Category: Rigging

Rigging9 Comments

Upgrade Your Main Sheet to Double Ends

$tingy Sailor

“Double your pleasure, double your fun” used to be the Doublemint gum slogan because of its double strength mint flavoring. You can double the utility of your main sheet by upgrading it to double ends. What you already have, a working end at the fiddle block that attaches to the traveler stays as it is and you can continue to use it from the rear of the cockpit. But instead of the opposite end of the sheet terminating at a becket at the boom block, it continues forward along the boom to a swivel block with a cam cleat over the front of the cockpit. This allows you or another crew member to also trim the main sheet from a forward seating position.

Continue reading “Upgrade Your Main Sheet to Double Ends”
Rigging, Tips6 Comments

Put That Lazy Sheet to Work and Point Higher

$tingy Sailor

It’s the holy grail of sailing, the one thing that is denied every sailor, yet they yearn and struggle for it anyway.  I’m talking about pointing higher upwind.  No matter how good of a sailboat you have or how good you are at trimming its sails, there’s a limit to how close into the wind you can sail and that limit can affect your course whether you’re cruising or racing.  On a short course, it can mean the difference between one tack and two tacks to reach your destination or between 8 tacks and 12 tacks on a longer course. Every tack you make, you lose speed and time. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, sometimes it does. Continue reading “Put That Lazy Sheet to Work and Point Higher”

Rigging6 Comments

Two Ways to Rebuild Your Main Sheet Traveler Car

$tingy Sailor

What condition is your main sheet traveler car in? Do the sheaves look like the picture below, chipped and cracked? After twenty, thirty, or forty years they can get brittle and weak. You don’t want them to break while you’re out on the water. The car wouldn’t come off the bar but there would be metal riding on metal, not a good thing.

Continue reading “Two Ways to Rebuild Your Main Sheet Traveler Car”

eBooks, Rigging3 Comments

Do-It-Yourself Small Sailboat Rigging

$tingy Sailor

Do you have an older sailboat with minimal or worn running rigging? Did you recently buy a used sailboat and you don’t know if you can trust the standing rigging? Do you want to set up your sailboat for maximum cruising pleasure and performance? Do you like to save money but you want quality rigging that you can trust? Continue reading “Do-It-Yourself Small Sailboat Rigging”

Product reviews, Rigging6 Comments

Product Review: Barton Marine Winchers

$tingy Sailor

Do you have winch envy? I mean do you wish you had shiny new self-tailing winches like on bigger and newer sailboats? It’s easy if you think about how you have to go to the extra effort to cleat off your sheet on every tack when the other guys only have to give them another wrap. Depending on the position and type of the cleats on your sailboat, that can be frustrating.
Continue reading “Product Review: Barton Marine Winchers”