Which cam cleat for dinghy jib?

[Mirror Painter]

I have a wooden dinghy which has a choice of two places for the mast depending on whether the jib is used. Although mine came with a jib I don't think the boat has ever been used with one since there are no jib sheet cleats fitted.

Fellow users of the same boat have suggested this:

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and this:


View attachment 45267

The idea of the second one is that one may sail without cleating the jib sheet but just using the fairlead and be sailing 'live'.

This is all too much for this novice to think about so I seek advice here.

Thanks.

 

[mrming]

Is the boat a Mirror?

If so, we used to use a seperate fairlead and cam cleat when I raced them.

Depending on the cut of the jib there are two positions for this.

The modern boats with a genoa style jib usually have the cleats on the outboard edge of the thwart.

The boats with the older style, high clew jib usually have the cleats on the buoyancy tank. In order to make this strong enough, a plywood backing pad should be added inside the tank.

Really old boats had their jib cleats on the gunwhales, but this wasn't a very good arrangement for pointing upwind.

Can you tell us who made the jib?

 

[dunedin]

You want ones similar to the first style - but really needs a much bigger loop to allow the (typically fairly thick) jib sheet to run out freely when tacking.

The second type are for a different purpose - they would have a rope lead or pulley further ahead, and the short loop over the top simple keeps the rope near to the cams when freed off.

 

[Mirror Painter]

Thanks both. It's not a Mirror - that's still on the patio. The boat in question is a Sea Hopper folding dinghy:

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That's my boat, (and parasol), but I don't have a caravan.

The jib sheets are not thick on the little boat. But I think I saw that higher loops are available for the first type - off for a google.

Cheers.