Fairlead Adjustment

[Don Guillette]

The fairlead adjustment is one the most important sail trim adjustments you make on your boat. If your boat is a masthead rig it is critical. It is also important on a fractional rig if the jib size is over 135.

Lets say your sailing closehauled in 10 knots and something changes (wind, sea state or whatever) which requires you to make a fairlead adjustment. What criteria do you use to determine your new adjustment?

Pick any fairlead adjustment situation you want and explain how you do it and why. How do you know the adjustment you've chosen is correct?

 

[Ken Prichard]

Wind Increases - move the fairleads aft in small increments to depower the sail by twisting off the top and decreasing draft in the lower part If it really picks up we may want to to move the leads outboard as well to widen the slot, if our boat is set up to do this ( barber hauler or equivelant). If the draft is moving aft harden the halyard to bring it forward. Adjustments would obviously be made in the main as well and if they're all working we should see a big decrease in heel and a relatively small change in speed.
If not it's time to reef.

 

[Benny]

Was adviced early on that as a rule of thumb for setting the fairleads they should be set as far back as needed to attain an angle for the sheet to bisect the headstay. From there the fairlead could be adjusted forward for light air or back for heavier air. Thruth or myth?

 

[Florida sail]

Don,

When and what criteria should I use to bring my sheets inside my shrouds and use my inside fairleads on my Rhodes 22?

Fair winds,

>>ron<<

 

[Don Guillette]

Inside/Outside Tracks

Serenity (Ron) - That is an easy one. The general rule is inside track for closehauled and outside track for all othe points of sail.

 

[Don Guillette]

Jib Trimmer

Assume your the jib trimmer on a beer can race boat or better yet your the skipper just cruising around the harbor with guests on board who want to work the sails or your singlehanding - you were sailing in 10 knots closehauled and the wind pipes up, which way do you move the failrlead and why? Assume the wind is decreasing, what command do you give to the jib trimmer or yourself if single handing?

 

[Florida sail]

Re: Inside/Outside Tracks

Don,

Thanks and thanks also for the sail trim chart. Please go onto Miniditos and think of us as you have your meal. We' re long time past residints of Tucson and miss the Mexican cuisine. Los Betos anyone?

Fair winds,

>>ron<<

 

[Don Guillette]

Minidotos?

Ron: Glad you like the SAIL TRIM CHART.

I could not find Minidotos in the phone book. Where is it located? We live in Saddlebrooke, which is about 25 miles noth of Tucson

 

[Alan]

Benny

The correct fairlead position has nothing to do with bisecting anything. Whatever you use as a starting point to find the correct location is fine. After sailing close hauled and pinching up you will see the telltales begin to break. If they all break together your fairlead is in the correct location. If the top telltales break first the car needs to move forward. If the bottom ones break first the car needs to be moved back.
Also, when the helm tacks the boat the car is moved forward slightly to help the boat to gain speed. The sheet is left slightly cracked off. The helm will sail a slightly lower course as the boat accelerates, the car can be moved back again and the helm will bring the course up. The sheet is then trimmed for the new course.

 

[yodaboda]

The fairlead adjustment is one the most important sail trim adjustments... It is also important on a fractional rig if the jib size is over 135.

Quick question. I'm sailing a hunter 23 with a fractional rig and I have 2 jib sails on board, a 100 and 150. The boat is rigged for the 100 with fixed blocks on either side. The 150 comes back way to far to use those blocks. I was going to add a track system for the 150, but should I consider adding one for the 100 as well? or will it not make much difference?

Thanks

 

[Alan]

My suggestion would be to add a track long enough to handle any size genoa from 100 to 150 and install ball bearing line adjustable cars on them. Garhauer is a very good source for them.

 

[sailingdog]

The one thing you might want to do is add a track for the 150%, and also add an in-board track for the 100% so that you can get better sheeting angles on it.

 

[Alan]

Sailingdog

You are of course correct and I did exactly that on my boat but a single track long enough to accommodate both adjustments will work for many.

A more refined setup would be to have parallel inboard and outboard tracks for both which would allow an infinite amount of adjustment in both.

 

[Don Guillette]

Fairleads

Not much response to this thread. I’m sure there are some mates out there that would like to know how to set their fairleads.

In order to understand sail trim you have to completely understand the following 4 elements and they are draft depth, draft position, twist and angle of attack. If you do not understand these terms sail trim will never make any sense to you – as you see in a minute!!

The most important jib sail trim control is the fairleads. Why is that? The answer is that the fairleads are used to adjust 3 OF THE ABOVE ELEMENT. What that means is every time you move your fairleads you are messing with 3 of the 4 elements so you need to have an idea of what you want to happen when you move a fairlead.

Here’s the Readers Digest version of what is happening. When you move the fairlead FORWARD you are moving the draft position AFT, your INCREASING the draft depth and your DECREASING twist. When you move the fairlead AFT the opposite happens to each of the 3 elements.

The problem most mates have is the position of the fairleads change for each point of sail and wind condition and unless you have an idea of the correct setting you jib will never be the best looking one in the harbor. So where do you start for your initial set? You want a nice curve with an even shape from top to bottom. The inside telltales should be flowing and if you came up near head to wind they would break evenly from top to bottom.

Lets say your sailing along and notice that the foot is fluttering and the bottom portion of the sail is getting messy. In this case you would move the fairlead aft. If the leech is fluttering and the top is getting messy you would move the fairlead forward. How far? I have no idea – you have to experiment as all boats are different. The movement won’t be a lot – maybe 6” to 10”.

 

[oldiesrocker2001]

Re: Fairleads

Don, I have a smallish jib(barely 100%) masthead rig on my V21. I have fairlead tracks about even with the cockpit as it meets the cabin and other run-thru points(fixed) about 4' farther forward nearly even or possibly ahead of the side stays (I'm at work and the boat is covered up at home). Since my boat doesn't point as well as I'd like I use the forward run-thru's and keep the sheets inside the stays. I don't have telltales at the moment to be read, but offhand would the forward setup be simply too far forward for most conditions and instead of drawing the jib down and back as I think you're explaining it, merely drawing it down more than back and not affecting the draft efficiently?

 

[Brian D]

Don, I've read your book and I've used the charts. But I am not a racer nor do I want to have to keep adjusting my fairleads when sailing. Isn't there a magical location for the fairleads that will get the most out of the various points of sail?

Now I do adjust the halyard as you state in your book. I've noticed a big difference when up wind vs. down wind. The closer I get to the wind the tighter I make the halyard. But the fairleads... different story.

 

[Alan]

Brian

Unfortunately there is no "magic bullet" location. If you don't want to adjust fairlead location to the correct setting then your sails simply wont be trimmed properly. The same applies to all sail control lines. You can 'set it and forget it' or you can sail with proper trim.

oldiesrocker: After you install telltales on your sails you will be able to see exactly how your sails are trimmed. These little woollies are key to proper sail trim. It is nearly impossible to make proper sail trim without them.

 

[Brian D]

I don't know, Alan, the average sailor or bluewater sailor is not going to spend time tweaking every few seconds like pro racers do. So there must be a nominal location for the fairlead that give nominal results and good performance. Not race performance, but good cruise performance.

Just by how you wrote your response, I would guess you like to race. Would I be somewhat correct in my observation?

 

[Alan]

Brian

Sail trim is sail trim regardless of where you are going or what you are doing. It doesn't matter if you race or cruise. Racers are looking to win which means getting the most out of your sails. Cruising sailors are less diligent about trim and the result is less than optimal performance. When I'm out on a cruise I can't stand seeing my sails improperly set so yes, I 'tweak' them.

If you are looking for an 'average' setting for your jib cars just sail up wind and set the cars so all your telltales are flowing evenly. Anything more gets into the realm of 'tweaking'.

 

[Brian M H23]

Brian, I'm not a big racer either. I usually keep my cars at the point where, in about 10 knots, I can go upwind most effectively. However, After I've reefed the main, before I go changing out to a smaller jib, I will move the cars back a few notches, to spill the top of the jib. So the adjustment is not only a performance thing, but can be a safety thing. Much easier to move the cars back vs. changing a headsail