Hi Jim
How are you rigging it at the moment – on a detachable inner forestay?
I have one on my NC43 and actually changed it to a permanently rigged staysail on a furler, and had a new sail cut that worked better upwind. I use mine as an upwind sail and through to reaching and then tend to furl it when the wind goes aft of the beam. I also use the running backstays if only using the staysail to better support the middle of the mast, especially if beating upwind with no genoa, just staysail and a reef or two in the main.
As regards the free traveller, mine is a curved stainless steel bar with a pulley type arrangement. I had to cut off and replace the pulley as mine had fallen apart and I replaced it with a dyneema loop. I rig the sheet from the clew down to a block on the dyneema loop on the bar, and then to a block in front of the windless on the foredeck and then via blocks back to the cockpit. This geometry allows the sail to tack keeping the sheet at a constant tension. Sometimes I move the block on the foredeck up onto the top of the windless that means the tacking sheet clears the forehatch.
Happy to give more info if this is relevant
Best wishes
Piers