[bristol299bob]

My boat has mid-boom sheeting and the traveler on the cabin top. I am having a Dodger made (Its the first dodger that this boat has ever had in its life). Ill need to reroute the mainsheet of course and looking for some suggestions.

My thought is to run the main forward to a block then aft through the dodger. My question is where to put that turning block.

Do I need to take the main sheet all the way to the mast (seems like a stronger mounting point). The downside is that the base of the mast is already a bit cluttered with the vang, downhaul, halyards, etc.

Is it ok to have a turning block fixed to the cabintop itself? is that strong enough? Im not sure what sort of forces the block would see.

what do y'all recommend? pictures would be great too.

 

[Faster]

Does the mainsheet currently run to a winch? How important is 'watertightness' against the cabintop?

Our control lines that end up under the dodger pass through cutouts in the dodger canvas between 'snaps'. Waves on deck will find their way through on occasion. Our canvas guy simply 'worked around' the control line arrangement that was (is) there.

It was a 'first dodger' for us too. Unfortunately these shots don't show the detail well..

 

[bristol299bob]

Current mainsheet does not run to a winch, its a 6 to one purchase with a camcleat on the lower blocks.

The canvas maker will work around the arrangement that I come up with, I just have to decide on what I want to come up with!

 

[MarkSF]

Have a look at the Garhauer catalog, online. They make deck organisers and stand up blocks which would be plenty strong enough. Just back them up with a good backing plate, inside.

I make my backing plates out of stainless steel plate.

Just remember, the greater the angle the block turns the line through, the greater the load on the block. If you reverse the direction of the line, like you are thinking of doing at the mast, the block has a load of DOUBLE the line tension on it. Shaeffer has a mainsheet load table in their catalog, size the block accordingly.

A photo of your deck layout might help with suggestions.

Usually, though, a stand-up block leading to a cheek block (or deck organizer) gets the job done, and is how Bristol did it on my 31.1.

 

[aloof]

Really helps if the holes in the dodger are no larger than the line. In real sailing conditions seawater will blast thru larger holes like a kid with a hose.

My forward turning block is about a foot aft of the mast and a bit to the side. You generally don't need to calculate loads if you always buy blocks with sheaves 7 times larger than the line. As for the deck, it depends. If other mast base blocks are okay then this should be too.

If the line turns 90 Degrees thru a block the load on the block is 1.4 times the load on the line.

 

[Gladrags1]

So I am guessing you don't have a traveler?

As you figure this out, remember that the more bends, turns in the line, the more friction you must deal with. There's going to be more pressure on the sheet simply going to mid-boom sheeting from end-boom. Meaning it will be harder to sheet in. That said; if no traveler, secure a block with appropriate backing plate to the middle of the cabin top, under the boom sheeting point, run a 4:1 purchase up to the boom, then down to the base of the mast, off to the side a bit and aft to the cabin top through the dodger. Go through a clamcleat or some type of clutch / stopper. A small winch on the cabin top would be great.

Tod

 

[IStream]

My boat has the same arrangement as yours (mid-boom sheeting with traveler). You can run the line directly from the traveler to a Harken flip-flop block mounted to the deck just behind the traveler and forward of your dodger that'll turn it 90 degrees towards your cockpit, under your dodger, and to a clutch or cleat on top of your cabinhouse. You'll need to defeat the cam cleat on your traveler in any case. The advantage of the flip-flop block over a standard stand-up block is that it'll tolerate a much wider range of lead-in angles without binding or affecting the lead-out angle.

Note that if the mainsheet terminates on a fiddle block at the traveler, the resting position of the boom when you tighten the mainsheet at the dock will be off the centerline unless you position the traveler to compensate. It's not a big deal but if it bugs you, you can put a padeye on the cabintop offset from the center of the traveler the same amount as the flip-flop block but on the other side of the centerline and run the fixed end of the mainsheet to the padeye. That'll balance the lateral forces on the boom. If you really want to get fancy, instead of using a padeye you can use another flip-flop block and cleat to get a double-ended mainsheet.

 

[capt jgwinks]

I like the double ended sheet arrangement. Equal access to the sheet and cleat on either tack or seating position. You will periodically have to "recenter" the sheet as it may tend to accumulate more tail on one side than the other.

 

[IStream]

I thought about doing the double ended mainsheet on my boat but with the mainsheet routed just to the right of the (centered) companionway, there're really no difference in access on either tack. Different boats may be different and I don't know how the Bristol is set up.