Main sheet past the boom end?

Otter

Otter

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The ideal attachment point for the main sheet is about 8 inches behind the exact perpendicular attachment point. It's giving an angle of about 20 degrees; my concern is that it's now acting as a force pulling the boom away from the goose neck fitting. The main sheet is a 3:1 and the sail is pretty big though not nearly as big as a typical 35 footer. Still the forces at play are huge - we don't reef the main until 20 knots. But again we never sail closer than 40 degrees (the leeway isn't worth the candle) so the boom is never in a direct line with the attachment point.

Advice please - I've broken a few small things in my time, the goose neck would be a biggy!
 
Lazy Kipper said:
The ideal attachment point for the main sheet is about 8 inches behind the exact perpendicular attachment point. It's giving an angle of about 20 degrees; my concern is that it's now acting as a force pulling the boom away from the goose neck fitting. The main sheet is a 3:1 and the sail is pretty big though not nearly as big as a typical 35 footer. Still the forces at play are huge - we don't reef the main until 20 knots. But again we never sail closer than 40 degrees (the leeway isn't worth the candle) so the boom is never in a direct line with the attachment point.

Advice please - I've broken a few small things in my time, the goose neck would be a biggy!
Click to expand...

Many Westerlys are thus rigged
 
TG has been like that for at least 21 years without any sign of a problem. Given the other forces in action on the mainsail I am not sure that there is that much direct outward pull.
 
At 20 degrees, the backward component isn't that big a force. Depending on what sort of kicker arrangement you have, the kicker might actually be applying a bigger opposing force in some circumstances anyway.
 
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