First Faint Flutter

[Don Guillette]

I was talking this morning with a Florida sailor (Fort Myers). He was telling me that when closehauled or on a close reach he knows the wind conditions are changing when he sees the first faint flutter in his mainsail but he didn't know what to do about it. I told him that what is happening is that the wind is trying to get around the luff of the sail and then I told him how to make a simple adjustment to correct the situation.

If this mate happened to be your dock neighbor and presented you with this question what simple adjustment would you suggest to him? Don't read a lot into this as it's a simple question and there's a term for the adjustment that explains it all.

 

[justsomeguy]

AOA?

 

[tsheie]

1. Fall off just a touch, 2. Mainsheet trim in a bit, or 3. Main traveler up a bit.. ???

 

[Warren Milberg]

Trim.

 

[justsomeguy]

Maybe this is one of those "ghost threads", where the OP never shows up again?

 

[Don Guillette]

Tsheie is on the right track. The sequence is called "trimming to the point of draw". When the sail starts its first faint flutter along the luff its only going to get worse so you should start to ease the mainsheet until a ripple appears along the luff and then slowly TRIM IN to the point where the fluttering JUSTstops and your perfect until the conditions -- wind speed, direction etc -- start again. Trimming to a point of draw is a easy and quick fix which take seconds to perform.

 

[Bill Roosa]

If short handed or your boat is not set up for solo sailing or if your crew just does not know how to do this stuff you could do what lots of folks do and use the helm to control the "draw of the sail" by, in this case, bearing off to accomplish the same thing. If the wind direction is changing a lot or gusting this is much easier than triming sails all day long. Probably not a racing strategy though as you end up pointing less at your target than using Don's technique.

 

[justsomeguy]

Trimming to a point of draw. Angle of attack. Trim. Heading change. Aren't these technically all doing the same thing?

 

[Joe]

If short handed or your boat is not set up for solo sailing or if your crew just does not know how to do this stuff you could do what lots of folks do and use the helm to control the "draw of the sail" by, in this case, bearing off to accomplish the same thing. If the wind direction is changing a lot or gusting this is much easier than triming sails all day long. Probably not a racing strategy though as you end up pointing less at your target than using Don's technique.

That's called "steering by the telltales" .... which is what just about every recreational sailor does, because they choose not to constantly adjust the sails, and which is the common technique for beating upwind.

 

[seadude61]

When in doubt, I'd let it out until more luffing, occurs, then trim in only until luffing stops.