Length of line for mainsheet for DE 38 Sails and Rigging- Standing and Running Forums

depends on how your main sheet is laid out. On mine with end boom sheeting it is in excess of 100 ft. best bet is to use some cheap line or something you have sitting around and rig it up so that the boom can go all the way forward, then measure how much excess you want and then go back and measure the entire length.

lol. i just woke up so im not sure how much sense im making yet this morning.

You will have drastically different overall lengths depending on if you are end boom vs mid boom for the main sheet.

Just redid my main sheet a few months ago and it is a lot .. I think I ended up at 120 ft if I remember right.

Ours has a rectangular cross section sorta boom so no furling 🙂 nor is the goose neck setup for it. I have not seen or heard of anyone using a rolling furling boom on our boats.

The mainsheet on ours is end boom and we have a traveller against the transom on deck. It has a strange 4 to 1 block arrangement that ended up with the working end going to the mainsheet winch coming off one side of the traveller. It was a pain in the but and the blocks were a bit small to my taste. I just replaced it with a large 4 to 1 big boat setup of ronstan blocks? I'm brain blanking on brand and details now but the same arrangement you would see on a dingy but with 90mm syncro blocks with a cam on the bottom. I reduced the mainsheet size and use a high tech line I picked up on a steal. We will see how it works out for me. It should run out much easier and work better in light air. Its 3/8's now instead of 1/2 inch so will be harder on the hands. It's also stronger and less stretchy so we will see if that affects shock loading when stuff goes bang :).

I think the norm for these boats is end boom.. However a lot of people have modified it and moved them to mid boom with a traveller over the front of the companionway hatch. I was planning to do something sorta like that but my hard dodger design killed that.