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Instead of using a traveller, has any-one tried a swing arm centre sheeting system. I am in the process of constructing such a device pivoting from just behind the mast step. Pulleys will be horizontal, in a pvc pipe, removing all that rope getting tangled around your vital bits.
The main idea is to allow the sail to be positioned more like a wing
I am going to buy another one tomorrow to finish it
Finaly finished fabrication of swimg arm 
naly finished fabrication of swimg arm
As can be seen, fully sheeted in & no bending
length of wood as boom.
This set up will hopefully allow me to set the sail and point higher into the wind and also possibly more directly down wind
If we have wind tomorrow I will try it out at Lefry
That is a VERY interesting setup Tp1.
The MIG sounds like it needs a new tip on the handpiece, or at least run an oxy torch cleaner through it to get the crud out.
Are you running the flux cored wire on DCEN (Direct current electrode negative) This is very important, otherwise the wire vaporizes without any penetration.
Your tip problem Wayne, is as the wire heats up and expands, it jambs. It cools off and seems ok. It frustrates the hell out of you. Give it a really good clean or replace it.
With gasless welding, a clean tip is more important as there is no gas to cool it.
To make it even harder, when it jambs, the feed roller spins on the flux cored wire and damages that contact point of the wire. Particularly when the feed roller has been wound down to push it through.
When this damaged bit gets to the torch tip, it won't feed through easily.
I bet if the tip is cleaned well and there is no rust or damaged bits on your wire, you will have to decrease your wire speed.
Wire speed on flux cored, is slightly more critical due to the reduced mass of steel in the wire to achieve the same results.
A lot of the cheaper "flux cored" wires are not multiple pass. So the welds must be chipped, or wire brushed before welding over them.
Pop the welder on a close table, so you can adjust the wire feed while you are actually welding and see (or more importantly hear, a nice even crackle) the difference.
Hope this helps mate.
Chook, tip was new 3 days ago with new spool of wire. I know there was a bit of rust in the feed tube but I thoroughly cleaned it out and lubricated it with crc. Main trouble is with the stupid switch on the hand piece which is made with 2 spring loaded carbon contacts. One day I will replace the switch with some thing (after market) better.
Thanks for your advice
Obviously a lot of thought and effort gone into that set up TP1.
Still looks to me that it will behave like a vang though.
You are Test pilot 1, , so suck it and see what it tastes like.
Looking forward to hear of your results. 
Sort of looks like a 'Mast Spanner' a used on big catamarans.
Looks like there is going to be a MASSIVE amount of force around that 'D' shape adjustment thingy.
Hopefully a great idea. If it doesn't work then it is definitely an innovative one
Good luck with it..
too hot to try out today,but it looks good, essentially a travellerthat allows you to shape the sail and build up in lighter winds, should be interesting to see how much it will improve waynes light wind sailing
I am finding this quite interesting, Love when people think outside of the box.
Cheers
Vic
Finally, some decent wind. Sailed on the clay pan
Boy oh boy, it works. Surprisingly well.
Certainly showed the principle was sound BUT, the pipe I split to make fit was too thin walled and needed to have the split reinforced My chook poo welds held. Will post pics when I get them from Rob Carr.
I have to find another method of controlled adjustment under load. Thinking maybe gear driven perhaps. Any thoughts/ideas are welcome to solve this problem. I have looked at some curved travellers.
When I set it as far out as possible on either side(45degrees from centre) my yacht sailed extemely well. In fact, where as normally, fully sheeted in, a sudden gust would tend to lift a wheel, instead, the force pushed the mast forward with an added increase in speed
Maximum speed for the afternoon was 59.9kph as I kept running out of room.
After the pipe split, I removed the swing arm and sailed as normal, popping wheels for 15 mins. I had to stop as my tongue was starting to get sticky from lack of moisture(we forgot to bring some hydration liquid).
a few bigger wingmast/sail combo boats here in the US sail via traveler. They cleat off the main and trim with the traveler and wingmast. Too bad stock windsurfer rigs don't work better for what we are doing. In essence that set up is more or less controlling the angle of attack like you are doing.
I am in the process of redesigning(hamfisted scribbles
)a control using a form of curved traveller
To bend that track, would need a former to fit inside while bending to prevent the open section colapsing. Other than, I already have a couple of T331 carriages "Great minds think alike"(all fools think the same)and have, with Rob Carr's help(he has an industrial roller/bender) just rolled a 1 mtr length of 30mmsqr x i,6mm wall tube into a fair approximation of a suitable arc to make a carriage/rope track.
I need to buy some Dyneema for the pulley/control system for this set up.(Any one know where I can buy some cheap Dyneema and pulleys)
I ran across this video of an old c class with a huge curved traveler. see @ 17 seconds in
www.britishpathe.com/video/race-for-international-catamaran-trophy-at-thorpe/query/catamaran+racing
I tried and tested it last oktober and build this,
It worked ok, but need some handeling improvent.
On the test there was more sail power after the turns and in downwind runs, comparing if the mast stands in a locked vertical standing.
Around the boom area obove my head.
Now i took it apart for the base area. Foto's comes later.
When the sail flips over the weight of this costuction , combined with the flip over creates a dis-balance.
As I see it your unit allows the mast to move side to side whereas mine moves the boom and therefore the sail as a unit allowing control of the angle of boom/sail in relation to the yacht centre line.
Could a similar effect be obtained by rigidly fixing the boom to the mast with some kind of massive gusset? Sheeting relative to the yacht centreline would be handled by rotating the mast/boom combo in the step and sail shape with downhaul/outhaul led back to the pilot.
Sorry about the gratuitous use of 'gusset', fnarr, fnarr. (it's a UK thing)
