Hi folks,
During the off season I've been trying to read more about tactics to improve my team's racing performance. I viewed a Youtube video by someone named PPConsultant, who had another video in a different thread recommended by Jackdaw (thanks JD) which I found very informative. He had a video on proper use of the outhaul too, but it left me with a question he hadn't answered.
In heavy air, PPConsultant recommended tensioning the outhaul to flatten the sail, which I have been doing.
In light air, he recommended easing the outhaul completely to increase draft and subsequently lift, which I've been doing, buy maybe not enough.
In very light air (under 3 knots), he recommended setting the outhaul midway between where we set it in heavy air and where we set it in light air. I had read this before and have practiced this in our racing.
My question is this, in the "light air" conditions, how do you know if you've eased the outhaul TOO MUCH? My concern is that if we put too much curvature on the sail the wind flow will detach. Will misbehaving leech telltales let us know if the outhaul is eased too much and when the air flow has detached?
Sorry if this is rudimentary, but I've always just "winged it" before when racing. But now I'm on a friend's boat and we started winning this past year, and we're all trying to graduate from Noob status. We sail a Ranger 26.2.
Thanks so much for any advice!
During the off season I've been trying to read more about tactics to improve my team's racing performance. I viewed a Youtube video by someone named PPConsultant, who had another video in a different thread recommended by Jackdaw (thanks JD) which I found very informative. He had a video on proper use of the outhaul too, but it left me with a question he hadn't answered.
In heavy air, PPConsultant recommended tensioning the outhaul to flatten the sail, which I have been doing.
In light air, he recommended easing the outhaul completely to increase draft and subsequently lift, which I've been doing, buy maybe not enough.
In very light air (under 3 knots), he recommended setting the outhaul midway between where we set it in heavy air and where we set it in light air. I had read this before and have practiced this in our racing.
My question is this, in the "light air" conditions, how do you know if you've eased the outhaul TOO MUCH? My concern is that if we put too much curvature on the sail the wind flow will detach. Will misbehaving leech telltales let us know if the outhaul is eased too much and when the air flow has detached?
Sorry if this is rudimentary, but I've always just "winged it" before when racing. But now I'm on a friend's boat and we started winning this past year, and we're all trying to graduate from Noob status. We sail a Ranger 26.2.
Thanks so much for any advice!