staysail sheet leads

[Dan Irvine]

I am laying out deck hardware on my Archer inspired 32'cutter and am a little puzzled by the proliferation of deck arrangements for staysail handling. Athwartship traveller forward of the mast? Fore and aft tracks either side of the mast? Athwartship traveller on top of two for and aft tracks? (half kidding on the last one...although) Curved traveller? ...or just two pad eyes in the cabin top? Waddayathink?
LOD 32' LOA 43' 46' mast. Very stoutly built cabin to attach to.

[John B]

Been there.
I've got a traveller plus 2 fore and aft tracks. That's because I've had it rigged both ways.
I LOVE my self tacking staysail. rig it with a traveller( horse) and a boom( club) . Forget the curved traveller unless you want to spend a lot of time working it out.It gets complex.It gets pernickity.
Only real trick with a boomed staysail is to set the pivot point back from the stay and ( probably) run a jackline on the bottom few hanks. This is so the sail will drop without hanging up( and so you don't have to release a downhaul.

You might consider setting up fore and aft tracks for a smaller high breeze staysail.
Setting up the self tacker is a good investment in my view. You can set a preventer line to the end of the boom for a nice goosewinged run too.Some people don't like them because they see the boom as being dangerous.

[Dan Irvine]

I had hoped to avoid the club altogether. Actually my wife says if I mess up her favorite spot on the boat she won't go with me... hmmmm. Do you have any success stories from clubless cutters? My thinking is confining all control lines to the cabin top and having a clear foredeck when the removable forestay is retracted to allow for easier genoa tacking. Waddayathink?

[John B]

That's the other way. I have those other staysail fairleads on the cabin top so it's foot friendly. My view is that a staysail should sheet close.( a bit contentious, I know)
When we ran a genoa I fitted a lever for removing the inner forestay for the tacking. Now We're just 2 small jibs and a big gaff main. My policy was simply to leave the jibs as much as possible and focus on looking after the main, hence the (non negotiable) self tacking stays'l. The club is simple and adjustable. You can do the curved track thing but simple it aint.I experimented a bit but gave it away, not the least because of appearance on my type of boat.