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Rebuild/upgrade Schaefer traveller on E38?

R

rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
Hello All,
I have a Schaefer traveller on my E38. The plastic sheaves on the cheek blocks on the traveller ends are in tough shape and the traveller itself could use some freshening. Are direct replacements available from Schaefer or other sources? Are traveller tracks "universal" to some degree that would allow replacement of just these parts? The track itself is in good shape so I don't see the need to replace the entire assembly.... I tried the search, no luck, Thanks, RT
 
L

lbertran

Member III
Travelers Are Not Universal

I was having lots of problems with the OEM traveler on my 1985 E35-3. It was a Ronstan. The track was fine but the car and end controls were shot. I found out that traveler tracks and cars must be made by the same manufacturer. You can't mix and match. I decided to replace my traveler with a Harken BB traveler. The project is fairly straight forward except for one thing, Harken can't seem to get right the custom bend on my track. I've been working with Fawcett in Annapolis, who ordered the track for me. First, Harken sent a straight track, without the requested custom bend. After a few more weeks they sent a track with an incorrect bend. Fawcett is being very helpful and they assure me that Harken will make this right. I'll let you know what happens.

Laura
Footloose, E35-3
Annapolis
 
Shadowfax

Shadowfax

Member III
The end caps are available from Schaefer, however the "older" style is quite a bit more then the current style due to a change in the track profile. The caps themselves are overall evactly the same, so I simply broke out the old Dremel tool and made the adjustments and it fits perfectly. BTW, according to the Schaefer guy at the boat show, this is pretty much what they do when getting an order. Savings is well worth the effort.
 
S

Seth

Sustaining Partner
Upgrade, Upgrade, Upgrade

As Laura (love that name) says, and most here will agree, the improvement in functionality with the Harken or Garhauer replacment traveller and blocks (upgrade the mainsheet while you are doing this) will be nothing less than a revelation. I am embarrassed to have been part of the team that put those systems on the 38's (which stayed with the product line of new 32,34, 35 footers), becasue they never worked very well, and when they got old, they were unusable.

If the gear is shot, now is the time to get the good stuff!!

Cheers,
S
 
G

Glyn Judson

Moderator
Moderator
Seth, I second that and will go one step further. I highly recomend the Harken Windward Sheeting System. Marilyn single hands our boat and I made all of it as user friendly to operate for her so I installed that system for her and me to use. It's alsmost a thumb and index finger oeperation to adjust the taveler in all but the most blustery of winds. Anyone starting from scratch would be well advised to consider such for their boat, expecially ones larger than our E31. Glyn
 
Tom Metzger

Tom Metzger

Sustaining Partner
When talking to Schaefer prior to replacing my traveler they told me that the small system on my E-34 was under sized for the sail area and that the larger system wouldn't work with the curved track.

On the advice of my sailmaker I sent my old track to Harken for them to duplicate the bend. The new one came back right the first time.
 
Loren Beach

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I recall that in the late 70's the small boat traveler systems from Ronstan, Fico, and perhaps Schaefer all came with little axels 'n' wheels, with ball bearing races being a more-$$ option.
I do not recall how far up their product line this option extended, though.

This thread has certainly reinforced my good fortune in having an Ericson-built boat that had a standard Harken traveler. :)

Loren
'88 Olson 34
 
T

ted_reshetiloff

Contributing Partner
My Harken traveller has 4:1 with ball bearing blocks as opposed to sheave blocks. In breeze above 18kts that traveller can be very tough to handle. It takes both hands and my knees braced against the cabintop to move that thing. I can't imagine trying to adjust the trav if it were sheave blocks. I am currently trying to figure out an easy way to boost the purchase on the traveler...
 
R

rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
Hmmm, well it appears I have two options:
1 Schaefer replied to email stating that they repair equipment all the time and to send in the problem parts and they would either rework them or set me up with a new setup

2 Replace entire traveller system with a Garhauer.

The problem with either of these options is time. To remove the parts and ship them to Schaefer, no word on lead time, etc. To do a completely new Garhauer would likely require shipping them the old traveller to get the bend correctly. No time for that either. Boat is going in 2nd week of April. I think I will have to live with this one until the end of the season, then send the traveller to Garhauer.
Thanks, RT
 
E

e38 owner

Member III
E -38 traveler

Two thoughts
I sent my cleats to Schaeffer to rebuild.
They came off easily and it took Schaeffer less than a week to repair.
It was not very expensive either. Great company.

However after having that done I would still like bigger blocks.
I think that garhauer blocks etc may fit on the existing track. I have been meaning to call. If so it is a pretty quick fix.
 
Chris Miller

Chris Miller

Sustaining Member
Seated Rows...

Ted said: "It takes both hands and my knees braced against the cabintop to move that thing"

When I was replacing the traveler control lines this winter, I added a few feet (ok, like 5 feet!) so I could brace my feet on the bulkhead... :p
It's a monster.
Chris
 
R

rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
Hello again,

Well I spoke to Guido at Garhauer this evening. They can make me a replacement traveller, no problem. The question is do I stay with the curved style or replace with a straight traveller? The curved unit is "custom" and the best way to fabricate it is to send my old unit in so they can replicate it. A straight unit is much easier. Just need some basic measurements and its off to the races. The new unit would have stainless brackets that would raise it up to clear the curved area. Sounds good to me, any input?

Does anyone know if the traveller on an 1983 E38 is attached anywhere along the track or is it just the ends attached to the molded in pylons on the deckhouse? How hard is it to remove the traveller?

Thanks, RT
 
H

hodo

Member III
If it is like the 85, it also attaches to the sea hood, with screws. I don't think it is too bad, just unzip the headliner, and you will find the nuts. Good Luck, Harold
 
T

ted_reshetiloff

Contributing Partner
If you have to option of a straight trav verses a curved one I would opt for the straight one. It is not as astheticaly pleasing as the curved one but will perform better. The reason is that with a curved one your trim will change as you move the car up and down. When you drop the traveler from centerline you will end up sheeting in some and when you raise it past ceterline you will have the same effect. A straight traveler will maintain a constant sheet tension across the span. Everything I have read by Brion Toss and othjer rigging folks have advocated straight travelers. Mine is curved and I think it "looks" nice but I would rather it were straight. But then I am a bit more performance oriented with my sailing so this stuff may not matter as much to you. That being said a curved one may be easier to install.
 
S

Seth

Sustaining Partner
So True

Very solid points, and in general this is the case (well, the physics are always right).

One might take the position (and I would) that you shouldn't really lose anything with a curved traveler (but you are correct, you do not gain any performance) because, if I had a main trimmer that was attentive enough to play the traveller, but at the same time was not making frequent adjustments to the sheet tension, I might fire his butt!!!:0305_alar

In reality, at least 50% of the time, a sheet/trav change is what is called for-especially when raising the trav in light air. Even with a straight trav, when you pull the thing above centerline you almost always have to ease the sheet anyway to get the right twist, so...

You are right in your observations 100%, but I would also not want to discourage anyone from a new and improved traveller-curved or not. They will both help, and the sheet must be adjusted just as often as the trav..


Upgradeupgradeupgrade!!
S
 
W

windjunkee

Member III
<sigh>, yet another thing we're upgrading on our boat. We have a 1970 E-32-2 and the traveller track is curved. We have had a terrible time with moving the traveller, since it was just a non-bearing metal piece that slid (poorly) along the track and was adjustable only with stopper chocks that we constantly had to adjust by hand (unload the sheet, move the stopper, move the block, reload the sheet). We're going with a Garhauer system, with a bigger track, traveller with bearings and traveller lines w/ cam cleats.

We considered going with a straight track, but felt that the fiberglass work involved in building a platform forward of the binnacle was not worth the hassle.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134
 
T

ted_reshetiloff

Contributing Partner
Could certainly be more work on the install and Seth makes a very good point about adjusting the sheet in concert with the traveler.

Does anyone have any ideas on improving the purchase on the 4:1 harken travelers? As both Chris and I have mentioned they can be a handful in bigger breeze.
 
G

Geoff Johnson

Fellow Ericson Owner
It may not apply to your larger boat, but mine are set up so that I can run the lines to either the genoa halyard winch or mainsheet winch as necessary.
 
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