by GreenLake » Wed Mar 16, 2016 12:56 pm
Ah, so it was to get his input specific to the question of the ratchet blocks.
My suggestion would be to make sure you don't overthink this.
I ended up with oversized ones for my jib (55mm) because they were on sale at my favorite shop. I happen to have an oversized jib sheet, which, I know, is ridiculous, but I didn't feel like changing it, and the 55mm could accommodate it. Something like 40mm would just look more appropriate, size wise.
I bought Ronstan (sale), and later found out about the fact that they are "grippier" so that their holding power is better size for size.
For my (standard) spinnaker, I use very thin sheets, and consequently very small turning blocks (which I tied to the stern cleats with lashings as a temporary setup to try out the spinnaker and haven't replaced by anything permanent yet). For a genoa you may or may not have to go as far back. You wrote that one of the POs put tracks on the coamings that go pretty far back.Those may in fact give you the correct sheeting position for your sail (assuming whoever put the tracks on knew what they were doing). So I would at least sail once with that setup and see how the sail sets.
That's why I jury-rigged my spinnaker at first and have only slowly added more permanent fixtures.
At the moment, I have neither cleats nor ratchet blocks for it. If I want to cleat the foreguy, I'll "borrow" one of the cleats for the barber haulers, which aren't used for downwind. And I never cleat the sheet. If the wind builds, the sail comes down, and when I single-hand, that moment comes a lot sooner, well before I need to worry about having to pull too hard.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~