Leech Lines

[Rick D]

Hey, Don. How often do you adjust your leech lines? I know when to tighten them, but frankly overlook loosening them back up. In other words, unlike other sail trim controls, it doesn't seem obvious by sail shape that the leech may be too tight as opposed to too loose. Rick D.

 

[Don Guillette]

Rick: The primary reason the leech cord exists is to keep the leech from fluttering so it isn't exactly a sail trim control but it does come into play as a sail trim control when reaching and running. If a mate allows the leech of the main or jib to continue to flutter (make a motor boating sound) unabbated they are decreasing the useful life of their sails. Sailing upwind, you should tighten the leech cord JUST ENOUGH to stop the fluttering. Since the wind is ever changing you may have to make several adjustment.Sailing off the wind, the leech cord does have some sail trim advantage. When reaching and running, you want to tighten the leech cord to put as much pressure as possable on the leech and the reason for this is that you are bending the battens and giving the sail a nice shape or depth.Trivia -- Some America Cup boats have a leech cord that start halfway up the leech and then goes over the top of the head board and then down the luff. The leech cord on cruising boats goes from top to bottom on the leech of the sail. The reason America Cup boats developed that type of leech cord was it helped prevent twist so they did not have to apply extreme pressure on the boom vang to eliminate twist.TIP -- The top batten on the main is extremely impotant. Try to keep it in line with the boom for maximum effectiveness.