mainsheet base height/advise on hiking for very tall bloke

[steve peters]

Can someone give me the best height for a mainsheet jammer to be at and any advice from other very tall ok sailors on hiking strap placement for a very tall bloke (6’6″). It seems it needs to be right in the middle of the boat.
Thanks
Steve

[davecooper]

If you want advice for very tall guys you need to speak to James Cole. He sails 1967 and he’s taller than you!
As regards the mainsheet jammer, are you talking about a central jammer? If so, I think you’ve just got to experiment until you get a position where you can get it into the jammer AND get it out . It’s pretty important to have the jammer on a wedge to rake it back a bit so you can operate it when you are sitting right aft in the cockpit, but I don’t have a centre jammer myself, so I can’t advise on what angle the wedge ought to have.
Dave Cooper

[burt]

there is a big probablem with the centre jammers and oks as in if you cant get it out your going in. i dont have one either and not sure who acctually does side deck cleats seem to be the norm.

[andyt15064]

Alex Scoles boats have the central mainsheet jammer about 10cm above the floor of the boat e.g. on a piece of aluminium or carbon. Don’t take any notice of these guys that don’t use centre jammers. Dave is right that the base needs to be angled back a bit so you can play the main on reaches without it dropping into the cleat. It is entirely possible to get the angle so that the main goes into the cleat when sitting out on the beat, and releases reasonably easily. I always keep the mainsheet in my hand even though it is jammed in the cleat – just in case!!

If you can learn to use it properly a centre jammer does result in your tacking becoming much smoother. The top of the fleet is pretty well divided 70:30 in terms of using a centre jammer v cleats on the inner edge of the side deck.

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