Telltales

[Don Guillette]

Mates: Anyone who knows me or has read my book knows how much importance I place on telltales. In fact, I don't know how anyone trims their sails without them. For the price of a package of gum (I remember when it was only 5 cents!!) you can attach telltales to your main and jib and the results will be that you'll be able to sail your boat more efficiently and definately faster - that is provided you know how to read them.In addition to the normal telltales attached to the main and jib I also attach them to the shrouds and backstay. These telltales indicate the direction of the apparent wind. Knowing the apparent wind angle helps you trim your sails on all points of sail. They also save your neck the discomfort of craning your neck to look at the masthead fly. Telltales provide an enormous amount of information about the airflow over your sails. This information allows you to trim your sails with greater accuracy.The most important mainsail telltale is the top one. It is the primary guide for judging mainsheet tension and trim. When sailing closehauled you want the top telltale streaming. What that is telling you is that you have "attached airflow" along the entire curve of the sail. You'll sacrifice a little pointing ability but you'll definately be getting 100% efficiency from your mainsail. If you want to point a little higher, trim in the main until the top telltale JUST stalls. What that is telling you is the airflow is not completely attached along the entire curve of the sail. You'll point higher but you'll be slower than if the telltale was streaming. Actually, your most efficent when the top telltale streams half the time and stalls the other half of the time.When reaching you want to trim the mainsheet and boom vang so all the telltales stream aft. This results in maximum speed. How you achieve that mode is simple. First ease the sheet until the main JUST starts to luff and then trim in a little. This is called "triming to the point of draw". Next start to tension the boom vang until the until the telltales JUST start to stall and then ease off on the boom vang slightly. Your setting should then be perfect for the current wind conditions you are sailing in.Any questions? Next session, I'll talk about the jib telltales.

 

[flyhop]

Don...and telltales can tell us about sail twist?

Can telltales tell us anything about how much twist to put in a sail or how much to belly it out? Thanks.

 

[Don Guillette]

Telltales and twist

Flyhop: The answer is yes to both questions. I could spend 15 minutes on this subject but space does not permit so I have to give the Readers Digest version.Lets deal with twist first. Assume your closehauled, twist is when the bottom of the sail is closehauled and the top is on a beam reach. The result is power is spilling out of the top of the sail. The main objective of telltales is to indicate to the skipper that the flow of air is evenly attached to both sided of the sail from top to bottom. When the sail is twisted, the air is not even and the top telltle will be jumping all over the place. if it gets real bad the middle one will jump also.Lets say you had your main set up perfectly for closehauled and the wind speed or direction changed, your first indication that an adjustment will have to made to compensate for this change is when the top tellale starts jumping around.To make a twist adjustment you use the BOOM VANG and MAINSHEET only. What you are looking for as you ease or apply pessure to those controls is for the top telltale to start streaming again. That gets you in the ball park. The next thing you want to do is set your traveler for the correct angle of attack. Angle of attack is the ONLY thing the traveler adjusts. It does absolutlely nothing else although some mates think it does.First, position the traveler so the boom is centered. Next trim the mainsheet until the top batten is as close as possable to parallel to the boom. You want the top telltale to be streaming. If it curls, ease the sheet until it streams. Now you want to ease the traveler down and watch the break of the sail. If the top breakes first you have too much twist so sheet in. If the bottom breaks first ease the sheet out as you don't have enough twist. Once you get the sail to break evenly, your twist is set and you sail merrily on your way until another change in wind speed or direction happens. This may sound complicated but it is not and a good mainsheet traveler trimmer can do the job in seconds. How do you get to be good? Try it a couple of times and you'll be amazed at how fast you get good at it.Next session we'll talk about telltales and draft depth.

 

[Moody Buccaneer]

Lower Tells

What if the top tell-tale is streaming/flicking about 50% of the time and the lower tell-tales are stalled?

 

[Don Guillette]

lower telltales stalled

Moody: If the main top telltale is streaming and the lower one is stalled your sail would be so out of shape that if you were sailing with main only the boat would probably just stop!! Picture this, say you have the top set for a little twist and the top telltale is streaming. To get the bottom ones to stall somehow you would have to jack in the bottom (like twist in reverse)or somehow ease out the bottom way out past the twisted top.I can hardly explain this and I don't think one could make it happen. If anyone would like to try to duplicate it, pick a time when no one will see you doing this experiment!!

 

[Moody Buccaneer]

Lower Tells Stalled

If the sail is too full and draft aft, the air does not flow smoothly over the leech. The lower tells don't stream properly. Outhaul and cunningham to flatten and pull the draft forward gets them flying again. I've only seen this in sails with a full batten at the top and the batten stiff enough to keep the top of the sail flat. It was a new one for me.You are right, it was pretty slow!

 

[texastom]

Thanks Don

Don, I do have your sail trim charts and have been meaning to attach them to the steering console so as to have them readily available when conditionsd change. I'll do that next weekend. I mentioned that my headsail is a 130 jib but I was wrong. I noticed that the Hunter manual for my boat lists the headsail at 100. That would seem correct for the fractional setup on my boat.Yes I do enjoy having Lynn and Taylor sail with me. Taylor usually makes comments about going faster but two weekends ago we went fishing with my brother-in-law and the boat ride across Galveston Bay was pretty rough. Good set of kidneys and knees are required. Taylor was not too thrilled. The next weekend we went sailing and he seemed to appreciate it more. He is a big help in handling the lines and has quickly picked up on what he needs to do.I look forward to the day when sail trimming comes naturally but until then I'll keep the charts handy.Toms/v At Last

 

[Don Guillette]

When Sail Trim Comes Naturally

Tom: I can't tell you how many times I've heard that said - if I had a $$ for each time I'd be a rich man. Follow the format I'm about to outline and you'l be surprised how soon you can give my stuff to a friend of yours who is a beginner sailor. One comment is that the 100% jib is not much of a headsail. It is more of a storm jib. If you come upon a couple of extra ducets that you could put towards a 130% you'd be amazed at the results.I know the problem you are experiencing because I've never forgot where I came from. When I got back into sailing about 10 years ago I was the original sailing idiot. I was the most sail trim confused guy on the west coast. Actually, once I figured it out and started to talk to other sailors I realized I was not alone.If I had to condense it into the Readers Digest of sail trim here's how I would suggest a mate go about it. First - figure out what you are adjusting and that is draft depth, draft position, twist and angle of attack. Next step is to determine how each control for the main and jib effects those 4 elements (the quick reference I include with every Sail Trim Chart makes that exercise a snap). The next step is to then go out on the water and push and pull each control (now that you know what each is doing). At this point there is one piece missing and that is what setting do I use for each point of sail and wind condition? The Sail Trim Chart solves that problem.Sounds like a lot of work doesn't it? Your right it is but I've made it easy for the beginner sailor. The above is exactly the lesson plan I developed in my book The Sail Trim Users Guide and my Sail Trim Chart. The book tells you WHY you are making a particular sail trim adjustment and the chart tells you WHAT adjustment to make. It also is the lesson plan for my seminars and "on the water sessions". The whole idea is to take the guess work out of sail trim. Tom, just keep punching and you'll be surprised how quick the lights go one. One thing I often suggest is to give my book to a son or daughter. You'd be amazed how fast these lads pick up this stuff!!

 

[mjb]

roller furling main

Hi Don,Would you modify any of your techniques for a roller furling main?

 

[Bill]

Are you refering to the teltales

attached to the end of the batten pockets?