Sebastian,
Sailing at 45 degrees from the "true wind" is just about the gold standard for sailing "close hauled" on most heavy displacement sail boats. A cheap and easy way to physically see how your sails are drawing for the course you are on is to use "tell tails" on your main and head sail. You can finesse your sail adjustments and course by careful attention to how they are streaming and stalling on either side of the sail . The best way to find out if you are sailing the boat at its best is to race other boats. If it's another Vega so much the better, but it doesn't have to be. If you are beating on the same course as another sailboat going to weather you'll get a good idea of how you're doing.(I call this a informal boat race.) You will be either overtaking, holding your own or falling off to leeward. The boats may be different but the conditions for all are the same, and the difference in hull speed between a
displacement boat 20 feet at the water line and one that has a 30 foot water line is only a little over 1 knot. If your boat has a clean bottom, and the sails aren't just blown out- adjusting the halyard tension, the cunningham, the jib car, the traveler, the out haul, etc. to get the draft and twist just right will all have an effect, and the conditions are always changing. It's a tweakers dream- its fun - you learn a lot and you get better! I think most sailors do this every time they go out.
Finally - why sail close hauled anyway unless you have to to clear something- just follow Per's advice in the Vega handbook and crack off a few degrees and sail fast.
Patrick
________________________________
From: brockhaus77 sekuhn@...
To:
AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, June 6, 2009 3:18:57 PM
Subject: [AlbinVega] Re: Vega and pointing..Hi all,
I know this topic is "old" by now, and I definitely do not want to restart
the "flame wars" about whose boat is a pig and whatnot... ;-)
However, I am somewhat confused by the whole discussion, since the
numbers quoted by people were so widely spread all over the map. I'd
like to find out how bad of a sailor I am (or how badly I need new sails or
other possible modifications to my boat), that's why some RELIABLE info
(as opposed to people shooting off the hip)
on what can be reasonably expected from a Vega would be helpful!
Let's define "pointing" as 1/2 of the difference in heading read off a good
compass right before and right after a tack (after the boat is back up to
speed and as close to the wind as possible without stalling/sail flogging etc.)
I understand that what ultimately determines your "way made towards wind" is
what the GPS tells you, but this can be affected by currents (tides) etc. and therefore
is not necessarily a good indicator of the "innate ability" of the Vega.
As for me, I can get this thus-defined angle to close to 45-50 degrees if the wind is
just right (10-15 knots). Much more wind, and I roll up some of the headsail
(roller furling) which usually leads to slightly larger pointing angles. Less wind -
nothing is reproducible anyway.
I have never heard of a sailboat (except perhaps a tricked-out professional racer) getting
closer than 30 degrees and I would be very surprised if anyone can achieve that
with their Vega (using the definition above). But I can believe that one can do
better than 45 degrees - it all depends:
Do you have hank-on jib or roller furling?
Do you have a large genoa (130% or larger) or a 100% headsail?
Do you lead the sheets (and the sail itself if it is large enough) around all of the shrouds?
How far back is your "car" (where the sheet first changes direction)?
I hope do actually learn something that I can use to point higher or get more speed
close-hauled. ..so any precise measurement that you can make (together with the
answer to above questions) would be much appreciated!
Sebastian (VegaLyra 1060)
