Traveler Rebuild

Ye Old Traveler:

Pandion's old traveler was a homemade job, not that that's a bad thing, but was beginning to show its age and wear. I decided to build a new one as a preventive measure and just for cosmetics.

The old traveler (below) sat too low in the cockpit for my comfort. It was always right in the way, especially when I needed to get to the transom to handle the motor or rudder. It was a contortionist exercise to snake under the traveler and back up in front of the stern rail to work on anything back there.

Besides that, it had been made from cheap stainless (or possibly just chromed steel) and was beginning to pit and rust. Also, the wire clamps were galvanized steel and were rusting as well. Holes had been drilled in the tubing to pass the backstays through. But the raw metal edges were beginning to wear and cut into the backstay wire (and adding rust).

Ye New Traveler:

The new traveler (below), was made from a new piece of 1-inch stainless tubing and reuses the sail track from the old one. It is approximately 4 inches shorter than the old traveler, allowing it ride up higher in the backstay triangle.

The backstays now pass through 1-inch stanchion eyes which are fastened to the tubing with set screws. This provides a nice smooth surface for the wire to bear against minimizing wear at this point. The wire clamps were replaced with stainless versions and excess threading was cut to prevent snagging on clothing or lines.

One other bonus was the ability to angle the sail track in line with the force applied from the mainsheet. With some tension on the mainsheet, I just loosened the set screws in the eye ends to allow the traveler to rotate up about 45 degrees. This makes adjusting the traveler under load easier because there is no tortional load twisting the stays and tubing (see below).