Mates: A beginning sailor lister contacted me by phone yesterday about some confusion he had as to how the traveler functions. My explanation to him my help a few other beginners. This may be boring to most of you who know how the thing works. It really used to confused me as a beginner. All the traveler does is change the angle the sail points to the wind. Its called the angle of attack. Sailing close hauled, the more you move the traveler up the track (changing the angle to the wind) the more powerful the sail becomes. Let the traveler down the track and it becomes less powerful. The traveler does not change the SHAPE of the sail. To see this, visualize a screen door. Where the hinges connect to the door frame would be the mast. Assume someone put a pin on the bottom of the door and the pin went into a groove on the floor and when you opened the door, the pin followed the groove. In this scenario, when you opened or closed the door, would any part of the shape of the door change? It obviously wouldn't. It is the same with the traveler on your boat. In fact, you could go to the Santa Fe RR yard and get a 20' section of RR track and slap it on your boat and move your traveler car the whole length of the track and the shape of the sail would not change. On the other hand, if you move the cunningham or halyard your changing the vertical shape of the sail. If you move the outhaul your changing the horizontal shape of the sail. The boom vang kind of changes things vertically and horizontally. The fairleads and jib halyard have the same effect on the jib. In other words, those controls stretch the sail cloth and thus change its shape. The traveler doesn't stretch anything so the shape doesn't change. The only exception is moving the traveler car on curved traveler track on the C30. The shape change is slight but there is a change. C30 owners should consider replacing the curved track with the Garhauer straight track system. It works better. I hope that explanation helps a few folks to understand a bit better how the traveler control works.
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Vic
But Don ... what's this phobia people have about
using the traveller to move the boom over the center line of the boat ... I have run the traveller up wind and found that I could point higher ... but a J24 maven told me that the boom should never go up wind. as it will cut the speed down ... but if you are running at hull speed anyway ... can you use the boom more to windward than center line? Vic
using the traveller to move the boom over the center line of the boat ... I have run the traveller up wind and found that I could point higher ... but a J24 maven told me that the boom should never go up wind. as it will cut the speed down ... but if you are running at hull speed anyway ... can you use the boom more to windward than center line? Vic
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dave
boom beyond center
if the boom is beyond center to windward then it seams the aft portion of the sail will be creating lift in the direction opposite that which you want to go. this sounds like a recipe for going slower, or maybe backwards. what happens when you backwind your jib for instance? Also this will most likely create an awful lot of weather helm so you will be stressing your steering system. dave
if the boom is beyond center to windward then it seams the aft portion of the sail will be creating lift in the direction opposite that which you want to go. this sounds like a recipe for going slower, or maybe backwards. what happens when you backwind your jib for instance? Also this will most likely create an awful lot of weather helm so you will be stressing your steering system. dave
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Don Guillette
You have to be realistic as to how far past center you position the boom. I didn't mean to imply you could pull the boom all the way to the other side of the boat and expect it to be effective.The general rule is to position it ALONG the centerline of the boat but you can sometimes get away with going a LITTLE past center. On my C30, there is no significant increase in speed by going past center, so I don't bother, but on a Newport 30 I race on (I handled the mainsheet and traveler) by going past the center line I can squeeze a bit more speed out of her. You have to experiment. The general rules of sail trim are not set in stone. Fool around with your boat and see what happens. On weather helm - Everyone thinks weather helm is a bad thing. A little bit of a bad thing is sometimes a good thing. For example, my Sail Trim Chart outlines a step-by-step procedure to set up your jib and main for 100% efficiency. The last step in the procedure tells you to tune in about 3 to 5 degrees of weather helm. Why would you want to do that? The answer is because of LIFT. Lift is generated from the sails, the keel and the rudder. The 3 to 5 degrees of weather helm I introduced to the rudder by adjusting the traveler helps the boat go faster. As I said, experiment with your boat. Try different things and see if they work for you. If they don't work for you, go back to what you were doing. There are a million sail trim settings outlined on my Sail Trim Chart, which is available thru Sailboatowners.com, for every point of sail and wind condition. You can fine tune these adjustments to fit your boat.
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Jim Maroldo
Fine points
I don' t want to "muddy the waters", Don, but I am a bit puzzled here. I have a H23, with no boom vang or any other fancy stuff. I was told that the traveller was to be used mainly for helping to "shape" the main e.g.: if I want a flatter sail in high winds, move the traveller car so that the sheet is near vertical when the sail is in proper trim for a particular heading. This has the effect of pulling 'down' more than 'over'. Likewise, when I want more shape, let the sheet run across to allow the boom to lift higher and thus laet the main baloon out more. It seemed to make sense when it was explained to me; did I get some wrong info on this? Jim Maroldo Ocean Gate, NJ
I don' t want to "muddy the waters", Don, but I am a bit puzzled here. I have a H23, with no boom vang or any other fancy stuff. I was told that the traveller was to be used mainly for helping to "shape" the main e.g.: if I want a flatter sail in high winds, move the traveller car so that the sheet is near vertical when the sail is in proper trim for a particular heading. This has the effect of pulling 'down' more than 'over'. Likewise, when I want more shape, let the sheet run across to allow the boom to lift higher and thus laet the main baloon out more. It seemed to make sense when it was explained to me; did I get some wrong info on this? Jim Maroldo Ocean Gate, NJ
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Don Guillette
Jim: I guess most of what I'm about to say does not apply to you since you don't have a lot of controls on your boat. You have to use what you have but the traveler does not flatten the sail for the reasons I described when I explained how it works. If, on the other hand, you did have a bunch of controls, here's what you would use to shape your main. What you seem to be describing is more the action of the mainsheet and not the traveler. To change draft position - boom vang, cunningham, mainsheet, mast bend and outhaul. To change draft depth - mast bend and outhaul. To adjust twist- boom vang and mainsheet. To change angle of attack - mainsheet and traveler. Your only option to shape the main is the mainsheet and outhaul. You should consider adding a boom vang also.
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Stanley J. Rogacevicz
Terms and Mis-conceptions
Jim, I may either muddy the waters more or clear it up a bit with some laymans/my explainations of some of your sail trim issues. To start with let me say that what Don and his charts say are pretty much basic facts. When you say you let off on the mainsheet to let the boom rise and the mainsail "baloon out" you may be thinking you are putting more 'belly' or 'roundness' into the sail for more power when in fact you are doing the opposite by letting the leach rise, twist off, and spill air - depower. When you do that look up at the leach and you'll see the roundness you have added has only given the air a place to escape without generating any lift. As Don says the traveller can't flatten the sail, but compared to the twisted off condition it may Look flatter in one respect even though it does not affect the Actual belly of the sail. When you de-power by letting out the traveler you are simply changing the angle of attack to actually let the wind luff by the main exactly as it would if you just turned higher up into the wind. Stan "Christy Leigh" c320 #656
Jim, I may either muddy the waters more or clear it up a bit with some laymans/my explainations of some of your sail trim issues. To start with let me say that what Don and his charts say are pretty much basic facts. When you say you let off on the mainsheet to let the boom rise and the mainsail "baloon out" you may be thinking you are putting more 'belly' or 'roundness' into the sail for more power when in fact you are doing the opposite by letting the leach rise, twist off, and spill air - depower. When you do that look up at the leach and you'll see the roundness you have added has only given the air a place to escape without generating any lift. As Don says the traveller can't flatten the sail, but compared to the twisted off condition it may Look flatter in one respect even though it does not affect the Actual belly of the sail. When you de-power by letting out the traveler you are simply changing the angle of attack to actually let the wind luff by the main exactly as it would if you just turned higher up into the wind. Stan "Christy Leigh" c320 #656
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james rohr
One item forgotten.
To move draft forward in sail you can increase halyard tension. This mainly works on dacron sails only. Don't try it on laminated mylar/kevlar sails. the dacron will stretch moving the draft position. This works especially well on tired & stretched out dacron sails. You can achive the same thing if you have a cunningham. Doing this will also flatten the sail somewhat.
To move draft forward in sail you can increase halyard tension. This mainly works on dacron sails only. Don't try it on laminated mylar/kevlar sails. the dacron will stretch moving the draft position. This works especially well on tired & stretched out dacron sails. You can achive the same thing if you have a cunningham. Doing this will also flatten the sail somewhat.
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