Extend the traveller and lead to a winch

We had found that, on a broad reach, Razzmatazz sailed faster and with better balance if we pulled the boom further outboard by rigging a tackle from the end of the boom to a mooring cleat on the edge of the boat. The only snags with this were that it was fag to rig and unrig, especially when tacking downwind, and it could be difficult to release on occasion.

As a separate issue, with a 3-part tackle, it was too difficult to pull up the traveller in a blow, and more parts gave too much friction and too much string lying around. Also, we wanted the helmsman to be able to let the traveller fly in a hurry without leaving his seat.

Original idea

To deal with pulling the boom outboard, what I wanted was to extend the traveller beyond the central beam right out to the edge of the boat, so that we could achieve the effect just by dropping the traveller down the track. My idea was to cut away the tops of the hulls aft, over and aft of the rear cross-beam as shown in the sketch.

In the event, we decided that this was too drastic a project for the envisaged benefit, and have simply arranged for the traveller ropes to end in carabiners that can be quickly detached from the traveller car and fixed to the end of the boom. To get the leads right, the blocks that the ropes lead through also need reattaching further outboard.

To deal with the gearing problem, we removed the tackle, so that the traveller is now single-part, and lead it through blocks up to the sheet winch immediately in front of the helmsman.

The pictures show the new arrangements.

Set up for a reach	Set up for close-hauled