[Alberg30] secondaries vs cabintop winches

[J Bergquist]

Dear List-

Here's yet another question in J's series of deck layout inquiries. I 
hope you're not sick of them yet.

I have only primary winches. I'm getting some new ones, but I'll still 
only have primaries.

I am wondering how best to lead my spinsheets forward to the trimmer. It 
seems like most people are using secondaries. However, I dreamt up 
another scenario, and I want to run it by you and see what you think.

1. Turning blocks on the transom corners, all the way aft.
2. Ratchet blocks mounted on deck just inside the toerail, just forward 
of the primaries.
3. Cabintop winches mounted inside the handrails, and near the aft end 
of the house.

When the breeze is light, ratchets turned off. As the breeze comes on, 
ratchets turn on. When it really starts to blow, ratchets on plus the 
cabintop winch. Guy would always go to the primary, with a crew sitting 
next to the winch and trimming. Sheet trimmer always stands on the 
windward side deck so he/she can see the luff of the sail.

This arrangement would prevent the sheet from being led through the 
cockpit and getting in the helmsman's way, because it would run across 
the boat pretty far forward (like over the bridge deck). It might be in 
the way if somebody needs to go through the companionway, but this seems 
less important than being in the helmsman's way. Also, the cabintop 
winches could double as halyard and/or reef winches if I ever lead those 
aft.

Drawbacks are:

1. Have to get cabintop winches.
2. Have to drill holes in cabintop for said winches (and I hate drilling 
holes in my boat).
3. Would need to mount winches on pedestals to get them high enough for 
sheet to lead fair from ratchet block to the winch without rubbing on 
top of the companionway rail (which is bronze on my boat, and might 
cause significant chafe...).

The alternative would be to mount secondaries and just deal with the 
sheet leading across the cockpit.
Second alternative would be to just use primaries as the spinnaker winch.

Actually, I am probably going to do the second alternative for this 
season, but I thought I'd ask  the question to see if anybody uses a 
setup as I described, and whether it seems to work well, or if anybody 
has other good ideas.

Ciao,

J Bergquist
Calliope #287

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