Traveller

[maakona]

Does anyone know of a traveller for a gaff-rig that is not a simple "towel rod" but looks appropriate for a gaffer. Most of the newer ones (harken) seem completely out of place. Is there one that uses brass hardware for instance.

[Thorne]

What size boat? Do you mean silicon bronze instead of brass? How trad are the rest of the fittings?

[Ian McColgin]

Well, you can go with the towel rod or the staple. The towel rod is easier to make really strong. Marmalade's 550 very authoritative square feet is well tamed by a stainless 1" thickwall into strong end fittings. A bronze staple is very nice but more readily made for smaller sails.

I think the staple is much improved if one departs from the general practice of a soft turn through 90 degrees and then going in normal to the deck. Rather, bring it in at about 30 degrees landing on a sloping pad that will keep the traveling block from swinging under the traveler.

Another alternative is to go with a double ended sheet. If it can be done without impossible problems from the combing, instead of a traveler put a swivel block on a pad out back on each side. Trim from either side. With practice you'll keep the ends about balanced.

G'luck

[Don Kurylko]

Try here: http://www.porttownsendfoundry.com/marine.htm They have what you want, but be prepared to spend a lot of $$$$$!

[JimConlin]

There was a very nice large sailboat at the WB show whose traveller was the standard Harken jewelry whose black aluminum parts had been re-anodized to a bronze color. It looked much less out of place.

[Chip-skiff]

Hard to comment without knowing the size of the boat and mainsail area. Obviously the design and hardware proceed from the forces it needs to withstand.

I just forged the ends on a traveler for a small (60 sq. ft.) mainsail out of 5/16" silicon bronze rod (i.e. heated them dull red and hammered them flat to allow drilling two holes per side for attachment to the transom). A quasi-antique towel-rod, I guess.

Still haven't made the bends. Ian's comment about the angle is interesting. I'm wondering whether to give the entire width a soft curve with the ends turned down close to the transom or keeping it straight with a deeper angle at each end.