What is the benefit of moving the traveller forward?
A3: There really is no benefit in moving the traveller forward in the new boat. Tom Schock decided that he didn’t want to straddle the traveller. He wanted to sit behind it, so he moved it forward. That’s all there is to it. What it does is to effectively reduce the amount of leech tension that you can get on the mainsail. You are reducing the torque by decreasing your lever arm. The difference though (9 inches in a 7 foot boom) is small. The advantage in an old deck boat is that by moving the traveller forward, you can lower it down to the old seats. This makes the traveller lower. So going downwind it is much easier for the helmsman to move forward out of the back of the boat. This should reduce the weight in the back of the boat and make you faster downwind.
