - a 22 foot Pandora has a 'modern' rig with a ludicrously short boom and the mainsheet going to a fixed point in the centre of the cockpit, and it really is awkward to use, always in the way and hard to make fast. I can't think of any way to re-arrange it!
Here again I find the old methods had a great deal to commend them.