Take Your Time

[Don Guillette]

I was talking to an Aussie friend of mine yesterday regarding a sail trim problem he was having. I could probably sit here and write about anything but I feel if I get a question from a forum lister, others may have the same question.Anyway, his problem was that when he made a sail trim adjustment the boat did not react as quick as he felt it should so he goes and makes another adjustment. Bottom line is the sail trim ends up looking like a mess. When you take a shower do you jump right in or do you wait a minute for the hot water to come on? When you adjust the jets in a carb (for those of us that remember those days) do you wait a second for the fuel to balance out? The answer is obviously yes you do. The same with sail trim adjustments. After you make the adjustment you have to wait a second for the adjustment to take effect.Another thing I notice a lot and many of you have seen it also. You also might be a mate that does this. The skipper calls for a tack. As he gets head to wind the jib trimmer cuts the line, which then falls all over the place, and the other trimmer madly pulls and cranks the line in his side. The sail and the wind never get together and the boat loses speed. You should not lose more than 1 knot of speed when tacking. The answer is to go slow. I don't mean to fall asleep but take you time. There is no real rush. Let the wind catch up with the sail. Try and experiement and see if it works for you.

 

[Joseph Shirley]

Don --You said "As he gets head to wind

the jib trimmer cuts the line" and I hope you didn't mean it. At that time the jib is already backwinded and you are slowing down, though the wind does help blow the jib through the foretriangle. My experience has been to cut the leeward sheet when the luff of the jib breaks noticeably and the jib coasts through the foretriangle without backwinding.Was that just an "oops"?

 

[Ross]

On my boat I find that allowing the jib to backwind enough

to pull the bow through the wind works very well. Then I ease the lazy sheet and trim the new working sheet and come to the new tack.

 

[Brian M H23]

How would one tack

How would one tack, given you had a fixed (or no) rudder? Common sense would tell me to ease the jib and over-trim the main. once the jib backwinds (it will backwind, right?), ease the main . All done while you have at least a couple knots of boat speed?

 

[Joseph Shirley]

Ross That would appear to be much too long.

All the time your jib is pulling your bow through the wind you are hove -to. I'm sure it helps you change course in a tack and helps you blow the jib through the foretriangle but not only does that slow you down drastically, but it contributes to the too fast tack that Don was talking about and probably causes you to over tack. Then you have to come back up on your new course and muscle in the jib to its close hauled trim. On a boat with a reasonably sized jib or genoa, a good tack can allow the jib to be almost properly sheeted on the new tack without using a winch, then a little trim adjustment with the winch and off you go again.I agree with Don wholeheartedly that the loss of speed in a tack should be minimum.

 

[Ross]

Joe , I don't let it pull very far and we almost never

need to muscle the jib into trim. When the jib is just about midships the old sheet is released and the new sheet trimmed. Most of the back winding happens with the old sheet slack.

 

[Joseph Shirley]

Brian you are correct

and if you had no rudder that would be a very positive way to tack, but loosing the jib alone could do the same thing without backwinding it and slowing you down. As soon as you take the load out of the jib the center of effort shifts aft and will turn the boat into the wind and with any inertia at all, it will cross the wind with a less loss of speed than backwinding.If you had no rudder however, your way would be more positive, and I might use it too.

 

[Terry Cox]

Here is what I do as a solo cruiser ...

under close haul point of sail:1. Ready my windward genoa winch with winch sheet wraps and handle.2. Activate autopilot tack change, which brings boat around 100 degrees.3. As the boat passes the eye of the wind I release the leeward sheet.4. Then take up about 90% of sheet slack as genoa clew comes across on new tack.5. Trim genoa sheet to about 95% of close hauled setting.6. Adjust main sheet traveler car slightly to windward.7. Adjust autopilot so that boat is pointing at about 32 degrees.8. Tweak genoa until all telltales are streaming aft.9. Tweak main sheet so that telltales are streaming aft and top batten is parallel to boat. I've never timed it but it happens pretty fast. Once Belle-Vie settles onto her new course I tweak other adjustments; genoa sheet and car position, main sheet and traveler car position, etc. Terry

 

[Don Guillette]

"As he gets head to wind"

Joe (Port Orchard): Nope, not an oops. That's what happens most of the time. I'm not saying that's the way to perform a tack but that is the way it goes with a lot of sailors and middle to back of the pack racers. Tomorrow I'll give my version of how a tack should be performed. When you are single handed Terry Cox's procedure is good. I'll describe a procedure I teach to middle to back of the pack racers. Cruisers can also use it. In fact, it is fun when you have non sailing guests that want to experience some of the fun of sailing.

 

[Terry Cox]

Hi Don, thanks...

In an earlier post someone suggested that they use the green plastic gardening tape for telltales. Seems like a good idea. I have some, so does anyone have tip as to the best way to attach this material to the sail? I was thinking of using double stick carpet tape.Terry

 

[Joseph Shirley]

Thanks Don; I realize that it wasn't the point of your post,

and even there, you were talking about the sail and the wind getting together. I just thought you gave some credibility to going head to wind before cutting the jib loose. I should have known better.