If you've been following the saga (OK, so it's a short saga at this point) of
Grit, our project boat
—a 77 Pearson 10 Meter, then you know that our first race ended with a list of demands from the crew. One of the items high on their list was as they explained it: “A traveler that actually travels.”
To be fair, this was not an unreasonable request. It is rather difficult to trim the mainsheet when your traveler is downwind—particularly when it seems determined to stay there despite your best efforts to move it elsewhere. It's also tough explaining to the crew why they should be willing to brace against the coaming and push with both feet in order to move said traveler upwind. Did I mention that I was also concerned about paying for chiropractic treatments after a long race?
Armed with the understanding that we needed to remedy this situation, I set out to find the perfect traveler for Grit. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, the first place I went was the Pearson Owner's list . This is a collection of 375 Pearson owners who have banded together to share experiences and ideas on how to get the most from their sailboats. (SailNet hosts about 200 of these groups for a wide range of sailboats. You can see a complete list of all the groups at SailNet's Boat Owners Groups.
From this group I quickly gleaned two things. First, the existing traveler was “state of the art” when the boat was built in 1977. Second, the definition of “state of the art” had matured significantly in the intervening 27 years. The original traveler was no longer manufactured. Some parts were available, but the consensus was that it simply wasn't worth the effort to rebuild. It ran on four delrin
wheels and even when new, did not move freely under load. Also, the control
lines were set up with a 3:1 system that didn't provide enough leverage when the wind picked up. The cam
cleats were add-ons, not original equipment, and they weren't adjustable; they were locked-in pointing dead aft, making adjustments from anywhere but dead aft a major chore. Finally, the mainsheet blocks were tired after all those years in the sun. While a good cleaning might have made them run a little more freely, and a smaller
line certainly would have helped, the 4:1 ratio they provided was a little too slow for light air and little too weak for a heavier breeze.
Being something of an “economy-minded” guy, I resisted the advice to heave this system until the crew finally wore me down. I think the final shot was something along the lines of “There's only a couple of places where you should really spend the money to buy first class and the traveler is one of them.” I pondered that advice and decided it was worth a whole lot more than I paid for it. The traveler and mainsheet system are one of the essential controls on the boat. Being able to use them quickly and efficiently is the key to getting the boat to perform at its potential. Having been a slow sailor all my life, and now having the racing bug, I was all for maximum performance.
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Deciding to replace the old system was the easy part; now I was faced with a myriad of choices for the new system. There are literally dozens of different configurations available from the manufacturers who specialize in these parts. Once again I turned to the list to see what advice would be forthcoming. The consensus, if you can call it that, was quick and to the point. While there was a variety of equipment doing the job, the most satisfied owners seemed to be the ones who chose
Harken traveler systems. And, the happiest of the lot were those who went for the
Harken Windward Sheeting Car. Not being a die-hard racer, I had no idea what a Windward Sheeting Car was. So I checked in with some of our in-house gurus and learned that the WWS Car is an ingenious device that automatically releases the leeward control
line on the traveler car. What this means is that you can tack without fooling around with the control
lines…the windward
line will automatically lock at the same time the leeward
line releases. This sounded like heaven to the guy who just finished a race where we had to move aft to
line up and manually uncleat the control
lines at every tack.
Some quick research in the SailNet Store and on the Harken site indicated that Harken recommended the mid-size traveler system. I also learned that Harken had recently redesigned this system to incorporate “captive” bearings – meaning that one no longer has to worry about losing the bearings anytime the car is removed from the track. Having decided on the traveler car system, the only thing left was the mainsheet system itself.
This was a frustrating choice. I could have a fast system or I could have a powerful system. Or, so I thought. More advice from the list and our in-house gurus followed. Soon I was looking at the
Harken 2-Speed Mainsheet System. This is a combination of blocks that gives you a choice of a 3:1 or 6:1 ratio without the usual collection of additional blocks in a fine-tune system. I liked the simplicity of the solution as well as the reduced clutter. The 10-Meter doesn't have a lot of space available for elaborate mainsheet systems so this looked like the perfect set-up. Once again, the List confirmed my choice. The people who have a 2-Speed System raved about it.
Add some track, control line sheaves and a stand-up toggle and you've got a complete “2004 State-of-the-Art” mainsheet system for GRIT. In the next article we'll describe how we went about getting the track pre-bent to fit the camber of Grit's bridge deck and the steps involved in installing our new system.
My most important learning discovery: Buying a complex system like a mainsheet traveler and blocks is a lot more complicated than simply picking up a catalog and ordering parts. The range of choices and capabilities has expanded exponentially in the 12 years since I last refit a boat. Unless you're doing this all the time, it really helps to seek advice from other owners and the professionals. And, selecting the base system is just the first step. You're going to face a bunch of minor choices in how to accessorize and fine-tune your selection so it is the perfect fit for your boat. We'll explore all that in the next article. For now, I'd just like to give a big thank you to the folks on the Pearson List and our in-house staff. They really helped this rusty sailor put together a well thought out and superb mainsheet system.
For those who are interested, here's a breakdown of the parts in the new system:
Grit's New Traveler System | Harken 1636 | Windward Sheeting Traveler Car | | Harken 1618.1.5 | High Beam Track | | Harken 1632 | Double Sheave Control Blocks | | Harken 332 | 2-Speed Mainsheet System | | Harken 1622 | End Caps for Track | | Harken 1561 | Stand-up Toggle for Traveler Car |
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