Dinghy rigging problems.

[Phosphor]

Ok, I'll try to make my situation as clear as I can. Any advice would be most sincerely appreciated. Hopefully someday I'll be able to return the favor to you guys! Here goes...

I'm rigging a dinghy I restored, and I realized I need an easy way to have the main sheet tie off. Right now it runs from the back of the boom tied to a shackle, through a traveler block (small traveler that rides a piece of rope), then through two small blocks on the underside of the boom. From there I'm confused. Judging from the few pictures I can find online it seems to run to the floor of the boat where there is a sizable board that runs the length of the boat. I'm thinking since it's also rigged to handle a spinnaker, it would be nice to have a type of easly cleat there. I'm grappling between two very differently priced options.

1) I can rig a block on the bottom of the boat on that board, and run the line from the boom through that block to a cam, or a v-cleat (I think they're also called clamshell cleats?)
2) My question is, can I replace that block with a sizable bulls eye fairlead? I don't know how much stress they are meant to handle. If I have to buy a block that's more than doable. It would then again run to a type of cam or cleat behind it.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.
~Phosphor

[Figgy]

If I understand you correctly, you can use one of these. Its (the Harken) what I used on my Vagabond 17. www.harken.com has a good site if you know what your looking for.

[Phosphor]

I'm essentially trying to do that with just the fairlead and cam fastened to the deck because the swiveling base part pictured seems to make the cost jump a lot. My friend and I who are working on this will be putting it on the market as soon as it's done, so while we're trying to make something work easily, we're trying to avoid dumping too much money into it. It's really easy to do that on boats!
So a fairlead, securely fastened of course, would be able to handle loads generated by the mainsail? The main sail probably has about 40-50 square feet of area at least. That estimate is on the low side.

[Figgy]

Yeah, it is kinda pricy.. If you want to go cheap, use a block with a swivel base and dont worry about it. Anyone you sell it too will know what to do..maby. I wouldnt worry about it. Before I upgraded, I just tied a knot in the main sheet or held onto it. No biggie.

[Phosphor]

Oki doki. The only reason I'm thinkin' about being able to lock it down is because of the fact that it's small enough to be single-manned, but would be a pain with the spin up, and to have to hold onto the rope. On my personal dinghy, a Shellback I built last year, I just have a simple knot tied int and I just hold onto that. That works very well indeed! Thanks for the insight!
~Phosphor

[Figgy]

I forgot about the spi. You could make your own base w/ cam cleat if you wanted to go crazy. A little stainless, some grinding and polishing, no problem.

[Tim B]

I sail a LARK, and just use a swivelling block on top of the centreboard case. I don't bother with a mainsheet cleat. Two reasons for this...

a) Cleated mainsheets are an accident waiting to happen, particularly on more powerful boats.

b) I couldn't find an affordable mainsheet jammer.

I'd suggest you just screw a cleat somewhere near a mainsheet swiveling block and drop it in if you need to.

A good book to read is... "Dinghy Systems by Mark Chisnell, John Hodgart" Should have the answer to every question you have.

Tim B.

[Phosphor]

thank you very much for the book reference! I'll start hunting for it. For now until we have determined what the loads are like on this boat, we've decided just to tie a knot on the end and hold it so I'll tell you guys how it goes. Thanks again.