Thread: Main Sheet Options sought

I'm no expert, but since no-one else has responded in over 12 hours....

Vanging is a separate issue to sheeting. The vang is about making the sail behave off the wind.
This has been extensively discussed in other threads like late in the RAID41 thread & some quite
reasonably consider it a safety issue, not just performance. Michael Storer's web side also
discusses it at length in the context of sail twist. i.e. control.

For the sheeting, I suspect it will depend on the design of the boom & sail.
If the sail has a tracked or lashed foot and the boom is intended to flex in heavy wind,
then it probably needs to be centre sheeted. My ancient & limited experience is that the track
is good for an extra 0.5% of speed if you are racing and know how to use it. Back then, I didn't
have one & regularly beat boats that did. Whatever, this set-up needs through bolting to
something solid, like the keel.

If the boom doesn't need to flex, then sheet it wherever feels good.
End of boom requires less blocks to achieve same purchase (cheaper), but no less rope.
I like the sheet to present to me at the opposite hand to my tiller hand, so I'd go for option D.

hope this is of some help.
regards
Alan J

Thanks Alan,

That is quite helpful.

I have no interest in racing, though I wish I'd taken it up 40 years ago.

The boom is quite sturdy and there is no indication there have been any fittings on it, other than the one at the aft end.

Pacers are almost universally used as 'learn to sail' boats and this is partly due to their simplicity.

My Heron dinghy mainsheet rigs like so

1 block on end-boom
1 block with beckett (The thing you can tie a rope to?) on aft transom.
1 fair-lead forward on transom (the boat has aft floatation - wouldn't be needed if it didn't)
1 swivel-block with cam cleat on aft of CB case down low (for ease of uncleating).

Rope goes from attachment at transom block, to 180 degree turn at end-boom, to 90 degree turn round transom block through the fairlead to CB case swivel block, to cleat off.

Untitled-1.jpg

- and I find it very workable. Probably a similar size main. i've never had an issue with tiller tangling, as the block is far enough aft, and the rope is kept flat on the transom by the fairlead - if it went straight to floor for cb case swivel, it'd be out of the way too.

Has the benefit of simplicity, and relatively little rope for an end-boom sheeting arrangement.

Thanks Astrainox,

It looks like a nice, simlpe setup.

My concern, from experience, is the potential for me to get my feet tangled in the sheet while tacking.

I am not especially agile (alright, I'm clumsy) and I had a few moments in an OK Dinghy I had with a confined cockpit space and the amount of mainsheet needed, resulting from a 4:1 ratio.

I often held the sheet between my teeth while I tried to organise the unused sheet around my feet - one of the reasons I replaced it with a less performance-oriented boat. That salt water taste gets to you afer a while.

The logical setup keeps things much simpler then the setup shown above by Asrainox (no offense intended). There are 4 hard points on that arrangement, which is twice what you need.

The simplest setup is a simple 3:1 tackle at the end of the boom, with a swivel cam cleat on the deck. This leaves you with a single purchase on the boom and a single purchase on the aft deck. The sheet can foul a tiller in this location so a bridle or horse can be used to clear it. Personally I don't like reaching aft for the sheet, so I'd bring the sheet down the boom and place the swiveling cam cleat on the boom, say at 1/3 the distance from the gooseneck. This places the sheet forward and in a natural position for most sailors. You do pick up an extra purchase on the boom, but the handiness of this setup makes this trade acceptable.

The arrangement is thus: the sheets is terminated on a single becket block on the deck, horse, bridle, etc., then up around a double block (swivel) on the boom, back down and around the single with becket on the deck and back up around the second sheave on the double. From there it travels down the boom to a swiveling single with a cam cleat. A racketing swivel with a cam cleat can be useful.

No offence taken - That's just what I'd figured out through fiddling for best compromises. I'm always open to suggestions, as not many prople I know know much about sailing. I might even give your set-up above a go to see how it feels.