H2oPaul
New Member
I read a thread titled What hardware for sheet control? have some questions and saw the date on it was 2005. thought I could revive it here. Hope this is not a problem with anyone. I was sailing my sunfish on 15 + knots and was hicking out as far as I could. mostly to have fun doing it. trying to learn what the boats and my skills limits are. I found that with the system that my boat has. I cant keep the main sheet from cleating it self, or I have to keep my arm way up high. I have what I think is a Hexaratchet swivel base with a 420 harken block. anyways workes grate on helping my arm when the wind is realy blowing and I love to be able to cleat the main when im relaxing or geting a drink or at time i find I use the cleat to bring in some sheet and then I cleat it and bring in some more sheet in. anyways the problem I see is that the cam cleat base system I have , locks to the down position. so as I hick out hard, like it or not the main sheet cleats it self. now I seen some boats with an upside down cleating system. you have to pull up to cleat it and down to uncleat it. this would work grate when hicking out hard. . and you could use the cleats when relaxing or giving your arm a rest. and , it seems alot of new sailors tend to hold on to the main sheet to long when thay do capsize. I seen boats with no sailors going for a long time before thay came to a stop (not fun for the sailor lol) so anyways I think if some one would hold on to the main to long and capsize on most cases it should not stay cleated. if the system was upside down. I hope I make some sence here. Im sory if I dont. I hope I can get some feed back on this and maybe turn the grate new system I have now into something that works better for me. thanks Paul