After tacking boat slows

[Don Guillette]

An Aussie friend of mine called yesterday with a problem. He said that in moderate to medium heavy wind, when he closehauled tacks the boat it is slower on the new tack. I thought I knew the answer to the problem right away but had to ask a couple of question to be sure. My first question was had the wind speed change on the new tack changed (answer = yes) and did he adjust the fairlead on the new tack (answer = no). Some controls for the mainsail only control one element (draft depth, draft position, twist and angle of attack) but the jib fairleads adjust ALL 4 elements. So, if you don't adjust the fairlead for the new wind conditions it is obvious the boat will be slower assuming they were set right in the first place on the old tack.So how does a sailor know what the new setting will be on the new tack? The answer is by watching the brake of the sail just before the boat comes head to wind. The jib trimmer reads it and then calls the new setting to the other trimmer. It would be something like two holes up or one hole back. Before the new trimmer trims in the jib sheet, he makes the adjustment unless he has a Garhauer adjustable fairlead system ( with the Garhauer system or any adjustable system he can do it after he trims). If he waits until he has trimmed the jib with a pin fairlead system, the job becomes too dificult.Today, my friend called to tell me how my suggestion worked. He said it worked perfectly and was easy to do after a few practices. I thought to myself - no kidding!!!

 

[r.w.landau]

Don, I don't understand.

What brake would I be looking for and how does that tell me what the wind would be on the other tack?r.w.landau

 

[Seattle Scott]

Its break not brake

like surfing jargon, dude. The leach "breaks" or starts to flap. If it breaks along the entire length at the same time, then fairleads are correct. If leach breaks at top first, move fairlead forward ( I think) and breaks first at bottom of leach move fairlead aft, or the other way around.Got to get me some of those trimmer people who can talk back and forth about moving the cars, only to find out that we an't got no track or cars, just a toerail snatch block.

 

[r.w.landau]

Thanks Scott!

I understand now.Sorry about your toerail problem. Your trimmers would have to be real quick!r.w.landau

 

[Bob]

I'm curious

How does he get the wind speed to change when he tacks? If he will let me in on that secret, I'll name my next child after him.

 

[Larry Wilson]

Fairlead advice

The world is full of spelling police and smart asses. Thanks for the info Don.Larry Wilson

 

[r.w.landau]

Bob, I think the point is that

This shows that the trim on the first tack was wrong or had changed.r.w.landau

 

[Alan]

Usually...

...the reason for the tack in the first place, is the fact that the 'wind has changed'. Otherwise there would be little reason to tack. With the change would come either a direction change or a velocity change or both. Either way the car location needs to be adjusted, both at the beginning of the tack and then a minute or so later as the boat settles into her new course. All of this, of course, assumes that you are trying to get the best performance out of the boat.

 

[Alan]

Bob

there's also another thing to consider. The boat(and sails) ONLY 'see' apparent wind. When any boat tacks the apparent wind must change, therefore fairlead adjustments should happen on every tack regardless. This builds a very strong case for the need for adjustable genoa cars on every boat.

 

[Don Guillette]

wind speed

The one constant about wind speed is that it is NEVER constant. That is why sail trim controls were introduced otherwise you could just set the sails and forget it - which is what a lot of sailors do anyway!!

 

[Don Guillette]

Sail Break

RW Landau: Sorry about the spelling error. Here's what your looking for. It is hard to see the first time but once seen it becomes very easy. Position yourself in the jib trimmers spot over the winch. Now have the boat driver slowly bring the boat head to wind. As the boat comes up the sail will be full but just before it comes head to wind it will collapse. What your looking for is the point just before complete collapse. What is going to happen is the foot will flutter or the bottom luff of the sail will break completly or the bottom telltails will break. If any or all of that happens it means you should move the fairlead AFT. How far? I don't know. You have to experiment.The other thing that could happen is that the leeech will flutter, the top of the sail will break or the top telltails will break. If any or all of that happens you should move the fairlead FORWARD. What you are actually looking for is for the sail to collaspe or break evenly from top to bottom. This rarely happens but you will get close to it. If that happens your fairlead was in the proper position and for starters that is where you want the new fairlead position to be. After the jib comes over and is trimmed, the last job of the lazy jib trimmer is to reset his fairlead to the same hole while he waits for the the next tack. Let's say the boat has an adjustable system and the power trimmer adjusts his fairlead. What happens most times is the lazy trimmer does nothing. He just sits there as if on break. What he should do is mirror that change for his fairlead.This sounds like a lot of work but it isn't. Actually it is fun to trim the sails. Another response I hear all the time is I'm not a racer. I'm a cruiser so I don't really care about the set of my sails. Do you care about protecting your sails? You can extend the life of your sails by having them properly adjusted. I'm more of a cruiser than a racer. While cruising I'm in my own little world and I love watching the sails when they are properly set so my little beauty gives all that she can.Sail trim is really easy to learn. That is easy to say but I know how complicated it is to beginners - I remember where I came from and how hard it was to understand. I could teach a new sailor just about everything he needs to know about sail trim in under 3 hours. All he then has to do is go out and apply it.

 

[John Nantz]

Issue sounds like a good case of....

... wind shear to me.

 

[Seattle Scott]

R.W. I forgot to mention one thing

GO SEAHAWKS!

 

[William]

Toerail trimmers?

Scott wher would I find a pair of toerail trimmers?

 

[r.w.landau]

Don, That explaination was perfect.

Scott, not fair.....r.w.landau

 

[Seattle Scott]

William, you can find them

right by the wench handles at WM.Hey Don, I have a follow up question. So if I understand this subject, the fore and aft position depends on wind speed. If I set up the fairlead position in the correct location and the wind picks up, if I need to move them, forward will probably be the correct direction and wind drops, probably go aft with them. Is this right?I know ( well I think) that if its howling/overpowered and my furler jammed, then I should go way aft to spill air. That right?OK more than a couple of questions. Also when it pipes up and I am going upwind and the forestay/luff starts to sag off to leeward, I crank down on the back stay( masthead rig). So after this, should I expect the fairleads to need attention?PS I was kidding r.w. about the misspell, not you, I knew what you wrote.

 

[r.w.landau]

Scott, You are mistaken the toerail trimmers

are right next to the Terrible Towels in Eckert Drug.GO Steelers!r.w.landauSorry Don for messing up your post. By the way, Scott I think you have it backwards. As the wind picks up you will probably have to move the car back.Scott how do you use those wench handles?

 

[Alan]

rw

..I can't resist....wench handles?....do I KNOW what to do with wench handles!!

 

[Don Guillette]

Fairlead adjustment

Scott: The answer is simple but I hope you can bear with the explanation. I want to give a complete answer because it is important for forum listers to know the WHY. The wind speed is the factor that powers the boat and determines the appropriate setting for the 5 primary jib sail trim controls. The 5 controls are the sheets, halyards, headstay sag, fairleads (inboard and outboard) and fairleads (forward and aft). The combination of wind speed and point of sail determines the proper setting for the 5 sail trim controls.Just as with the sail trim controls for the mainsail, you can’t just adjust only 1 control no more than you could adjust 1 barrel of a 4 barrel carburetor and expect smooth performance. You have to adjust ALL of them and they have to be set in the correct position that the wind speed and point of sail dictates. My SAIL TRIM CHART outlines these positions and takes the guesswork out of sail trim adjustment.To answer your question (which is a whole chapter in my book (THE SAIL TRIM USERS GUIDE) and about 1 hour in my seminar we have to go back to basics. There are 4 things we are adjusting and they are draft depth, draft position, twist and angle of attack. There is an optimum setting for each of these elements for each point of sail and wind condition. I’m just going to deal with the fairleads and not the other jib controls. There are 2 controls used to adjust draft position and they are the fairleads and halyard. As the wind pipes up it pushes the DP aft beyond the 35% to 45 % optimum. To bring the DP back to optimum you move the car aft because moving the car aft moves the DP forward. Conversely,if you moved the car forward you'd make matters worse because the DP would move farther aft. Not to complicate matters, but in moving the car to adjust DP you have now moved the draft position (belly). There are 4 controls for DD and they are fairleads, halyard, mast bend and sheets. Moving the fairleads forward increases DD and moving it aft decreases DD. On top of all that, by moving the fairleads you have also adjusted the twist in your sail. Moving the car forward decreases twist and moving it aft increases twist. As you can see this ain't that easy but once you understand what is happening it becomes very simple. With each SAIL TRIM CHART I enclose free a QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE that outlines each sail trim control for the main and jib and tells you which way to push or pull them to get the desired effect for DD, DP, Twist and angle of attack..It is almost impossible to answer some questions as completely as I would like in this limited space so I’ll split it up. Next session, I’ll deal with headstay sag.

 

[George]

Don, I'd like to purchase

a copy of your book/guide for sail trim. Please email me at GEOMORRISO@AOL.COMThanks.George