Mainsheet handling

[EASLOOP]

Good Morning all.

This is a question regarding mainsheet handling.

My East Anglian is rigged with a horse carrying a single pulley, 2 further pulleys either side of the after deck and a cleat on both sides (I'm sure there is a proper name for this - my tiller passes under the horse). However, in order to handle the mainsail it is necessary to free the mainsheet on the upwind side of the boat to let the mainsail assume its position, and vice-versa. To switch to the opposite tack though is a bit tricky as it involves handling each end of the sheet separately and carefully lest the whole sheet end up on one side of the boat. It also involves jumping around the cockpit somewhat. I would much prefer to use a sail track bridging the tiller, but closer to the cockpit, and to use a single down-haul. the former rig provides for 5 anchor points on deck (inc. the cleats), but the latter only one, two when the down-haul is cleated off.
If any knowledgeable sailor can recommend/advise on the best approach to handling the mainsheet/sail I would be most grateful to hear from you.

Thanks in advance

rgds
John

 

[snowleopard]

bog standard answer is...

a track bridging the cockpit with ball-bearing traveller, use a fiddle block with jammer on the traveller and a fiddle & becket on the boom. you'll also need control lines and cleats to set the traveller position. a decent chandler will supply all of this. you only need to find or create a stout bridge across the cockpit to mount it on.

 

[dickh]

Not sure exactly what sort of 'horse' you have, can you fit a double block with jammer & becket in the centre and a double block on the boom end? All Blocks in line not side by side. This way you will only have a single sheet from the centre to play with. Also if the horse is round in section, can you fit stops at each end and the lower block will slide along on a shackle - say for a distance of 12" - I had this arrangement on a boat some time ago and it worked well.
Alternative is to fit a proper bridge with sliders etc but this is expensive - Lewmar & Harken & probably others do such a system.
Another way is to have two mainsheets, from each corner of the stern, each to the boom end, each as described above - this also works well but you do end up with a lot of rope to play with - but a lot of control and gybing can be very controlled - this works best when connected halfway along the boom as you don't need so much rope.

dickh
I'd rather be sailing...

 

[EASLOOP]

Hi,

the horse is a piece of s/s tube bent to a flat 'D' and bolted to the after deck. The block runs along using a shackle just as you describe. At each end of the run is a stop. A single sheet runs from the stern quarter to the boom end to the horse block to the boom end to the opposite quarter. Each end is tied to a cleat once the position of the mainsail is set. My difficulty with this is that as the sheet is a continuous length it can run out unless attention is paid to the sheet distribution across it entire length. Also, having to tie off one end of the sheet before stepping across the cockpit to get at the other end of the sheet as the boom slices through the air I find rather daunting and a recipe for slip ups. I though that a new approach might yield a simpler handling method with more control especially when single handing. I am nearing the end of a major rebuild/refit and so perhaps I should try the original method with the horse before I try something new.

Thanks v. much for your input and for that of snowleopard

 

[PaulJ]

Would it be possible to remove the horse and replace it with a new, rather different one? My boat has a substantial stainless horse over the tiller, The top of the horse is flat and about 2" wide and on the top of it is mounted a conventional track/slider assembly..... It is a great settup - modern convenience, traditional look and it doesn't clutter up the cockpit.

 

[ccscott49]

Whay dont you just tie off one end and use the other as the working end, then you needn't worry about running out of rope at one end. I have seen boats with double ended main sheets, mine is one of them, but with a triple block on the boom and double in the middle of a very short horse, I have no trouble, if the sheet is short at one end, I just use the other end. But the other answer seems best to me for you, just having a central double block, with jammer. My mizzen is as the other solution, with two seperate sheets to each side of the boat, which I may use for my main, as it gives better tension on the leech of the main, I have no kicker. Or put a longer horse across for the main or track.

 

[Jacket]

Why not get a rigger to splice the two ends of the mainsheet together to form one continuous loop? This way you never run out of mainsheet. (Just make sure all the blocks are threaded onto the mainsheet in the correct order before splicing, as you can't get them off again!)

 

[EASLOOP]

Why didn't I think of that ?? Must be getting close to my 'sell-by' date. I will work with single ending my exisisting setup before contemplating any changes. Thank you and thanks to all for all the advice.

John