NP336 wrote:
John,
I believe my traveler and lines lead aft the same way you are rigged. No problems here in 4 seasons .
Cheers,
Nick
S/V Angela Mia
# 336
Lake Superior.
My lines are led the same, I believe, as well. Traveller adjustment on both ends. Main sheet and reef clew controls on port and cunningham, boom vang and topping lift to starboard with the traveller control. The PO of my boat had ordered the boat with a longer traveller and I duplicated its length with Garhauer when I replaced it last year. Guido did a very nice job of making holes so I could tap screws into the hatch hood metal. I had to very slightly shim the original wood struts on the end and put an extra fabricated long 1/4 X 20 bolt in each end to stabilize the thing. Very solid and works beautifully. I am not sure the extended traveller actually adds much to the control of the main with the Garhauer hard vang in place. I think that longer travelers were more useful before folks learned what you can do (including destroying your main sail!) with a hard vang with lots of purchase and control.
If you are really going off shore: here is my belief about reef leading based on a few years off shore in this boat. I have the clew reef lines led on the port side. I rig one of them for coastal sailing and put the other one in when going offshore. I have a very deep second reef because I do not believe in the third reef after being several blows. This boat sails under bare poles and hull and I think you are kidding yourself if you think it will help to have a tiny rag left up there in 40 knots--or thinking you could leave that much unused sail flapping in high winds and seas. I had the main halyard led aft, but put it back on the mast after a few offshore passages---I think it is dangerous to have all that loose sail flapping around in truly bad conditions--you need to up there and get things secured correctly and gasketed neatly and do it before it becomes too hazardous to be up there. I think that aft leading everything compromises my urgency to act, creates a mess of rarely used spaghetti lines that are complicating things, and does not allow meet to make things proper and secure. Tangles and flapping isn't just inconvenient and unseamanlike---I think it can be dangerous.
I am sure others feel differently.