How much line do you need for a mainsheet?

13.5 metres.

Just measured mine and it's 13.2 m. And it could be a tiny bit longer. But it depends a bit on how/where you want to tie the free end. I have mine tied through the hiking strap loop.

What rope (make/model) are you getting?
 
Buy a little more than you think you will need. Go out and sail in non-regatta conditions to see what seems right, then cut to length.
 
A couple of weeks ago I sailed from a club inside a marina and had to sail out through narrow "channels" in different angels.

The last day it was 22-23 knots in the gusts and on the way in, one stretch was dead downwind and narrow. If I was sailing there a lot, maybe I would go for a really long sheet. Like 15.5m. as AlanD suggests in this thread (Main Sheet Line Length | SailingForums.com).

Then it's possible to let the boom out all the way forward, and then just sheet it back in again after the next
corner. Now I opened the stopper knot, let the sheet out of the main block and tied it again, that was enough to drift downwind, then I sheeted from the boom the last bit to the launch ramp,
 
Looks like good stuff. Doesn't cost too much, either.

Get 14 metres, rig it, go sailing in very light air, adjust it so the boom just stays out and forward by itself when running, and cut off any extra. If you want to tie the free end to (or near) the forward end of the hiking strap (I wouldn't recommend it but it's an option), then 13 m is enough.

Very skeptical about this. You'd have two extra useless (harmful actually as it's more likely to tangle) metres of rope on the bottom of the cockpit all the time, which would be only marginally helpful in rare special situations, maybe. Also, "boom more than 90° out in overpowered conditions" sounds a lot like "death roll".
 
La Li----where do you recommend that you tie the free end to?? You said you have yours tied through the hiking strap loop, but then said you don't recommend tieing it to the forward end of the hiking strap...is it tied to the back end of the hiking strap, by the traveler??
 
NHnewbie, as there's a loop only at the back end of the hiking strap, so yes, there (or the strap line or the elastic, same place essentially). It gives a nice long piece of the line to grab when the boom is at or near max out, and although you have the strap's length more of the sheet, it's less likely to tangle because the attachment points are so spread out. Of course you can just tie a stopper knot at the end of the sheet and not tie it anywhere, but with more than ten metres of loose line in a small cockpit, it's an accident waiting to happen.
 
LaLi ---

I find your recommendations excellent, my notion is an outlier observation, regarding survival sailing in close quarters, not a general advice.

It works fine to drift dead downwind like this, my eperience is on pretty flat water, and the sail must be flapping when turning downwind, it's not a good idea to excessivly sheet out while going downwind in a blow.:)
 
Very skeptical about this. You'd have two extra useless (harmful actually as it's more likely to tangle) metres of rope on the bottom of the cockpit all the time, which would be only marginally helpful in rare special situations, maybe. Also, "boom more than 90° out in overpowered conditions" sounds a lot like "death roll".
It actually works really well. Death rolls really only occur when the boom is at about 90 deg, so once the boom is out further the boat becomes stable again. The technique of letting the boom out fully forward has been happening since the 70's, but being able to pull the sail on when you needed to alter course was my modification. The club I sailed out of at the time was about 1km down a very narrow L shaped bay,when fronts rolled in the wind would funnel straight down the length of the bay, but you still needed to reach 100m around to where the club wash less you wanted to end up on the rocks. The technique has been used in 50 knots in open water and 35 knots in a race when the majority were upside down trying to run square in a narrowish bay. As far the excess rope, Lasers is all about rope management when approaching the top mark, check that there are no tangles, the rest of the course it becomes largely irrelevant and a 12 m sheet is just as likely to tangle as a 16 m one, when all but 4 mis loose in the cockpit.
 
APS has a couple of line kits; here is their table with lengths, etc.
ProLinePkgAPS.png
 

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