I recently purchased Don's book and sail trim guides and found them filled with easy to understand information. After contacting him, we worked out a deal for him to come to our boat for a private sail trim session with our entire crew. He unselfishly came on a Sunday and spent the first hour going over his basic theories of sail trim including working all controls on the boat. Then, we spent a couple of hours on the water allowing each crew member to drive and experience how the boat reacted to various conditions. Suffice it to say, in spite of having very light air, the time was highly beneficial to everyone. We all came away with self assurance that we are much better sailors. I'm attaching a picture showing how Don brought along a model to help us understand what he was telling us. Thanks Don, John Richard s/v Jack's Place
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Sail Trim
Don Guillette: As an relatively uneducated sailor with 4 years of blissfull but moderately ignorant sailing on a Hunter 23, I really appreciate your forum and postings. I have two questions regarding your use of terminology. You said - Place telltales "one each, at the end of each batten pocket" on the main. Our new H-306 has one each at the leech end of each batten pocket. I suspect that is not the end you meant. Should they be at the forward end of the batten pocket also? Secondly, you gave Jim Seamans guidance for triming the jib by observing telltales and you used the term "inside" and "outside" telltales. Do you mean by this that "inside" is the windward telltale, and "outside" is the leeward one?
Don Guillette: As an relatively uneducated sailor with 4 years of blissfull but moderately ignorant sailing on a Hunter 23, I really appreciate your forum and postings. I have two questions regarding your use of terminology. You said - Place telltales "one each, at the end of each batten pocket" on the main. Our new H-306 has one each at the leech end of each batten pocket. I suspect that is not the end you meant. Should they be at the forward end of the batten pocket also? Secondly, you gave Jim Seamans guidance for triming the jib by observing telltales and you used the term "inside" and "outside" telltales. Do you mean by this that "inside" is the windward telltale, and "outside" is the leeward one?
John: Actually, the pleasure was all mine. To be on a beautiful Hunter41 with a great group of people and enjoy a day on the water is hard to beat. Perhaps some of listers might be interested in what we did yesterday. This was not a casual sail on the ocean - it was a solid 3 hour practice session. A slight downside was the wind did not cooperate - at times the mast head fly was doing 360's - but that did not matter because sailing in light air is what separates sailors from the rest of the pack. The first thing we did before we left the dock was go over draft depth, draft position, twist and angle of attack. If a sailor does not completely understand those terms, NOTHING about sail trim will ever make any sense. For example, suppose I said we are going to set the draft position at 50% and put in 30% of draft depth plus install a little bit of twist to spill some air, if you don't understand the terms you'd have no idea what I'm talking about. Next, we discussed the function of all the sail trim controls on the boat and I explained exactly what happens when you ease or trim them. We discuused all this stuff until I realized from the questions they were asking that they understood what I was saying. At that point, we were ready to go sailing. Once we cleared the cleared the harbor, we started working on sail trim. We put twist into the main and took it out. We induced draft depth (belly) and took it out. Next we went to work on the jib. Everything on the jib is controlled by the fairleads and sadly most sailors never even move them. I showed the crew how to determine the correct fairlead position and once they understood how, they did it at every tack. The problem is that if the fairlead is not in the correct position you can mess with the sheet all day long and you'll never get the jib trim right. Next, we went to work on reading the telltales on the main and jib. We headed up and fell off plus moved all the controls and watched how the telltales reacted to each situation. After a couple of times they could read the telltales better than I. After we finished with the jib, we went to work on the main. We played with all the controls until they understood how they worked. Again, I knew they understood what I was talking about by the questions - for example on depowering, they asked me if we dropped the traveler and then eased the main could we then pull the traveler back to its formewr position. By that question they completely understand the mainsail controls. Finally, the test was to get the boat moving in very, very light air. There is a trick to sailing in light air. Most sailors think they have to induce some belly in the sail but this is incorrect. What you actually want is a very flat sail. The reason is that very light air does not have the power to get around a sail with any belly in it and the sail simply stalls. So they made the sail as flat as possable and the boat moved ahead just like I said it would. All in all it was a great day on the water. If all sailors just set aside a little time to practice, it is amazing how they would improve but you need a sail trim foundation to work on. You would not go to a golf driving range if you did not know how to hold the club. Maybe some guys would but I wouldn't. John, good luck in the Newport to Ensenada race this weekend. I hope you bring home the bacon!!
Wjssr: Your telltales on the main are correctly placed. They should be placed at the aft end of the batten pocket and on the leech of the sail so thye can measure the exhaust of the sail. It is not necessary to install them at the forward end of the pocket. I use the terms inside and outside because it is easier for beginners to understand as opposed to leeward (outside) and windward (inside). Sometimes I have to think to myself which is leeward or windward but in and out is easy for me!!
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