Into the _windward_ side??

How many leech telltales do you have on the main, and where are they positioned? Where is the "top" leech telltale positioned?
Is it an old sail, or a new sail? "Class standard" sail or a custom job. If a custom sail, made by who?

In my experience, the leech telltales should go forward for about 30-50% of the time if you are looking for power. Then you have trimmed your sail for max lift. If you are shedding power, they should stream aft all the time.

Getting the leech telltales to fly all the time is dependent on how much draft there is in the sail, how much twist is cut into the sail and windspeed. If you are unable to make it fly 50% of the time whatever you do (and you are sure you have enough pre-bend and downhaul applied), perhaps you should try loosening the top battens a tad to flatten it.



I have no experience with the N-20, but on the Tornado it is generally a good ting to have the leech telltales flying about 50% of the time. I also think it is critical to have telltales around 30%aft on a mainsail to control draft and identifying an eventual separation bubble on the windward side behind the mast. A sail with fluttering telltales creates uneccesary drag in my opinion.