Traveler on 371

I have a 2002 Hanse 371 with the traveler mounted on the coachroof.     It has always been very difficult to move the traveler to windward in a breeze of about 15 knots or greater.    There does not appear to by enough purchase and the traveler supplied on the boat does not have state of the art ball bearings and such, so a decent bit of friction.     Has anyone figured out a good way to modify it improve use or has anyone swapped out with something else that worked well?

I replaced mine with a Garhauer heavy duty traveler. It works wonderfully now. The Lewmar (original equipment) traveler was dysfunctional from the beginning and only got worse over time. Replacement is a winter time project, as you'll need to ship your current traveler to Garhauer for them to drill the mounting holes. My new Garhauer was a perfect fit, installed easily, and now allows me to use the traveler the way it's supposed to be used. BTW, Garhauer makes a first class traveler for less money than Harken or Lewmar.

I'll take a photo this weekend when I'm at the boat.

Doug:     Did you use the original track or did you replace that as well?

BP - The Garhauer traveler I have is model no. MT UB2 ($595 US$) There is another model that might work, MT 2TP ($425 US$), but given the size of the 370 mainsail, and the loads, I opted for the heavy-duty model. The fiddle block is model 40-01 ($63 US$, and it can handle a heavy air accidental gybe, unlike the original equipment Lewmar which totally blew apart. BTW, if you opt for the Garhauer traveler, you have the option of cleats for the lines (the lines come with the unit) or a turning block. As you will see, I opted for the cleats. Hope the photos help.