Main Sheet Rigging

[LisaGail]

Well .. I went ahead and bought a 1973-`974 Daysailer II... Now I am itching to get her in the water. One slight problem.. I cannot figure how to rig the mainsheet..

I have a double block hanging from the boom with the main sheet attached ti this block. I have a single block below mounted on the CB assembly in front of the main sheet cleat. I then I have 2 single blocks at the stern on each side. I have rigged it a gazillion ways and nothing seems to work.


Can anyone help me?

Thanks

[jcalvinmarks]

I had almost the exact same setup on my DSII when I got it. It had something like 75 feet of line running through all those blocks that you mentioned, and since it had been sitting for several years before I got my hands on it, it was a tangled mess. The differnce was I had a double on the end of the boom and a single at mid-boom.

What I did is I took all that line off, and put a single block with a becket at midboom. Simplified things immensely. Now the line runs from the becket on the boom, down to the block on the CB trunk, back up to the block on the boom, and back down to the cleat. I get 2:1 purchase on the boom, and it's a much simpler method.

That being said, mine is strictly a pleasure craft. I don't do any racing whatsoever, so my setup is aimed solely at simplicity and ease-of-use while I'm sailing.

My understanding (and someone will correct me if I'm wrong) is that the rope traveler at the stern, like yours is rigged for, allows you to pull the boom in closer to the centerline and thus allows you to point higher, whereas the midboom setup I use pulls down more than it pull in when the boom is close to the centerline, so I won't be able to point quite as high. Whether you're out for racing or for crusing will determine which is best for you.

And if you want to get the rope traveler setup, I'll have to defer to someone else on that one, because obviously I went a different way.

[Roger]

Those two blocks (pulley) on the back corners (aft quarters) of your boat are for a traveller system. The shackle (without block) at the aft end of your boom may be part of a topping lift or a remnant of a previous end boom system. Ignore the end boom shackle. The line that is currently attached to the beckett of that block (bottom shackle) will run first to one of the blocks on the aft quarter, (doesn’t matter which one), then back up through one of the sheeves (pulleys) on the block attached to the mid boom, then down to the other aft quarter block, then back up to the second sheeve on the mid boom block, then down to the block on top of the cb trunk, then to the cleat. This will take more line than the 25’ I previously quoted so run a string or cord through to determine the length needed. Make sure the boom is all the way out to one side to maximize the length needed, then add a length from the cleat to where you would be sitting on the opposite side of the boom, plus about 3 feet, as if you were hiking out.

[dannyb9]

i think its under 'three parts' there is an interesting discussion there. what i gleaned is that most top sailors use a rope traveller that is a loop tied around the two aft blocks with just enough slack to create a triangle about 15" high over the rudder. the mainsheet deadends at the end of the boom (on the tang at the boom end or on a single block with becket hung from the tang) the sheet goes down to a single block that slides on the traveller, back up to the single block on the end of the boom, forward to a single block in the middle of the boom, down to a single block on the cb case and through the mainsheet cleat. simple and effective. this gives you three parts, which is less effort to sheet than the two part system mentioned above.

[GreenLake]

The best description of mainsheet rigging in the recent discussions is the one by "Baysailer" in this thread, but don't forget to check out the "Rigging guide" under "Technical Info" on this site.