Using mainsheet horse on small sailing dinghy

[Swg]

Hi, I've just bought an old Norfolk Urchin, a heavy, 13 ft sailing dinghy. It has a horse on the transom, for the mainsheet. I'm use to a traveller, with stops. How do I get the best out of the horse, or is it effectively a self tacking system for the main? Any advice very welcome.
Thanks
MB

 

[VicS]

Hi, I've just bought an old Norfolk Urchin, a heavy, 13 ft sailing dinghy. It has a horse on the transom, for the mainsheet. I'm use to a traveller, with stops. How do I get the best out of the horse, or is it effectively a self tacking system for the main? Any advice very welcome.
Thanks
MB

Yes it is just a "self tacking" system for the mainsheet lower block, keeping it above the tiller. with some ingenuity you might be able to add control lines but there may not be much to gain from doing so.

My mainsheet is on a similar horse and sometimes in light winds I tie a line onto the "traveller"r so that i can pull it to windward and ease the sheet to get a bit more shape into the main .... It feels good but probably make little difference in practice.

 

[Greenheart]

I reckon there may be a touch more to it, than in the case of the Sea Wych's tubular horse, Vic.

I had a Topper thirty years back, which had a "rope horse". The instructions concerned its tightness. It was adjustable, led forward to a central clamcleat. If it was left fairly loose, the lower mainsheet block rose well above the rudder stock when the mainsheet was tensioned, and wasn't free to slide hard over to the leeward extremity of the horse's attachment...

...so, the mainsail could be hauled in to a point closer to the centre-line, which was better for sailing in light airs. Conversely, I distinctly remember author John Caig's advice regarding the rope-horse setting in windy weather...it should be "exceedingly tight"...

...that meant the horse was virtually flat, just lifting over the rudder stock...so the mainsheet block would easily slide as far as the extreme leeward end of the horse's range...

...which was some distance from the centreline, even when the sail was sheeted in hard...just as you want when punching upwind in choppy conditions.

I'd be surprised if the Norfolk Urchin's horse doesn't use the same principle of adjustability, which attempts to accomplish what the traveller does, on other boats.

 

[VicS]

I reckon there may be a touch more to it, than in the case of the Sea Wych's tubular horse, Vic.


I'd be surprised if the Norfolk Urchin's horse doesn't use the same principle of adjustability, which attempts to accomplish what the traveller does, on other boats.

It looks pretty solid with no "adjustability" to me

Wider and higher than the Sea Wych horse but otherwise pretty much the same idea

(Photo from Apollo Duck)

 

[Romeo]

The horse keeps the sheet clear of the tiller. In my boat, given that I have a double ended sheet, it does less to offset the lead of the sheet to leeward, than it would if I just had a single ended sheet. Not sure if I have explained that too well! I have that arrangement not through any scientific reasoning, but rather because that is the way it always has been.

 

[Greenheart]

It looks pretty solid with no "adjustability" to me. Wider and higher than the Sea Wych horse but otherwise pretty much the same idea.

Perfectly correct, my apologies. I wonder where I got the idea that the Urchin has a rope equivalent, like the Topper's?

That said, there definitely seemed to me to be significant advantage in being able to control the boom's angle off the centreline, without having to adjust mainsheet too.

My use of the Osprey's traveller is elementary at best, but there's a marked difference in drive and (reduced) pointing and inclination to heel, with the traveller slacked off. I'd be sorry if I couldn't adjust it. Although I know the Osp is a very different beast to those in question here.

 

[lw395]

It looks pretty solid with no "adjustability" to me

Wider and higher than the Sea Wych horse but otherwise pretty much the same idea

(Photo from Apollo Duck)

Looks to me like the sheet block is against the starboard stop and the port stop is almost in line with the back of the centreboard case?
Or maybe this monitor needs a clean!

Letting the sheet slide along a horse is just like a traveller, it allows more leech tension and less twist without using a powerful kicker.
in light airs, maybe restrict it to the middle, but it's always a compromise and there are a lot of variables.
Boom generally wants to be out towards the quarter on a una rig, less so if there's a jib.