Traveller question

R

Russell

Member
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
 
I don't think that changing the traveler setup is class legal... If you're racing it in a competitive fleet you might want to be careful.


HOWEVER... if you're just sailing for fun I think a purchase point in the middle of the line between the two traveler grommets might give you the effect you are looking for

or... i could be missing the idea completely????
 
I don't have the rules in front of me, but I think they state that the traveller has to be rigged with a single knot or splice making a simple loop. I bet you could get creative and rig it legally.

As for whether or not it would be fast I can't say. I don't think the geometry of the laser gives any advantage to being able to trim your sail/boom to centerline but I don't have anything to base that on.

It would be a fun exercise to rig up two boats and do some speed testing.
 
Remember sloop rigged boats need to be able to sheet the boom closer to centerline than cat rigged boats, because the main's sailing in the lee of the jib.
 
Thanks for those.

That sort of mirrors my thought - it might be possible to do it within the letter of the rules - but it might not give any advantage.

On the other hand if it did give an advantage it would probably contravene the fundamental rule.

Russell
 
Would be very slow. Laser sail works best over the corner, not in the middle. The reason we all have the traveller as tight as possible is to keep the boom out and not let it gravitate in to the middle of the boat.

I would also think it would be against class rules.
 
Russell said:
Thanks for those.

That sort of mirrors my thought - it might be possible to do it within the letter of the rules - but it might not give any advantage.

On the other hand if it did give an advantage it would probably contravene the fundamental rule.

Russell
Click to expand...

If there was an advantage to it we'd all have started doing it years ago.
 
jimmy said:
Perhaps, but that is a pretty lame view of things. Where is your spirit of adventure and creativity?
Click to expand...

Having raced these boats since 1983 I've seen plenty of ideas. Some good, some bad. This falls in the latter catagory. I did not want to say that before, but since you pushed....I have my ideas which have been discussed on the class rules and politics forum.

I save my adventurous spirit for the race course.
 
Rob B said:
Having raced these boats since 1983 I've seen plenty of ideas. Some good, some bad. This falls in the latter catagory. I did not want to say that before, but since you pushed....I have my ideas which have been discussed on the class rules and politics forum.

I save my adventurous spirit for the race course.
Click to expand...


Fair enough, Always best to be straight forward. For whatever reason this idea caught my interest. I may play around with it for a few hours one day, or I may not.

See you on the water. Oh, and in the spirit of friendly competition Ive been racing lasers a few more years than you :p

Jimmy
 
There are a couple of instances where pulling the boom up 2-8" towards centerline is helpful - for example, in lt-med air when you need to pinch someone off quickly, reach down and grab the boom and pull it up - it will stick there, allow you point a little higher (while giving up some speed) - once the deed is done, kick the boom back down and accelerate again...
 
Try grabbing your boom and pulling it to windward, right over, to the other side of the boat, you will point really high, brilliant, but also go backwards. Not great for VMG.
 
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