Mark: We must be brothers and our wives sisters!! It also drives my wife nuts when I tweek the controls but God put them there for a reason and i like to get 100% efficiency out of my boat. To keep your telltails flowing, ALL sail trim controls have to be adjusted according to the wind condition and point of sail and this is an ever changing situation. Have you ever heard a skipper command " adjust the outhaul". Most don't tell you which way and how much and more importantly, what about the rest of the controls for the main. The outhaul controls the bottom portion of the sail and if you don't adjust the rest of the sail, the top gets confused. My point is all spark plug have to be connected to get a smooth running engine. In your example, the boom should be on center, draft position should be 50%, mainsheet should have moderate tension, top batten should be about 10% to 20% to leeward. In addition, your halyard should be tight, your outhaul should be fully tight, your cunnigham should have moderate tension, your draft depth should be 12% to13%, your mast bend should be moderate and your crew should be to windward and forward. Try that setup the next time you go out and see what happens to your telltails. As an aside, I'm starting to get a feel for the forum questions and they are very similiar to ones I receive during seminars I conduct in So Ca. How do you know what adjustments to make for a particular wind condition? Most beginer to intermediates don't know but there is a solution. I'm not pushing a commercial but forum space does not permit a listing of the settings for every point of sail and wind condition. So, take a look at the SAIL TRIM CHART I developed and is sold by Sailboatowners .com. It gives you the jib and mainsail settings you need for each point of sail and wind condition. It takes the guess work out of jib and mainsail adjustment.
