Traveler

Hi Folks

Recently bought a 70's Mirror in 'reasonable' condition..... Never rigged a Mirror before!!!

Anyway I rigged it up this weekend and one one of the blokes from the club set up a temporary traveler system for the main sheet using ropes instead of securing through the starboard drain hole. It seemed to work really well!!

Any thoughts??

Cheers

Hard to comment on it without seeing a photo. The Mirror isn't supposed to have a traveller, so it may not be race legal.

62816inBerlin's picture

The yoke system is allowed by the rules. Is this what you mean?

new sheeting arrangement
Picture courtesy of Woollahra Mirrors

The word traveller suggests something with more sideways adjustability. If it's just something simple though that always pulls the boom in towards a central point, then it shouldn't offer any unfair advantage over the existing ways of doing things. The original system effectively pulls the boom down towards a point a little above the centre of the transom just about where the tiller is. The system you show in the picture above shows the boom being pulled to a central point a few inches above the tiller, which may allow the boom to be pulled in closer to the centreline. I don't know if there's any practical gain from that, so the real reason for doing it that way is doubtless just to make it possible for the mainsheet to be controlled from the centre of the boat instead of the back. If you are controlling it from the back instead of the middle, you don't need a central block, so it can be fixed to one side instead, but it'll still work fine if it comes to you from a central block over the tiller in the same position as the one in that picture - you'll find that it pulls that pulley towards you as you pull on the sheet, but it should still work. That movement forwards may give you a bit more leverage to pull the boom down, so in a strong wind where you haul on it extra hard, it may put a bit more force through the forestay than on any normal Mirror - make sure your forestay fitting is well attached and that it isn't corroded.

Edit: having thought about it for a bit longer, I worry that it might be able to generate such a high force that it may not be safe. I would recommend using the standard system for the mainsheet if you're controlling it from the back (which is, of course, to have one end of the sheet fixed to the transom half way between the tiller and rear corner of the boat, then it goes through a pulley at the end of the boom, then it comes down to a pulley fixed to the transom half way between the tiller and the other rear corner of the boat, and then it goes to you).

curlew's picture

The standard system has the disadvantage that a lot of pull is wasted holding the boom down - more than necessary. I tried a rope horse with more central sheeting very successfully. Actually, it was like the fashionable split tail arrangement in principle. But now I have changed to a hefty new tiller and rudder, and I have sheeted to the rudder head. It uses a ratchet block with a stand up spring and it works really well and I can avoid catching on the outboard. Remember that aft mainsheet does not stop you facing forwards to tack.