When the blocks are too close than even a small amount of sheeting pulls the thick part of the sheet over several sheeves. THAT is not efficient in my opinion.
' have to disagree Wouter.
I want the overall amount of sheet on the boat as little as poss. THAT is efficient. To achieve it all you need is as long a strop as you can get away with on the boom and your system setup so that when sheeted hard for upwind, the blocks can't quite touch. OK, so you need to put a swivel on the top block - no real hassle there? and by using a tapered sheet, even if I could get the blocks to touch, the sheet feeds don't rub.
Finally, a properly constructed taper doesn't slow or hinder the movement of the blocks to any great extent - the sheaves are already designed to take the larger diameter line.
