Why is block like this?

[Dean Abramson]

On our 31 the staysail traveler-track and the main traveler-track have blocks with this type of car. Our 25D had one too.

https://500px.com/photo/306530013/img-b ... d=72656199

Why the heck did Schaefer put those little nubs on each end? I have never been able to figure this out. It would seem that the purpose is specifically to prevent one from using adjacent holes on the track. Why?? If you try to put the stops in, say, the two holes seen here, you can't. You can ALMOST do it, but no dice.

I rarely use the traveler on my main, to be honest; and I never use it on the staysail. Re the staysail, those nubs prevent me from putting the car right in the center and leaving it there, which is precisely what I want to do.

So, before I ask my trusty mate Rich Abato to lop those off for me, I would be curious to know what positive feature they have that I've been missing out on for more than twenty years.

If no one gives them a stay of execution soon, they are history. (Actually, I have ask him to just shave off a sliver of each, as that would get me there, and the block would not be able to migrate the 1/2" or so it will be able to if they are totally removed.)

This is a major mystery to me.

BTW, if you have no tackle to move a block like that, and it's merely a track with a block and stops (like mine), is it still technically called a traveler? Or is it called a Dangerous Finger-Pinching Apparatus?

[BernieA]

It it still a traveler, albeit a finger pinching one.

[Tod Mills]

Good question! They are still in business....

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to contact them and ask them what they were thinking, then report back to us all for our edification.

[Dean Abramson]

Good question! They are still in business....

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to contact them and ask them what they were thinking, then report back to us all for our edification.

Funny.

I might do that. But I dread how many people I'm going to have to go through before I can talk to the Nubmeister. Not sure they still have block cars with this "feature."

Last time I talked to a boat gear company, I got someone a third my age; and although he was nice, it was kind of like I needed a translator. Then, finally, his answer for why that particular product has a seriously dumb oddity was basically "because they're made like that." Wasn't really worth the hold time.

[bottomscraper]

My guess... Calling Schaefer would get the answer "Sorry the Engineer no longer works here."

Although that part appears on the Rigrite page and it looks like a Schaefer part it doesn't seem to show up in any recent Schaefer catalog.

Maybe a contact Rigrite? <que crickets chirping>

http://www.rigrite.com/Hardware/Track/T ... _1_T-Track

[Dean Abramson]

Maybe contact Rigrite?

I think I will. Thanks, Rich.

[Dean Abramson]

I tried, gang.

All I was able to do was leave a voicemail message at Rigrite. They have not called me back, and it's been several days now.

[Bob Ohler]

Call Schaeffer Marine

508-995-9511

[Frenchy]

Perhaps those tabs are there for just the purpose you want - locking the car in position with two screws. And maybe
they were mistakenly made a little too long. Or perhaps the screw diameters changed over the years. Speculation, speculation.
Anyway, I'd just file the tabs a bit and they should work just fine. - Jean

[Dean Abramson]

Schaefer tells me that those tabs almost certainly originally inserted into plastic end pieces, which, in my case, are long gone.