NautaBytes

 No, My friends, this post is not about one who travels.... on the contrary, it is about that necessary piece of hardware that I rarely used, because it was such a pain in the @$$ to use.  Of course, if you own or have owned an older Catalina 30 like mine, you know I am talking about the Main Sail traveler.. Even though this is screaming for a traveler adjustment I didn't because it was such a PAIN!    The stock one that came with the boat (ergo it is about 37 years old) is curved, and could only be adjusted in a very awkward manner... that is: let out the main sheet, pull the pin for the side you want to go to, slide the stop to the location you wanted, re-seat the pin in that hole, move the traveler car, move the opposite stop to lock the car in place, then readjust the main sheet.  as you might Imagine, I didn't use it very often, and I am sure that affected my sailing.   So I ordered an upgrade kit that Garhauer Marine Hardware had for my ...

To take full advantage of the wind on a sailboat, you must adjust your sails.  I am finding out that getting just the right sail shape is kind of an art form.  You have many things to use to adjust the sail - The Halyard (puts the sail up and down), The Cunningham (pulls the front of the boom down and puts tension on the front part of the sail, known as the Luff), the Outhaul (pulls the sail towards the end of the boom, and puts tension on the bottom of the sail, known as the foot), the Main sheet (controls the angle of the main sail to the wind, the traveler (provides more control on the angle of the sail to the wind), and the boom vang (controls the tension on the trailing edge of the sail, known as the leech) I did not have a boom vang, so my sail shapes were not what then needed to be. I did have a topping lift, but in my book it was pretty useless when you had strong winds, because although it could lift the boom up, it could not pull it down.  Fortunately, Garhau...