This past weekend I tested a forward and outboard lead poisiton for the gennaker by moving the ratchet blocks to the trampolene foot/hand strap that's just behind the shrouds. The position seemed to work, but I'd like a more secure solution for mounting the blocks. How have others accomplished this?
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Wētā North America
weta trimaran weta sailboat one design high performance sailing dingy
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A more secure solution is to use a longer cord and secure the block underneath: ideally to the rail that you’re sitting on, but that’s hard to do without unlacing the tramp. You have lots of tramp lacing cord underneath you could tie to. I suppose you could even loop it through the shroud pad eye, that’s simple,
fast and very secure. I still run the block cord through t the hand strap, but the stitching on these is not something I want to trust for this block. For extra nerd points, I placed a grommet in a bit of webbing and stitched that to the tramp, but you have to unlace it to do that, it’s hardly mandatory. I also use two extra blocks secured to the front of the tramp (and here I do use the hand straps as there is less stress, secured with soft shackles) so that the genneker sheet crosses the vaka (main hull) just behind the access port. This arrangement sure eliminates getting tangled in or sitting on the genneker sheet. The boat is stowed in these pictures so don’t let the blue downhaul lines confuse you.