Alison Langley
The instructions presented here can be adapted to make a traveler for a variety of boats, including the Haven 12 1/2.
The John Alden–designed North Haven Dinghy is a classic Victorian-era sailboat. It first raced in 1885 at the island summer colony of North Haven, Maine, and is the oldest one-design class in the United States; the dinghies are still raced there today. These distinctive boats are 14′ 5″ long with plumb stems, wineglass sterns, gaff rigs, 350 lbs of inside ballast, and flotation tanks. From stem to stern, they carry a lot of period hardware—some quite specific to the boat, which can be a challenge when building an accurate replica.
One such item is the elegant brass mainsheet traveler that runs from transom knee to transom knee. While it’s an item that would be at home on many traditional daysailers, its size is specific to the span between the knees. Back in the 20th century, it would have been a simple matter for the builder to consult the venerable Rostand Manufacturing Company Catalog of Custom Grade Marine Hardware. The book was a compendium of hard-to-get items such as bow plates, portlights, gooseneck slides, centerboard blocks, and, yes, even the desired traveler.
That catalog is long gone, but its crisp graphics offer details from which one can make full-sized templates for building duplicate hardware. Like lofting the lines of a hull, such full-sized drawings are the way to go for accuracy in making hardware.