Lewmar Solent Traveler Rebuild

Endeavour, my 1988 Caliber 28, is equipped with an original Lewmar Solent mid-boom mainsheet system with a cabintop traveler. This is a great setup for a cruiser — it allows for a huge range of mainsheet trim positions while keeping the cockpit completely free. However, this setup creates especially high loads on the traveler, so it must be robust and well-maintained.

However, when I first purchased the vessel, her traveler was in very rough shape. It could only be adjusted when completely unloaded, an unacceptable state for such a critical component. The blocks didn't spin, the control lines were stiff and worn, and most importantly, the roller bearings didn't roll at all.

New traveler systems are sexy and tempting, but they also cost several thousand dollars. Even just replacing the car wasn't an option in this case because Lewmar doesn't make any cars that are compatible with the old Solent tracks, and my extensive eBay searching failed to turn up a single promising result.

So I was very motivated to find a way to bring this gear back to life. Thankfully, with some creativity and effort, I was able to do so. Fair warning: this will be a long article, somewhere in between a tutorial and a narrative about the engineering and design process. I hope you find it interesting enough to stick with me.

Disassembly

For instructions on disassembling this traveler system as well as an overview of how it works, please read this excellent Lewmar Traveler Maintenance article from Foghorn Lullaby.

There is only one caution I would add to this article for those attempting this themselves: be careful not to allow the wheels or pins to drop overboard when removing the car from the track! The track is what holds them into the car; when the car is removed, they are free to fall out. If you have access to a 3D printer, I have designed a 3D-printable piece of track section which can be used use to contain the wheels.

Rebuilding the car

The car runs on 8 wheels, which roll alongside the bottom side of the top edge of the track when the car is loaded. These wheels are ball bearings in plastic housings, and are held in place by steel axle pins. These pins are only held in place by the track itself.

Careful examination of the car and track showed several significant issues. First, the plastic bearing housings had become brittle and worn down over time. A few of the bearings had failed completely.

The second issue was a design flaw from the manufacturer: because the pins are only held in place by the track, they can shift inwards slightly. This allows them to rub against the track, causing wear. It also reduces the amount of material holding them in place, allowing them to shift slightly and loading them at an angle.

My first attempt at a solution was to replace the bearings with new off-the-shelf components. Their dimensions are very similar to standard 608 bearings, and I even managed to find and purchase some of these in marine-grade 316 stainless steel. However, when I received the bearings I decided that the dimensions weren't close enough (they were too narrow) and, more importantly, I didn't want to have steel wheels wearing on my aluminum track.

Returning to the drawing board, my only option was to create new bearings. In the interest of strength, durability, and simplicity, I decided to move from ball bearings to plain bearings. Custom plain bearings could be manufactured relatively easily, and careful material selection would still minimize friction. In fact, under very high loads, plain bearings typically perform better than ball bearings anyway.

The bearings need to have a 1" outer diameter, 5/16" inner diameter, and be 1/2" wide. For the wheel I selected Delrin plastic as a durable but easily machinable wheel material. McMaster-Carr sells a 1" cylinder of black Delrin as part #8576K21. I probably could have had the Delrin bear directly on the shaft without much issue, but I wanted to minimize friction as much as possible. So I designed my wheels with an oil-impregnated sleeve bearing that actually runs on the shaft (McMaster-Carr #2868T55).

With these parts acquired, all I had to do was hire a local machine shop to cut the bar into 10 (8 plus 2 spares) 1/2" discs, cut a 3/8" hole in the center, and press-fit the bearing sleeves.

The new wheels were perfect, however they alone could't solve the design flaw that allowed the pins to wear on the traveler and become crooked. I thought I might be able to get away without resolving that issue, but after trying it out I realized there was no way around it — I had to re-engineer the whole assembly.

At this point it struck me that the whole issue would be solved if the pins just faced the other way. If the heads of the pins were on the exterior of the car, they wouldn't be able to rub against the track. And they would fit all the way through the car, so they couldn't be pulled out of alignment.

However, I couldn't just reverse the pins. In that direction, there would be nothing stopping them from just falling out — I needed to retain them somehow.

To hold the pins in place, I designed and 3D printed a simple retainer from PETG plastic. This can be low-profile and lightweight because it doesn't need to support much load; it just stops the pins from falling out of place. The retainer is held onto the car by two small 4-40 machine screws, installed in holes I drilled and tapped at home.

With the wheel bearing and pin issues finally resolved, the car almost rolled perfectly on the track. However, I still noticed some extra friction caused by the wheels rubbing against the inside wall of the car. So I also printed some simple washers from PETG to act as bearings between the wheels and car body.

Finally, the car is rolling like a dream, even under extremely high loads. And I am confident it is bulletproof.

Improving control lines

With the car running smoothly, the only remaining issue was the control lines. Replacing the line was easy (I used 10mm New England Ropes Sta-Set), but the plastic sheaves were brittle and ran poorly after sitting in the sun for several decades.

I wanted to upgrade the sheaved to ball bearings. I figured since I had changed out the wheels for plain bearings, upgrading the rope sheaves to ball bearings would offset any increase in friction. And I just always prefer ball bearing blocks onboard.

All the major gear manufacturers offer a line of housingless ball bearing sheaves, so upgrading was just a matter of finding sheaves that fit. After extensive research I was able to track down suitable replacements: Lewmar Size 2 ball bearing sheaves come in a pack of four, which is great for the two traveler car sheaves and the small end block sheaves. Vela Sailing Supply sells them under part #LEW29472970BK.

Note: When reassembling the car, it's critically important to grease the threads of all the stainless screws with Tef-Gel or similar to prevent siezing.

The 1/4" inner diameter is perfect for the car but slightly too large for the 3/16" screws that hold the end stops together. However that hasn't been a problem for me.

For the large sheaves on the end blocks, Harken's 57mm Delrin sheave is almost perfect. The only problem is that it's just slightly narrower than the Lewmar sheave. The extra space can be easily shimmed with a standard washer.

I also disassembled, cleaned up, and oiled the cam cleats, but I haven't replaced them as they still work great. If I ever do decide to replace them, I think any standard camcleat such as the ones Ronstan sells would fit perfectly.

I completed this project more than two years ago (which sure sounds better than "I procrastinated on writing this article for two years") and the new traveler has been absolutely perfect ever since! I've sailed in heavy weather, survived one or two crash gybes, and put about 1,500 nm on the boat since then, and I am pleased to report not a single further problem with it.