Girts !!!! ....
Are the generation of 'creases' from too much pressure/tension on ONE corner of a woven dacron sail. A girt means that you exceeded the tension designed for the sail by 'stretch' in one direction. Assuming that one of the sail slugs at the luff isnt 'too tight' in its connection to its grommet ..... *** To avoid 'girts'**** you need to adjust TWO corners. So if you have put in lots of tension to the outhaul, you also need to add some pressure to the halyard (or cunningham) to 'balance the load in the cloth'. Its normal for a woven dacron sail when overtensioned by halyard AND outhaul to have girts somewhat parallel to the leech, usually eminating from the 'corners'. If you radically overtension the luff (by halyard or cunningham) on a woven dacron sail, a large crease (girt) will form parallel to the luff. If you radically overtension the foot (by outhaul) a large grease will form somewhat parallel to the foot. If you radically overtension both the luff and the foot, girts will begin to form on a diagonal between the head and the clew. What it really means is that the cloth is too light weight for the wind/shaping conditions or is 'too stretchable'. To remove 'girts' adjust by 'any' sail shaping control that is located near perpendicular to the girt. Eg. put in more halyard tension to remove the girt that is parallel to the boom. Other: If one sail slug on the luff has its connection length (sewn tape, sail twine or plastic slug shackle) smaller that the rest/adjacent slug connections along the luff this 'shortening' of the slug's connection distance will sometimes cause a 'girt' when the outhaul is overtensioned. Make sure that all the slugs are the SAME distance from the luff bolrope or luff tape .... as the one at the 'end' of the girt may be too tight. Girts wont form as easily on a sail made from 'very good' (less stretchable) dacron cloth (Bainbridge, Contender, etc. cloth). hope this helps
