First thing is to apologize for the long winded post.

One thing I haven’t been able to figure out is how to get my Main trimmed properly when close hauled (it’s a stock Hobie sail, about 4 months old). My problem is to get the lower leeward tell tail flowing back, the upper windward telltale is jumping around. I’ve tried all sorts of combinations of mast rake, downhaul and main tension with no luck. I even setup a line to adjust mast rotation, which only made things worse. I just can’t find the right combination to have all leeward and windward tell tails flowing at the same time.

After doing some reading on the subject, I decided to add leach tells tales to get some more feedback. I added 2, one at the second from the bottom batten pocket and the other at the second from the top batten pocket.

What I’ve found is I can get the top leach tell tail flowing with no problem, the bottom one is usually wrapping around the leeward side of the sail, adjusting the main sheet tension doesn’t seem to make a difference.

As I gradually bring the boat more to windward, the top windward tell tail is really spinning around, and the bottom windward telltale is starting to dance, The lower leach tell tail finally starts to flow back. However, I’m right on the edge of luffing the sail and losing power, which usually happens.

What I’ve read is that when the lower leach tell tale is wrapping around to the leeward side, it means the main is to full and should be flattened. Looking at my sail, the second and third battens are curving more than the lowest one and upper ones. Meaning it has a full curve (belly) in that area.

So my question is how to flatten that part of the sail so the curve matches the top of the sail? Or is this due to how the sail is cut and there is not much I can do about it?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Charlie