Traveler advice please...

[jarcher]

My 30 foot boat has a Harkin traveler and its quite a pain to use. The crew member has to sit down in the cockpit and bend over to adjust it. Here are some pictures:

Mainsheet Traveler | Jim's Scampi 30 MK-IV Site - Helios

Click on the thumbnails to make the picture bigger.

You can see its mounted low.

I spoke with Guito at Garhauer and he suggested one possible fix was to have a car with the cam cleats on the car instead of the ends of the track. I'm having trouble picturing exactly how that would work, but it seems that you could only then adjust the traveler from the windward side on a beat.

He also pointed out that if I run the line up and put the cleats on the side of the cockpit, it would be easy to adjust from above but hard to adjust from inside the cockpit.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks...

[JohnRPollard]

I actually like the looks of your traveller system -- seems like you have plenty of mechanical advantage built in. But if it's not easy to use...

If you want to improve the ergonomics, having the traveller controls on the car is a pretty good suggestion. It's not at all unusual -- tend to see it more often than not on newer boats.

Harken makes a "windward sheeting" version that does not require the operator to ease the lazy control line --it gets released automatically. But even the regular version should be fairly handy to use.

My only other general suggestion is to have the traveller control lines in a contrasting color to the mainsheet.

[JimsCAL]

The control line is too short! You need some slack in it to able to release on one end and pull in the other. The traveler on my 30 ft Cal 9.2 is located where yours is and I have probably and extra 3-5 feet of line to make a loop between the port and stbd cam cleats. I have the cam cleats on the side of the cockpit coaming. Easy to adjust while sitting on the windward side when going upwind.

[deniseO30]

I've the same set up with my Garhauer traveler but the cam cleats face aft and not at an angle, Also my lines are way way long and easily reach the helm and beyond for single handing I added cam cleats on top of the coaming port and starboard of the helm.

[roline]

I rigged my Cal 9.2 with a 3 to 1 purchase with cam cleat on the side of the cockpit to allow the crew to be sitting on the high side when they play the traveler in a blow. A 4 to 1 purchase would have been more appropiate in heavy air. I priced the Garhauer cabin top traveler and dream of moving it someday. I realize the extra stress it will place on the boom. Have any 9.2 owners do this??

[mdidriksen]

I have the exact same Harken setup as you do, and actually spent part of my day looking at what Harken has to offer since the control blocks on the center car of my setup are damaged. BTW, instead of a continuous line, mine is set up with separate lines (color coded) for each side. I also find it hard to operate, but the lines are old and could be thinner, and as I said, the control blocks are bent.

It looks to me like Harken makes a kit that will allow you to retrofit your setup to the windward sheeting version. One concern I have about that setup (which otherwise looks nice) is that in light air, or when on the mooring, the traveler can release accidentally (basically when things are flopping around), so they suggest tying it down when on the mooring or also installing some cam cleats on the coaming. Does anyone have experience with this setup?

[Faster]

I agree with Jim'sCal that the biggest problem is that your traveler line is too short. It should be long enough so that a crew member on the coaming can hold it in his/her hand and adjust it from there... I'd say you're about 8 feet too short to make that setup usable in any convenient way.

That's an easy inexpensive thing to try first before you spend more money on what's already a decent setup otherwise!

[jarcher]

Thanks for the advise everyone, its very interesting. I agree the line is way too short. But, a person sitting on the windward side has to pull the line on the windward side toward the lee side to bring the traveler up.

So during a tack, I typically have one guy on the lee side trimming the head sail, and the guy on the windward side hauling the traveler.

Would the longer lines help with this, even though the cleat to windward points to the lee side and not up?

Does anyone have any pictures of a traveler car with cleats on it?

[bheintz]

Originally Posted by jarcher

Does anyone have any pictures of a traveler car with cleats on it?

Harken: Windward Sheeting Travelers
The Harken Windward Sheeting Car is great for racing and the good new is you already have a Harken Track. It's possible that you may be able to turn your Harken mainsheet traveler car into a windward sheeting car. Windward sheeting adapter kits are available to turn standard Harken cars into windward sheeting cars.


I'd call Harken direct on this, they have a very good technical staff. Show him the Traveler 3 photo from your original post.

Note, when making up the Traveler Line, start with a line that is long enough to have the Traveler all the way to Leeward and the Trimmer hiking out to Windward. The Traveler is a very important control and you want it to be easy and convenient to adjust.

[Gary3675]

Traveler Systems

This site has several set-ups....I like he 3 to 1 remote cleat