The Elements Of Sail Trim

[Don Guillette]

Mates: I mentioned in an earlier post how important I felt it was for new sailors to move from beginner to intermediate as quickly as possable. Shortly after I wrote that I recieved a phone call from a lister who told me that it was easy for me to say and if I felt it was so simple maybe I should explain how to do it. After the call, I mellowed a bit about her (yup, it was a gal)call and reflected back on my sailing experience. When I got back into sailing about 10 years ago I just could not get sail trim. I spent over $800 at a Newport Beach sailing school and all I was good at was backing the boat and flaking sail!! I had no idea what the sail trim controls did and what they were effecting. The answers I got from the instructors and later from fellows sailors just confused me to death so I finally figured it out myself and found it is not nuclear research. In fact, I could teach a new sailor just about everything they need to know about sail trim and move him from a beginner to intermediate in 3 hours. I also have conducted "On the water" seminars where the sailors go through every position on the boat and on every point of sail. It is a 4 hour class. The first hour is generally a Chinese fire drill but the 2nd and 3rd hours are something else as they quickly get the hang of it. The 4th hour is a true delight as I will match our sails against any on the water. So with the 3 hour classroom and 4 hours on the water I feel these people that have taken these classes know more about sail trim than 75% of the sailors worldwide.Here's what sail trim is all about. There are only 4 things you are adjusting ( I call them the 4 elements of sail trim) on the main and jib and they are DRAFT DEPTH (belly), DRAFT POSITION, TWIST and ANGLE OF ATTACK. You have to completely understand these 4 elements or nothing about sail trim will make any sense. The next thing you have to figure out how each sail trim control on the main and jib effects those 4 items on each point of sail and wind condition. It limiting and by that I mean it does not go on and on like nuclear research. If you go back in the archives of this forum you will find all the infomation contained in previous posts.One last point - Gals make better student as they just suck up the infomation as they have nothing to prove. With guys, you have to force the infomation on them. I think it is more of a macho thing.

 

[Alan]

Don,

This post is my BIG gripe with 'cruising' vs 'racing' sailors. If a 4 hour beginner can understand and trim better than 75% of sailors, what does that say about the knowledge base of most sailors? Racing teaches because you are constantly adjusting and learning. If not you'll always come in last. The learning curve is very steep. Many, many cruisers never learn how and why because they have no incentive to do so. What I call the 'set it and forget it' crowd. Sure there are some old salts out there that can take their boats around the world safely and have never raced. But for most, the learning curve is flat and very low. Somehow there has to be found a way to convince skippers that there is a huge need for them to learn HOW to sail a boat and WHY it works that way if for no other reason than personal safety.

 

[Don Guillette]

Skipper: When you find the key as to how to convince sailors that they need to know how to efficiently sail their boat please let me know what it is!! Roughly, I think it breaks out this way. 25% of the sailors worldwide really can handle their boat. They are at the top of the spectrum. The bottom 25% realize there is a lot to learn and take the steps (lessons, reading, experimenting etc) to gain the knowledge. That is the group I deal with. That leaves the middle 50%, which runs the gamut from no knowledge, to some knowledge, to a lot of knowledge. That is the group I'd like to break into. I contact sailing groups all over So Ca regarding sail trim seminars and to no avail. A friend of mine, who was trying to get his club to sponsor a seminar summed it up best. He said the problem is "a man doesn't know what he doesn't know". I go on boats all the time where the fairleads are almost welded in place or the outhaul doesn't even work. When I bring it to their attention I get some cock and bull story about why they don't need that control. Sometimes I wonder why some folks even bought a sail boat in the first place. Would anyone buy a plane and not want to learn how to fly it? Of course not. I go on a lot of race boats. My speciality is the middle to the back of the pack racers. When I look around at the cluster of boats in this group I sometime wonder why they pay the race fee in the first place as they never seem to improve. They should save the money and just cruise around. Racing by itself will not make you a better sailor. You can adjust the sails all you want but there has to be a METHOD. For example, some skippers will say "adjust the outhaul". They don't say which way or how much and additionally they say nothing about the other sail trim controls for the main and jib, which are also effected by the movement of the outhaul. The bigger question I always ask is "why are you making that outhaul change in the first place?". You should hear the answers I get back!! In other situations, I'll see the jib telltails flopping all over the place. They are trying to tell the jib trimmer that an adjustment needs to be made or the top telltail on the mainsail is curling back but neither the jib trimer or mainsail trimmer does anything. When I bring it to their attention, which I do in a nice way, they really don't know what adjustment to make. When I explain the adjustment to correct the situation they are amazed at how simple it was. The smile on their faces is my best reward. If you are a middle to the back of the pack racer, here is my guarantee to you. If you buy my book, "The Sail Trim Users Guide" and throughly digest it and then apply the principles contained on my "Sail Trim Chart", I guarantee you will move up at least 3 positions. You may not knock off the #1 and #2 guys (maybe you might depending on how good they are or are not) but you'll give them a run for their money. How can I give that guarantee? Easy, as I have the testimonials from sailors who have done it and I'd be glad to provide the names and comments.Space on this forum does not permit a detailed explanation of all the aspects of sail trim for the main and jib and to try to use this limited forum space to explain it would take forever but everything and I mean EVERYTHING you need to know about sail trim is in my book. One last thing - there is no such thing as racing trim and cruising trim. There is only a right way and a wrong way. I did not say that. Dennis Connors did but I believe itand know it is true.

 

[tomlawson]

where?

where is this book?

 

[Don Guillette]

Sail trim Users Guide

Tomlawson: To find my book just check out the ships store on this web site or jcall my friend Sara Johnson at 206 932-7245 and she'll answers any questions you might have. Their ships store has a lot of great products at very reasonable prices.

 

[aigen]

sail trim

Hey Don, I'm in the middle 50% you speak of; I'm no total dummy, but I'm proud to finally own a boat. On the fixer-upper I got, I've made the following additions: 1) roller furling and 2) ST winches (both well worth the bucks). My question is, would a boom vang (powervang) be the next logical investment if ideal sail trim were my goals? And one more q re: traveler: when you say go 'up' do you mean 'to windward'?Thanks,Steve

 

[jackrabbit]

beginner to intermediate

How about saying this slowly and completely for us beginners, otherwise known as where do I go to get this information in understandable complete form please?

 

[Don Guillette]

Steve in Hawaii: I'm going to answer your question in a general way and hopefully other sailors will benefit from the information. Here's the way I approached the sail trim controls on my 1981 C30. The first thing I replaced was the mainsheet blocks. Unfortunately, mine were an old style made by Seaway and were loaded with friction. Actually, I had to push out and pull in the boom by hand. Garahuer marine, located in Upland, Ca sells an excellent set of mainsheet blocks. The next item I had to deal with was the OUTHAUL, which was stuck and frozen. I replaced the internal system with an external setup. The next item I delt with was the TRAVELER. I replaced the curved track traveler, which also was loaded with friction, with the Garhauer straight track setup. Catalina's are masthead rigs so the jib is the engine and the pin type FAIRLEADS are a pain to deal with. As a result, most sailors don't bother to even adjust them. Mates will "do what is easy and not what is hard" - that's just human nature. I purchased the Garhauer adjustable fairlead system, which makes fairlead adjustment. The next item I purchased was a Garhauer RIGID BOOM VANG. I took the soft boom vang, which I was using, and I use that as my mainsail CUNNINGHAM. I also purchased a very small Garhauer soft vang, which I use as a jib cunningham.Steve, I hope that answers your question about the boom vang. If you decide to investigate the Garhauer stuff, give them a call and ask for Guido or Mark - tell them Don Guillete (Gillette like the razor blade) told you to call and they will take care of you.When I speak of moving the traveler UP, I'm refering to moving it to windward. I wish I could change the way I refer to some of the sail trim adjsutments but I'm too old a sea dog to change!!