Staysail Sheeting Options

[John Stone]

I am in the process of reconfiguring a club footed self-tending staysail to a conventionally sheeted headsail system on my 36', 16000 lb cruising boat. I am looking to better understand my options regarding winches. The staysail has about 225 sq feet. I have Lewmar 44 ST for my primary winches. I have considered cross sheeting the staysail sheet to the windward primary winch but to be honest it looks like it would just clobber the cockpit. I have been wondering about installing a 2:1 tackle on the staysail sheet to reduce the loads for smaller winches. I have a spare pair of Lewmar #10s. It would be nice to use what I have, if possible. I have looked at the winch selection charts on line and they seem a little fuzzy to me. Harken recommends #35 (at about $1500 a pop so that is not an option!) and Lewmar recommends anywhere between a # 7 and a #30 depending on how you read their chart.

The original self tending system was three to one sheeted to a #7 winch.

I am also adding a set of running backstays (or are they check stays since the boat has a permanent backstay?) to provide additional support to the aft intermediates that are part of the original rig. It seems preferable to have these winches perform double duty--leeward side serve as a staysail sheet winch and the windward side to tension the running backstay when necessary.

The budget does not support throwing a bunch of money at big shiny winches. Anyway, I like to keep things simple and uncluttered when possible.

I'd appreciate any thoughts, comments, or suggestions.

Thanks.