Is 25' actually enough for the mainsheet? Maybe my 5.7 is different, but the main is nearly 50'. If I only had 25' I wouldn't be ale to let the sail out very far with the stock 7:1 system.
I actually have an oversized main, because it is new & that's what came with the boat & I was to cheap to buy another one. The advantage is it is way easier to hold & yank on a thick line, especially with the forces on the main, I always get a chuckle on the You Tubes when the skipper grabs the main with both hands to haul another foot.
The cons of undersizing are pretty much eliminated with modern line, the strength to radius is way better than 30 years ago. The one con I can think of is the line needs to fit the sheave properly for the ratcheting to work, but again this is not nuclear medicine. One 1/16" or mm isn't going to drastically affect your ratcheting. My jib sheet is proper & ratchets hold well, my main sheet is to big, it doesn't fit flush in the sheave, but it still ratchets fine.
-- Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap --
Ed:
Remember there may be a difference of 10-15' in traveler sheet on that number. You can set the 5.2 up w/ a 2:1 on a separate traveler sheet, which can use over 12' of line by itself.
(for everyone) As far as line size, reeve your blocks with a 1/4" line and then check to see how much easier the blocks run out just pulling on them. It's significant. It's not something you notice in medium to heavy air, but unfortunately that's not something we always get. Not saying we should have 1/4" line, but there's a good argument to go smaller where possible.
I uploaded my 5.2 pics to the gallery section. I dont know that anyone will gain anything from them being there but figured it may help someone at some point. I have more pics at home ill upload tonight.
Turbo great looking glss job on the hull. Explain to me one more time the main halyard set up
The main halyard works as it normally would. After you get your main up you have all that extra main halyard to roll up and store so i decided to use that left over spool of line for my downhaul as well. Once the main is up you have the extra line on the tramp. You pull out about 6 feet of slack and use the rest of the line threaded thru the downhaul blocks.
This set up is very overcomplicated and difficult to rig each time out. Not to mention if you want to drop the main for whatever reason you have to unspool your downhaul before you can let the main down. I would use the standard downhaul with the hooks on the bottum of the sail.
I have pics of the system with the hooks i can post tonight.
Thanks Turbo,
The more picture albums of different setups for the same boat the better. It's a great way to get ideas and understand that there isn't always a 'correct' way to do things! Besides sometimes you need to see something from a particular angle before you understand it. I wish I would have had more pictures to look at when I first started rigging my boat, would have saved a lot of headache.
4)There was a better pull up system on the rudder than a bungee cord that is next to impossible to replace
Golfdad, I replaced my pull-up bungee with a line that is cleated just behind the auto-release. Works well that way. I now have a red line and a green one, release the red line and pull the green one for Up, and release the green line and pull the red line for down. Doesn't get much easier unless you are a fan of big bulky expensive cams (I'm not).
When I first got my 5.8 the bungees would not pull the rudders all the way up. This caused problems when pulled up on the beach. Waves would knock the rudders around and you could not slide the boat backwards on the sand with out them digging in. So after I replaced the bungees they would pull all the way up. This caused a worse problem. Sailing in these shallow bays I would hit a sand bar, the rudders would come all the way up and now NO STEERING. Replacing the bungee with a pull up line fixed both problems.