Tiny, tiny traveller

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by surf_km55

Plenty of room, but concealing them may require some finesse.


Yes, if the sheet is eased enough. I should have added, "....when the boom is directly over the end of the traveler." At that point, the boom is only ~10°-12° off-centerline, the sail nowhere near the shroud.


I get that, but since the existing unit requires replacement anyway, why not install a more "conventionally sized" unit? My thinking? That it would help reduce the drama associated with depowering the sails while in a strong blow. Perhaps not, I am neither a naval architect nor professional sailor, so I may be way off.

Anyway, my biggest concern was the mounting...whether a wider traveler would yield performance benefits, not so much. There is a solid boom vang, so sail shape isn't a problem.

Nah, I wouldn't say yer way off. As you depower you are either letting out mainsheet and adjusting vang, or you move the traveller. The number of lines to keep track of is about the same And then eventually it's all mainsheet. As Suijin says, be sure it's ready for the accidental gybe if you decide to move to a longer one. Do you have a preventer vang? Pretty important piece of equipment IMO. But I am not a N.A. or professional sailor either so take it with a grain of salt...

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Nah, I wouldn't say yer way off. As you depower you are either letting out mainsheet and adjusting vang, or you move the traveller. The number of lines to keep track of is about the same And then eventually it's all mainsheet. As Suijin says, be sure it's ready for the accidental gybe if you decide to move to a longer one. Do you have a preventer vang? Pretty important piece of equipment IMO. But I am not a N.A. or professional sailor either so take it with a grain of salt...

Don't they call that vang sheeting?


In discussions about this in the past, on this and other boating forums, I recall that eventually someone makes the point that vang sheeting and having a real useful (as in real AND useful) traveler are two completely different things.


I was convinced from those discussions because of geometry.


And most importantly that the traveler only does one thing: change the angle of attack. The rest of the controls affect sail SHAPE.


You may get similar results with vang sheeting, but you don't have to be a sail purist to recognize that is how travelers work and why.

[Don C L]

Oh yeah, I suppose the best traveller would be the big curved one on the... can't recall, which racing boats had those? Brain fart, I'm sure someone is yelling it out. Anyway, yeah the traveller allows you to change the angle of attack (as does letting out the mainsheet,) and the vang allows the boom to ride up, and let the leech relax and dump wind, or the other way around. Some boats don't have room for a vang under the boom so need a good long traveler to maintain a good wing and then they lose the control of the leech as the boom goes out over the rail. So, if you have a vang as almost all boats do, as I understand vang sheeting, and please correct me if I am wrong, you would maintain course, keep the angle of attack, but dump wind as desired by controlling vang only. But for most boats, especially cruisers, there is very little angle of attack that is adjustable solely with the traveller without turning to the vang to maintain the same sail shape as the mainsheet is let out. In other words, adjusting the vang AS the mainsheet is let out to maintain sail shape is not vang sheeting, but adjusting the vang once the angle of attack is set would be "vang sheeting." I am not sure why cruisers would choose to employ the vang like that. I don't, but then I ain't no profeshunal.

[Don C L]

OK, I confess, I decided I had to go do some research on vang sheeting to see if I'm crazy or not, and while much of what I found did not seem to gybe well, I thought this guy did a good job, and he is talking about a boat with NO traveller:

I sail an MG14, like an NS14 but with trap and kite.

We have the vang rigged to adjust from either side near the jib blocks which arn't the lead blocks by the way. It's an older boat, with the original rather conventional rig. These boats have a very large exagerated roach and sail twist is critical to the performance as there is a lot of area up near the peak. The degree of twist required for optimum performance varies greatly with wind speed so part of the crews job is to constantly trim the upper main through the gusts and lulls especially to windward hence the vang control at the gunwale.



It's interesting to read the differences in how boats behave and how people trim them. IN NS/MG you need a lot of vang going DDW in a blow. If you don't do it, the twist in the upper sail drives the mast to the windward side and over you go. In light air we ease the vang to get the upper sail more square across the wind for power. Most MGs these days are using an asymetric so never sail DDW. I still have a double luff kite so I do DDW. Upwind, we let the vang right off in light air, 4th mode for max twist due to differential apparent wind direction with height. Pull the vang on as the breeze cuts in and off again when overpowered.

We have no traveller. The end boom sheets off a yoke long enough to almost go block to block. This minimises but does not eliminate the vang effect of the main sheet without the complexity of readjusting a traveller. Twist control is then mostely through the vang.


Thanks to Ken from Sailing Anarchy for that one.