Out There Revival (E35-3)

[Nick J]

We ended up with a 4:1 mainsheet setup run through a cabin top double clutch that's shared with the main halyard. It's worked well for us both on heavier air days and (far mor common to us in the Puget Sound) light air days. The biggest factor we found was the friction in the blocks. Replacing old warn out blocks, including the deck organizer, with new ball bearing blocks made a much more noticeable difference than 5:1 vs 4:1. I posted about it here:

Block Comparison

We're replacing a lot of the running rigging this year. I'm not sure if the blocks I'm replacing are original, but they look old enough to be a possibility. Either way, they are old. All of them have small cracks in the sheaves, there's corrosion on the aluminum cheeks where the steel pins...

ericsonyachts.org

I later purchased blocks to bring it back to the original 5:1, but after using this set up for a few years, I'm going to stick with the 4:1

 

[bsangs]

It's a good question. Generally I have found that less is more regarding mainsheet purchase.

For one thing, there's a winch, if a hard set is required. And in light air, the less friction the better.

When the wind comes up, we reef, and with a reef in, purchase necessity is reduced. With two reefs in I can trim hand over hand even in high winds.

A mainsheet clutch comes in handy when reefing, if the mainsheet winch does reefing duty. But that's the only time it does. So I'm against them. I use a cheap clam cleat when the mainsheet is free during reefing, if that. Usually i just let the mainsheet lie there, since the sail is luffing anyhow.

But to each his own, of course. Cruising gear should be simple, I think. We are not racing in a gale.

I'll definitely look into it. We have a dodger. Main sheet runs to the mast, through a mast-base block, the deck organizer, back through a clutch and onto cabin top winch. (Yes, there's a lot of main sheet line.) Sorry to hijack your thread @Out There.

 

[Out There]

Sorry to hijack your thread @Out There.

No prob, may lend to legitimacy.

 

[Out There]

@bsangs here is a pic of my main sheet setup. I have never noticed a problem with not having enough leverage or with having too much friction in light air

 

[Captain Pete]

The 35-3 I had last season had the setup in the pic below. I thought I had a better pic somewhere - probably in the 1000's on my phone.

Anyway, no blocks forward to mast and back to stoppers and winch. Easy to release and trim even from wheel single handing. Not sure how it would work with a dodger. But best main trim system I have ever used.

 

[Captain Pete]

Found the better pic of the Harken mainsheet unit.

 

[Out There]

Got the float switch in today. It was a fun adventure in wire routing for a newish owner.
Let me know if I did anything stupid.

I got the water witch 230 electronic float so I added a (-) buss bar in the battery compartment where i attached the neg cable and already had a blue seas fuse block on one of the house battery terminals where i attached the pos cable. I ran the brown cable to the switched side of the 10a breaker on the breaker panel, that was most of the wire routing adventure.
The breaker and the fuse on the fuse block are both 10amp. I tested operation with the float switch and it seemed fine.

I have not mounted the float switch in the bilge yet and was wondering if there are any surprises/required knowledge when drilling in to the TAFG, would 3m 4000 be sufficient on the screws?

 

[bigd14]

You can drill and tap for machine screws in the TAFG. I mounted the Water Witch on a skinny scrap of G10 and then bolted the scrap to the TFAG to position the Witch in the lowest portion of the bilge without risking drilling into the hull or keel stub. Not the best photos, sorry.