The ss track by the cockpit was placed there by Pierson to handle the sheets for a high clew headsail (150%?). Not much use today. Ditto the fair leads on the cabin top. The were for the high clew working jib of the time. Search on jib track and you will find a lot of information. This photo shows the current thinking for Bay Area yachts with 110'% jibs and 120 - 155% Genoas:
http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...76&postcount=3
I think I have the same track you do on my Commander Anthony. I can't imagine how you'd sail without it. When its blowing with the small headsail up I run the sheets from the cabin top out to the block on the long track then back to the winch. The sheet overides on the winch coming straight off the cabin top and my daughter's don't have the muscle to work the headsail and cleat off on the cabin top without the winch. It looks a little odd at first to see the sheet go through two blocks but it works well and lets you always cleat the headsail sheet on the side of the coaming where the person at the helm can reach it.
It seems essential for the 150. It's so far back of the widest part of the boat it can keep that big sail closer in so it points up better than a lot other boats the same size. With the block forward the sail can really belly out when you need the curve in lighter winds (we have a lot of that on the Chesapeake). It might be different with roller furling. I still have manual furling. We change headsails a lot and strangely enough think its part of the fun. I did make some small backing blocks for the bolts but it seemed strong even before I did that.
Do either of you folks have photos of 1.5 feet of track located on the top corner of the Cabin House on your boats? As you can see from Pathfinder and Augustine shown above some of us out here on the West Coast have jib tracks on our main decks. I am interested in seeing one of those cabin top jib tracks. Also Bill, the photo of Pathfinder that you posted has a small pad eye just forward of the front terminus of the cabin top hand rail. As yoic an see from the photos I posted, I have one of those too. Actually I have two of them: one port and one starboard. Like the downhaul padeye behind the mast, which I just removed, those pad eyes seem lightly backed to me, especially in light of the fact that the mounting bolts run through the cabin liner. I am not sure what the darn things are for. I hesitate to ask, because I am sure that the pad eyes have some elementary use that I somehow missed in Sailing 101. Thanks.
Scott
The pad eyes are for attaching a vang/preventer.
Thanks Bill,
An accidental jibe with a preventer on the main boom while sailing downwind would be a frisky load to place on one of those pad eyes. Do you use your cabin top pad eyes for that purpose? How have they performed?
Scott
Got backwinded in high winds once and broke the vang. Pad eye remained.
The padeyes on Commander #92 were for the jib sheet dead end. The sheet ran from there to a single block on the clew and back to the block on the 12" track on the cabintop. From there these 2:1 sheets came to a sheave with a cam cleat on the coaming top. A sheeting platform was configured on the coaming's top edge to mount the sheave / cam cleat.
See my drawing at http://www.bway.net/~bogle/winch.html
This was a Commander that was purchased from Pearson without the winch option. I have added winches, but not the turning cheek block aft shown in my plans. Someday I will.
In the meantime I have removed the original 12" tracks and padeyes (which turned to aluminum dust), replacing them with 4 foot long tracks on the cabintop for the 110 working jib. She seems to point well with the track inboard on the cabintop edge.
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