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I followed Peter Stevenson's lead and am building my Weekender with a lazarette hatch.  It's located just aft of the lazarette panel and before the taffrail.  I know most people attach the mainsheet block to just where the hatch is!  Where have others attached the block, especially given the hatch's location.

Dave

Dave
I used a bridle to span over the tiller I used.

Greetings Dave,

Lots of photos and a discussion of bridles available here ...

http://www.wayfarer-international.org/WI...ength.html
http://www.wayfarer-international.org/WI...ngth2.html

Best photo from the dozens at the above links ...



There are two ways to do this.  A true bridle is a length of line the runs from one corner of the boat to the other.  Then you need a pair of pulleys attached back to back with a swivel between them.  One pulley rides along the bridle, the other pulley is part of the main sheet tackle.  Run the main line from the end of the boom, down to this pulley, back up to a second pulley which turns the main sheet towards the mast.  A third pulley mounted half way down the boom turns the sheet down to your hand in the cockpit.  That's four single pulleys and the result is a two part mainsheet ... two to one mechanical advantage.  It looks like the guys in the pictured boat dispensed with the pulley that rides the bridle and simply rove the bridle through the pulley strap.

Or, you could just mount a single pulley out on each corner of the deck at the transom.  Then reeve the mainsheet from the end of the boom down to a transom corner pulley, back up to a single pulley on the end of the boom, back down to the other transom corner pulley, back up to another single pulley mounted two inches from the end of the boom, which turns the sheet towards the mast, and a fourth pulley at the center of the boom turns the sheet down into your hand in the cockpit.  That's four single pulleys and the result is a four part mainsheet ... four to one mechanical advantage (over-kill for a Weekender, but great if the 8 year old wants to work the sheets).

Cheers,
Tom

I didn't bother putting a taffrail on my Weekender and mounted the mainsheet block aft of the lazarette hatch.

One thing that just came to mind with this modification is that it prevents you from using the designed boom crutch.

I did mine this way ....

I thought a bridle was the answer.  I'll need to plan where the fix points aare located, and where I should locate my cockpit cleats.

Dave

I thought that bridles were smart variations of rigid travelers thet permit to work above rudder tiller, paying a less efficient pulley path (pulley runs on an arc of ellipse instead of on a straight segment).
I also understood from other discussions that they were both useful to compensate the lack of a vang.
In the discussions linked, I see sails with vangs and bridles and I read that bribles works better than travelers.

Can someone explain me this matter?
In my Weekender (that by the way is quite ready to be launched) I installed the standard mainsheet block, but I set also bridles fixing points for the main sail and for the jib, because my intention is to sail as soon as possible and to test/upgrade these solutions later. Now I'm wondering whether is better to apply a bridle short and rigid (using the same line used for shrouds) that run relatively straight and works like a rigid traveler, or to use a longer and more flexible line, running high and on an arc of ellipse.

Gianluigi

I bridle is a contrivance for lack of a better or more costly method of doing the same thing with hardware. It doesn't help sheeting angles any, in fact it decreases them. It doesn't help downward tension (vang), again it makes maters worse compared to a vang. A traveler is a much better way to control sail shape and maintain boom control. Of course it requires hardware, even if it's little more then a fixed piece of pipe. There also is no substitute for a vang, which all boats should have, especially in heavy air, even if this is little more the a whip or gun tackle dangling from the mid boom waiting to be clipped onto the rail when needed.

Paul: Could you expand a little on the traveller and it's use in a boat like a Weekender?

Dave

And a Vang as well Paul

The traveler can be a simple device or in modern, highly strung Bermudian rigs, a very costly, elaborate assembly of hardware and tackle, possibly hydraulically driven.

The traveler really permits sail shape control with leach tension, but it has other uses as well. To describe them all would be a small book in this format, but for a gaffer, the main reason it to control two things: sheet tension and sail twist.

For example when you've eased out the sheets and are on a beam reach, making good way in healthy winds, the peak will tend to fall off to leeward. Moving the "car" to leeward and hauling down on the now more vertical sheet will help this. The reverse is true as well you may want to spill some air, but not flog or have the whole luff in a pucker, so up comes the car and the peak falls off. The sail is under control, nothing is shaking itself to death (heavy air), but the boat isn't over powered either.

This type of fine tuning is the difference between the mid fleet sailors and the ones that constantly finish in the top 25%. Not that the average Weekender sailor is a racer, but every sailor I've ever known wants to do better, especially if another sail happens to appear near by.

The vang is another tackle that is often over looked on gaffers, but it's really important for sail shape and heavy air use. As anyone that's sailed knows, the boom rises up the further away it swings from the boat. In light air it is a good thing, making a big bag to catch what little is there, but as winds pick up, this isn't the shape you want. The vang hauls down on the boom which controls draft in the sail and luff tension to some degree (I haven't mentioned Cunningham's yet, so don't get me started). This adds or subtracts power from the sail as you need it. It has the added benefit of controlling the boom so it doesn't flop around in a rolling boat too.

Most gaffers don't have the room for a vang in the typical Bermudian sense of the word, this is why gaffers like heavy booms (helps hold the thing down). The Weekender isn't an exception and the cabin front is directly in the way of a good purchase at the base of the mast for a vang. I've used curved tracks on the cabin top for those really interested in the best of a vang, but this is a bit much for a Weekender. On a Weekender, I'd use a hanging vang, which is a tackle that is attached to the boom, about mid length. It will stay there, clipped at both ends, minding it's own business until you need it, then you unclip the fiddle block end and clip it onto a side deck pad eye or other handy location (toe rail) that's been worked out. Now you have a tackle that you can haul on and pull the belly out of the sail (fiddle block and cam cleat arrangement is typical).

Armed with these two things, you'll have better control of sail shape on your main. If side by side with another Weekender, you'll stay closer to hull speed longer then they will, so they'll eventually be looking at your transom most of the day. You see what most don't realize is, boats speed up and slow down every second, they're constantly changing speed. If you watch a knot log you'll see it bouncing all over the place. Much of this is wind pressure, but a lot is also air that's not being used and spilling or falling off your sails. If you have better sail shape controls (and use them) you'll be "in the groove" more often then other boats.