Beating, but not going anywhere?

[Bennito]

Hi All!

Second season now of sailing on our '81 Hunter 27, and its been amazing.
Last weekend we took a beautiful 4 day trip to Annapolis and on our way out we headed back up north. Winds were coming directly from the north (14-17 mph or so), so we had a great morning work out.
Problem though was, on our tacks we were beating, with the sails close hauled, and on the same port-side tack as all the other boats out there. But they were cruising us by very fast and we just kept sailing back-and-forth, perpendicular to the direction of the wind! So we started guessing what we could adjust, but nothing really worked. We let the sails out and we speeded up quickly, but of course our direction wasn't good.
I know all the boats were probably newer & our sails should be replaced next season. But my brother & I had not the faintest idea of how we could have gotten out of there quicker, but to lower the sails and (to our disgust) fire up the motor.
Any ideas? I'll answer all questions if you need more ino.
Thanks and hope you can shed some light on this!
Bennito

 

[Stu Jackson]

There's not hardly enough information to help us help you.

You might want to try Don Guillette's Sail Trim Chart and Book, available on this website.

 

[Bennito]

Thanks Stu,

I'll deffinantly get that one.

 

[Jackdaw]

Like Stu says, not a lot to go with. So here is one general hint.

You say you were beating, hard on the wind. Not many boat are fast like that. Falling of JUST A FEW degrees can help a lot. All else being, equal try cracking off a few degrees and retrimming for that.

 

[Mike 1]

I have an '82 shoal draft H27. I am not going to comment on sail trim because I too am still somewhat new to sailing this boat and by no way a trim expert. I will say that the boat is great in many ways but pointing is not one of them. As was stated above if you fall off a few degrees it will help.

 

[Mike 1]

One other thought, have you tuned your rigging? When I bought mine it was very far off from being right. I made those changed and the boat sailed completely different.

 

[Benny17441]

Not all boats sail the same nor have the same pointing ability, especially if the sails are well worn. To try to maintain the same course as another boat and expect the same results can be futile. You may have been trying to sail to close to wind and were loosing speed. There is a concept which is referred to as "velocity made good to destination" Basically it indicates that there is a point of tack at which the relationship between speed and direction is optimum for the fastest time to destination. When you are sailing in a straight line to wards your destination your actual speed over ground is equal to your VMG. As you veer off from this course your speed may increase but so your distance. The object is to find a point of tack where the speed gained more than neutralizes the additional distance. Most chartplotters can be set to provide an instant readout for VMG making the decision for a particular point of tack much simpler. Some sailors have developed the ability to use a compass and the wind in their face to determine the best VMG but for us mere mortals is more of a guessing game and practice. Somehow having the boat sail faster makes the time seem to pass quicker.

 

[sailor1950]

the other boats were motorsailing. Happens a lot on the chessy

 

[Bennito]

Thanks everyone for your suggesstions!

Jackdaw & Mike 1: We did try coming a few degrees off wind (close reach) and letting the sails out. And that did help a lot for our speed. It seemed though that we had, at that point of sail, too much wind to work with which just kept creating too much drag on the sails. We ended up just sailing perpendicular to the bridge, while we needed to head north.

Mike 1: I should have the rigging checked. I do believe it might be a big improvment. Any documentation as to what is the most optimal?

Benny17441: You are right, the sails are in need of an upgrade. We also do not have a GPS or chartplotter, or any of the sort. Of course we do have a compass and rely on the wind in our faces. It was extremely windy, and we just could not go north.

Sailor 1950: I think that most of the other boats, which seemed also a lot newer and bigger, were in fact motorsailing. They may also be equipped with better instruments.

Thanks everyone for the replies!
I knew I could count on you. Don't mistake my post as a frustration. We had a magnificent 4 day sail and Annapolis was amazing!
Cheers,
Bennito

 

[Mike 1]

I would suggest picking up a rigging tension tool. They are not too expensive and you can tune your rig pretty easily. I know when I bought my bought the PO had one but never used it, he simply tightened everything until it was "snug" I used the tool and found that he had everything about twice as tight as it should be. That is a huge stress. Here is the link to a common rig tuning tool:

http://loosnaples.com/how-to-use-pt-series-tension-gauges