How much beam for "semi-self-tending" setup?

[drawson]

I'm contemplating replacing our staysail traveler with the semi-self-tending setup from The Riggers Apprentice.

The boat is a Southern Cross 35. The existing traveler was approximately 4' long; the staysail boom is approx. 11' and the staysail area is about 150 s.f. The issue is that the only fair lead to the cabin-top winches is from the cabin top itself rather than the side decks. I suspect that I could get the deck blocks as much as 5 feet apart, but that would be it. I doubt it's over 15 degrees off of centerline. At this width, will the leeward sheet provide much vang / preventer action? Are there other recommendations that would maintain the self-tending setup and still provide better control over the sail?

Is this enough width to make a useful modification? The alternative is to replace the traveler (the old one is really dead), but it's about twice the price of the necessary hardware for the semi-self-tending setup.

I've attached a small image of the foredeck - the attachment point for the baby stay is the cross between the two foredeck cleats; the traveler is the heavy line at the left side of the image.

Thanks!

Dan

[drawson]

For some reason the image didn't post - here's an external link to the foredeck drawing:

https://picasaweb.google.com/dbr517/...89790854633730

Dan

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
That house doesn't leave much span for the concept, it's true. But much depends on boom height relative to the housetop; the lower it is, the more preventer and vang effect you'll have for a given boom angle. Have you tried mocking it up?
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[drawson]

That's the next step . . the boom is VERY low - we can't open the vberth hatch more than about three inches with the boom tied on the center-line and there's certainly no way to store a dinghy under it.

Thanks . . . I'll take a pic of the mockup

[atle]

Hi, I'm also considering this semi-self-tending setup. I have a related question regarding vang/preventer efficiency: It seems to me that to achieve this, the outboard blocks (which in my case can be on deck) must be a as much forward as possible. On the other hand, this will probably put a very high load on the other "sheet" block, as the angle between the "sheet" and the boom will be very small.

Any comments to this? What would be the ideal position for the blocks?

Cheers,
-atle