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Hi folks I’m new to this forum and the association, I will be picking up a 1977 MKII next weekend which will be used for cruising. It has a centre main and I am thinking of changing to transom main to create more cockpit space for cruising, what are your thoughts on this. Looking forward to meeting some of you on the Windermere and Family event if we can make it.
Hi Jeremy, our boat has transom sheeting (she came like that when we got her). If you’re starting out in a Wayfarer, I wouldn’t recommend it, especially if you’re set up with centre sheeting already. Centre sheeting is almost universally preferred by Wayfarer sailors, as it allows much better visibility when tacking, and doesn’t have a tendency to pull the helm towards the aft of the boat. Hope that helps!
To give a slightly different take from Jonathan, I learned on an aft main boat as a child, subsequently sailed both aft and centre main (the latter being more or less obligatory as an instructor) and now cruise a Wayfarer exclusively. We’ve tried both variants and both my wife and I prefer aft sheeting, despite the stated disadvantages. There’s more room in the middle of the boat and it makes the boom simpler to handle, when putting up the tent, for example.
We’ll probably never sail any other kind of dinghy, so we’re happy to stick with our preferred method, but I wouldn’t encourage anyone else to do so without a pretty good reason. If you think you or anyone you share the boat with might want to move onto any other kind of dinghy you’ll be doing yourself a favour by learning and practising on the near-universal centre main.
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