Last one for now... I had been thinking about doing this and then found that Henry had done similar on Monita and it worked for him. So early this season I put these Ronstan swivel/cam blocks (attached pic) on the coaming in place of the fixed cam cleats (that were in place of the original jam cleats). Also switched to soft shackles for the jib sheet blocks (other attached pic). The swivel cams are great - tacking is soooooo much quicker and easier, like a dinghy with a jib (and given the agility of the M17 it is a good match - I never used the winches for anything but a wrap or two on the way to the previous cam cleat, so they were more in the way than useful). The soft shackles and light weight jib sheet blocks are also great - less mass to flog around when tacking or luffing the jib, and the soft shackles flex any direction without binding on the toe rail as metal ones sometimes do. The only improvement I will make at some point is a shallow but angled riser block under the swivel cams, to improve the working angle. For now they are just mounted flat on the coaming (with a sturdy aluminum backing plate), which means a bit of an upward angle into the cockpit, which is not optimal for working the sheets. Flat or very slightly down would be better. cheers, John -- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com
