Taken for granted

To most it's just 'the mainsheet'... Torbjorn Linderson has recently been spending time with the Harken team looking in detail at multi- hull sheeting systems

When we think of driving a boat we tend to think of steering it with the helmsman having the numero uno job. But there is more to driving. The mainsheet is your throttle: too much pedal to the metal and you are going to crash - especially on a performance multihull. A good mainsheet system should be quick, allowing instant throttle control, but it must also provide enough power to really tighten down the leech in marginal hull-flying conditions. On a beach cat this will be a simple purchase system; you would think that the typical 6:1 system used on smaller keelboats would be enough for a sub-200kg boat, but it is not. If you have ever sailed behind an A Class, F-18 or Tornado in 10kt of wind you will have seen how tightly the best boats are being sheeted, to point high and lift the windward hull as low in the wind range as possible. With modern square-top sails this takes quite a bit of force - around 400kg on a Tornado...

To read the remainder of this and many other topical technical articles, please purchase your copy of the August 2006 edition of Seahorse International Sailing, available at selected newsstands or by calling: + 44 (0) 1590 671899 or by email at: info@seahorse.co.uk

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