All,
We've had many owners having issues with trimming furling mainsails with the Bridge system. Below are my notes from the B41 tuning guide.
The key take away here if you have a bridge and a single point mainsheet system is this: There is only ONE time that you have the mainsail trimmed correctly just using the mainsheet...and this is upwind in anything 12 knots and less with the main sheet pulled on tight enough to make the leech of the mainsail stand upright with very little twist.
Every other point of sail the leech will NOT be trimmed right unless you make strong use of the boom vang / kicker.
So: if you are trimmed up right and ease the sheet to depower (as if you were letting the traveler down on conventional boats) you have immediately let the boom go to leeward AND UP. This upward movement releases the tension on the leech and you will have lots of twist and leech that is unstable. The ONLY control you have to offset this, is the boom vang.
Here are our general guide:
The Oceanis 41 has a bridge mainsheet system in place that does away with the clutter of the mainsail traveler system in favor of the triangulated mainsheet system that is on the bridge.
This system requires owners to trim the mainsails quite a bit differently than boats with traveler and requires this small bit of overview:
· With a traditional traveler/mainsheet system, the mainsheet is used to coarsely bring the boom near centerline and then to apply tension to the leech of the mainsail. The traveler is used to fine tune the sailing angle of the mainsail…to accommodate for changes in sailing angle or to depower slightly in increased winds.
· The triangulated mainsail sheet system also brings the boom to centerline, and applies tension to the leech of the mainsail…but only when sailing close-hauled. The mainsheet is eased to adjust the sailing angle of the boom (as if you were using the traveler) but when this is done, the leech tension also slackens and the sail loses proper trim.
· To compensate for this, the boom vang (or kicker) becomes a much more important part of your mainsail trim by keeping constant tension on the leech of the sail throughout the range of motion of the boom, regardless of mainsail tension.
My advice is to trim the leech in super tight so there is almost no twist in say 10 knots of wind and then pull the vang on super tight..If you do this and then ease the mainsheet you will see that the leech of the sail maintains tension as the boom travels out to leeward as you ease.
We've had many owners having issues with trimming furling mainsails with the Bridge system. Below are my notes from the B41 tuning guide.
The key take away here if you have a bridge and a single point mainsheet system is this: There is only ONE time that you have the mainsail trimmed correctly just using the mainsheet...and this is upwind in anything 12 knots and less with the main sheet pulled on tight enough to make the leech of the mainsail stand upright with very little twist.
Every other point of sail the leech will NOT be trimmed right unless you make strong use of the boom vang / kicker.
So: if you are trimmed up right and ease the sheet to depower (as if you were letting the traveler down on conventional boats) you have immediately let the boom go to leeward AND UP. This upward movement releases the tension on the leech and you will have lots of twist and leech that is unstable. The ONLY control you have to offset this, is the boom vang.
Here are our general guide:
The Oceanis 41 has a bridge mainsheet system in place that does away with the clutter of the mainsail traveler system in favor of the triangulated mainsheet system that is on the bridge.
This system requires owners to trim the mainsails quite a bit differently than boats with traveler and requires this small bit of overview:
· With a traditional traveler/mainsheet system, the mainsheet is used to coarsely bring the boom near centerline and then to apply tension to the leech of the mainsail. The traveler is used to fine tune the sailing angle of the mainsail…to accommodate for changes in sailing angle or to depower slightly in increased winds.
· The triangulated mainsail sheet system also brings the boom to centerline, and applies tension to the leech of the mainsail…but only when sailing close-hauled. The mainsheet is eased to adjust the sailing angle of the boom (as if you were using the traveler) but when this is done, the leech tension also slackens and the sail loses proper trim.
· To compensate for this, the boom vang (or kicker) becomes a much more important part of your mainsail trim by keeping constant tension on the leech of the sail throughout the range of motion of the boom, regardless of mainsail tension.
My advice is to trim the leech in super tight so there is almost no twist in say 10 knots of wind and then pull the vang on super tight..If you do this and then ease the mainsheet you will see that the leech of the sail maintains tension as the boom travels out to leeward as you ease.
