Today is the first race of the year for my Laser and I've been thinking about the traveller rigging.
Lots of other classes (Wayfarer, GP14, Lark) have abandoned travellers and use strops for the mainsheet so that they use the kicker to control the boom height and the mainsheet effectively pulls from the upwind side of the boat.
It might be possible to rig the Laser traveller to do the same - I would need to stop the traveller block moving (thicker rope, stopper knots or something else) and experiment with what else was needed.
I wondered whether this would help to avoid the blocks catching on the tiller and catching the mainsheet on the transom. It would certainly be cheaper than a carbon tiller.
I'd be interested in any thoughts.
Russell
Lots of other classes (Wayfarer, GP14, Lark) have abandoned travellers and use strops for the mainsheet so that they use the kicker to control the boom height and the mainsheet effectively pulls from the upwind side of the boat.
It might be possible to rig the Laser traveller to do the same - I would need to stop the traveller block moving (thicker rope, stopper knots or something else) and experiment with what else was needed.
I wondered whether this would help to avoid the blocks catching on the tiller and catching the mainsheet on the transom. It would certainly be cheaper than a carbon tiller.
I'd be interested in any thoughts.
Russell