Main sheet help....

[Ian McColgin]

4:1 may well be enough so there's a plan.

The blocks really must be ahead of the gallows unless you're in love with hidious snarls.

You might try for the experiment just lashing them on the gallows' legs a nudge higher than the combing. If the block on the boom is a lttle farther forward than that, the sheet should clear the gallows most of the time. If you ever have a gybe where the sheet hits the water, however, it will be dragged back and then foul as the sail crosses over.

If the leads are ok then, try putting some little half pedestels outside the combing or even just inside the toerail to give the blocks enough height. With the tiller, you're likely to be sitting enough forward that the sheets laying across the back of the cockpit, even on a run, won't be too much of a bother.

On my old schooner Goblin I had two deck blocks and a mid block on a pipe traveler just a little ahead, really almost under, the gallows. The boom blocks were further forward. That gave no trouble.

On the Rhodes I rerigged, which had a tiller, I put the center block right on the rudder post - just drilled and tapped a pad eye right on it. That was just ahead of the gallows so it worked ok.

I made a dodger extension for one boat on the cheap that went back to a gallows. I had a slot with weather flap and zipper to get around the main sheet. That unit also had a PVC pole inside the back end which could be inserted only after the canopy had been pulled back behind the sheet. The PVC was very nice as it allowed the unit to be arched after the center line had been stretched against the gallows. Just a couple of lines at the corners pulling down. That's especially nice as with your double-ender the gallows probably does not have enough spread to make a really capacious cockpit cover. Nice when it's out far enough that you don't get drips on your back.

I'm a great fan of PVC and such hoops on this sort of extension. If you make your panels athwartships in the normal manner, make the center seam (or two if it's a really long cockpit) with enough overlap that you can get a really thin PVC pipe or even one of those flexible orange snow wands permanently sewen in. It really improves the shape of the extension and gives a nice thing, along with the pipe at the back end, to make a neat roll-up for stowage on the cabin top.

G'luck

Ian