Who doesn't want to go fast?

[Don Guillette]

Every cruising sailor I know wants to go fast. Fast is a relative term in sailing. In other words, 6 knots is not exactly the world speed record. One way to get the most speed your boat can give is to use the telltales as a guide. Telltales are ABSOLUTELY the most important sail trim indicators on the boat and no non electronic devise has been developed that approaches their sensitivity and effectiveness.In my book, The Sail Trim Users Guide, I devote about 7 pages to telltales because that is how important I think they are. Most sailors think that there is only one mode – telltales streaming. Actually, there are 5 modes and they are pinching, pointing, full speed, acceleration and footing. If you follow my telltale outline in my book you’ll get pretty good speed from your little beauty but say you want a little more. Here’s what you do with your main and jib.Mainsail: All the mainsail telltales are important but the MOST important one is the top one and that one is the primary guide for judging mainsheet tension and ultimately mainsail trim. Assume your sailing close-hauled. You want to trim the main to get the top telltale streaming. What does this tell you? It tells you that you have a smooth, attached airflow along the entire curve of the sail. With this setup you should be making good speed but you will sacrifice some pointing ability. Let’s say you want to point a bit higher. Trim in the main a bit more until the top telltale just stalls. What does that tell you? It’s telling you the airflow is not attached along the entire curve of the sail. What is the result of that? You’ll point higher but your slower. I’ve never understood why some guys are fanatical about pointing because it is slower than sailing somewhere between pointing and footing.Say you want a bit more speed – try this, trim the main to a point where the top telltale streams about half the time and is stalled half the time. You should pick up extra speedNext time your on the water try my suggestions and see if they work for you. If they don’t, just go back to what you were doing previously. Next session I’ll discuss jib telltales.

 

[Larry Wilson]

Have book - will travel

Don,Your book and sail trim guides arrived today! Looking forward to stretching out on the lazerette next sunny day and reading them.

 

[Don Guillette]

Book and Charts

Larry: Thank you for buying my products. If you have ANY questions about any of the material in either product please contact me and I'll do my best to answer your questions. Hope the weather is nice enough for you to enjoy the reading.

 

[Calif. Ted]

Yeah, but sometimes when you can't amaze

them with speed you can dazzle them by pointin' higher, then when they try to come up 5 or 10 degrees like you, you drop off and might get a little speed advantage till he catches on. That's why some people get fanatic about pointing closer than the next guy. If you keep giving out the secrets like this Don, it's gonna get harder to play sneaky with the other boats.

 

[s sauer]

Pointing?

When I was first getting used to my then new 28.5, I sailed alongside other boats in the area and then gradually lifted up to 'High Pointing' mode. It's not much of a contest with so many roller furling boats with wing keels; somet won't point within 10 degrees of a fin keeled boat with decent sails. We did find that at some close hauled point with sails well sheeted in inside the life lines, we were also faster. Thats where the sail trim really comes into play.

 

[Warren Milberg]

Pointing vs Footing

Whether it is "better" to trim your sails to point higher or to foot off depends a lot on what your objective is. If you are racing, whatever gets you around the next mark firstest is the bestest -- sometimes that means to point higher, other times it may mean footing off.

 

[Mike Misko]

Telltale locations

Let's say your existing sails don't have telltales (like mine). Where should you add them? Like Don said, the top one on the main is most important, but how high is the top? Top batten? How close to the leach should they be? What material should homemade telltales be made of? What is a simple way to attach them without looking too crude yet not getting involved with sewing patches on? Obviously, I've still got a lot to learn, but before I came to this board I didn't even know what questions to ask, so that's progress. Mike

 

[wayne]

attaching telltales

What do you use to attach the telltales to the sail?

 

[Tereza]

Wayne

An old salt I know, who wins lots of races, told me that a great material for telltales is old cassette tape!But as for location, and how to attach, am hoping others can shed some light.

 

[Mac Bentley]

'Tales

West Marine sells them for 7-8 bucks. Yarn or ribbon. The genoa on my h23 already had the yarn ones when I bought the boat two years ago -- still there. Three pairs of them, I think, green on one side red on the other, two or three feet aft of the luff.I bought the ribbon/nylon ones for the mainsail and just fly three of them off the leech. The top one is where you'd want to spill air. They all come with adhesive discs that seem to hold well enough.I don't know if I'm doing it right, but seems to work for me.Mac

 

[Rick Macdonald]

Telltail web page

Here's a link to a page about telltails....RickM...

 

[Don Guillette]

attach telltales

Attaching the telltales to the mainsail is easy. Just slap them on the end of the batten pockes. On the jib - your going to put one on each side so just split the sail in 3rds and attach them about 2' to 3' back from the front of the sail. On each set you should place one a bit lower than the other side so you can read them easier. Some sails have a window for easy viewing but most don't. The lack of a window is not a problem if you stagger them as you can see the shadow of the outside one through the sail.Pointing and footing - the actual fastest point of sail is somewhere between pointing and footing. Test it on your boat to find the fastest point. Rest assured it is not pointing.

 

[BobW]

Mainsail telltale question....

Should the aft end of the telltale extend past the leach of the sail?Cheers,Bobs/v X SAIL R 8

 

[Calif. Ted]

Yes, you are looking at the air flow off the leech

(right Don ?) Also I find that that yarn ones will stick to any exposed velcro on the batten pockets, very annoying, so the rip-stop nylon ones work better on the main.

 

[Jack4865]

Telltale location on furling main

The advice is to attach the telltales at the end of the batten pockets. Some of us have inmast furling mains, thus no batten pockets. Where should we attach the telltales on the main?JackFriendshipC350, #80

 

[Joe]

Go to the nearest chandlery and tell them

you want a set of telltales (that would be 3) for your mainsail (not headsail). Imagine where your top three battens would be if you had some, and attach one to the leech of you mainsail at each one of those imaginary points. If this doesn't make sense, read the directions that will come with the mainsail telltales or ask the sailing counseler at the store. Whether you purchase nylon or yarn they will come with some sticky patches for adhering to the sail.The telltales on the leech will show whether the airflow is staying attached to the sail.