>With the I track system can you ease it as well as sheet it under high mainsheet load? I'm assuming you can do this on Taipan F16's and Blade F16's?
I can ! And the force on it is alot lower than I expected it to be. Before I sailed the boat I was thinking about using a 3:1 system on the traveller but after sailing it I haven't given it second thoughts. 2:1 is enough. I do have the centred cleat on the beam instead of the cleat on the car itself as alot of boats seem to be having nowadays. The reduces the force on the line and cleat when the traveller line is cleated, it also pulls the car less sideways and thus results in less friction. Actually I believe that the centre cleat system is the only setup that should be used with wheeled cars on the I-track.
I currently use the Ronstan 19 mm I track with a 6-wheel car. And I'm loving it. It was bloody cost effective and works better than all other systems I ever used with only the possible exception of the X-rail of RWO but don't sell this anymore.
Go to
http://www.ronstan.com/catalogue/p072,supp003.pdf
and look for RC61912 (The 6 wheeled car with ballbarings) when I bought it it was called the RF331 (for old catalogies)
Seriously, I need to put quite a bit of tension on my mainsail leech while sailing with a spi to prevent the top from bending off to much. And under spi I just hold the traveller line in my hand and work the gusts with it. I can do that for a long time without getting tired. The ronstan swivel cleat RF67 works excellent as well.
As a matter of fact I use a curved 19 mm I-beam with the smaller 4 wheeled car RC61945 (old code RF334) for my selftacker. AHPC made a very nice setup of it and it weights less than the Nacra F18 fibreclass system and I suspect it weights less as the Tigers as well. It is non permanently fixed and therefor can be taken off leaving only 4 small feet on the mainbeam. But what I wanted to say was that it works absolutely perfect as well. It hasn't ever jammed or hung up on me ever yet.
Maybe you can tell but I'm sold on these parts. When the boat was build I really want the X-rails to go on it and even source these but do to uncooperating chandlers I had to compromise for the I-beam but again these have proved more than adequate and I have absolutely no regrets for not having the X-rails.
I have no idea what is featured on the Blades. I do know that the Taipan F16's are delivered with these I-beams. Although they can also be delivered with the newer Recirculating Ball (RCB) systems on request. The standard Taipan 4.9's have the RCB systems. They work well enough but you just have to take care of them and the rail. A little grease and sand clogs them up and small dents in the rail quite quickly hinder smooth movement due to the small balls. I-beam has neither of these issues. And I've used all of them extensively now.
Wouter
