Dumb question

[Ian McColgin]

Presumably this happens right after you've tacked. You've about got it. Modern rigs put a lot of down strain on the boom - upstress on the traveler - as you can see by the angle of the sheet. Envision the paralleogram of force with imaginary vectors normal and in line with the traveler and the net vector being the sheet from the corner down at the traveler up to the boom. Unless you have lots of powerful bearings in the car, it will naturally bind until some shake or whatever breaks the static friction.

I so rarely actually pull the traveler to weather that I like to set stops and let the traveler find it's way without restriction from one side to the other, which it will easily do as the sail's luffing somewhat unloads the verticle vector of the main sheet.

It's rare but sometimes even my old gaff cat Marmalade finds the verticle component so strong that the shackle on the sheet block won't at first slide down the horse when we tack. But really, for that boat it means I've oversheated pretty seriously.

G'luck