We have a range of four travellers to choose from. Why; what’s important; and which one is right for me?
Firstly, why? – Because of performance and resultant price, we offer travellers that fit your budget and performance requirements.
Secondly, what’s important? Low stretch – you want to be able to get your traveller tight and know that it won’t elongate under load, as any elongation can cause the traveller block to come inboard. Smoothness – you want minimum friction between the traveller line and the tiller. Thickness – sufficient to mimimise stretch, but not too thick or the knot can hit the underside of the tiller. Durability – we want our traveller to last and also be resistant to damage especially when sculling when the traveller line may rub over the transition between the tiller and tiller wear plate.
Let’s look at each of our travellers in detail from the most economic upwards:
5mm Dyneema Traveller – the ‘original’ one. Up until we developed our high performance travellers this ‘simple’ 5mm Dyneema traveller was actually the traveller used by sailor such as Micky Beckett. We chose the type of rope carefully as not all 5mm Dyneema cleats well. Our one does and is the perfect traveller for club sailors upwards. Some of the top sailors use this traveller at world championships.
ZeroKink Traveller. This has a Dyneema core and cover. Hard wearing, round and smooth. Cleats extremely well. Smooth over the tiller.
ProMAX-DURA: Using a similar cover but a slightly better core than ZeroKink, this traveller is designed to offer exceptional performance in terms of low stretch, but with good durability.
ProMAX-99 traveller – the choice of champions and increasingly being used by the worlds best sailors, including Olympic gold and silver medallists! This is our ‘ultimate’ traveller offering exceptional performance, but at the expense of long-term durability.
Finally, make sure that you are fitting your traveller well. This video shows European champion Micky Beckett explaining how to do it.