I differ on mast rotation is light winds. I rotate less. I feel a very full sail is just draggy and slow in the really ligtht winds.

Wouter

Wouter:

Yea new sails are fun to figure out. I have a 190 sq ft Pentex reacher and go along with my Pentex squaretop on my Hobie 17. Still trying to learn the reacher as this is a LOT of sail on this boat. It is roller furling so at least it is easier.

Doug Snell
Hobie 17
www.tcdyc.com

Charlie O., arguably one of the top 5 cat sailors active today, gave me this tip. As stated before, DH only for gross adjustments, fine tune with main. Previously, we were trying to adjust DH in the puffs...and found we'd over compenstate and were too slow to gain much before the puff had passed by. I've used Charlie's method in a couple of regatta's now and once we get in the groove with it, the boat handles like nothing I've experienced before. This is not something just for stable winds...you are compensating for gusts, even big ones, but with the main sheet only once your are in the ball park range with the DH. Helmsman can concentrate on steering the swells and does not need to luff if the crew is on the ball.

All,

No, in very light wind you need to keep the air attached so you cannot have a full sail, you need it to be fairly flat.

as I said, in light wind (so 0 wiring to one wiring you need the power).

Very light wind you need a flatter rig.

if you re-read what I say initially I hope it's now clear what I mean:

Thanks Simon. Must have been more tired than I tought last night, after a 14 hours working day, it is very clear now.

I remember we tried about 90degrees rotation and a tight sheet three years ago going upwind in what you describe as light conditions. It felt slow and bound up, but I dont remember if we had a large separation bubble on the windward side or what. This was before we had a GPS, so we will definately put it in the "go fast" book and test it again as soon as possible.


Mike, I noticed what you wrote in your excellent report from MORC and the NAs about how to run downhaul. It makes a lot of sense, and Charlie is an autorithy.
In our prevailent conditions we have quite strong gusts when on the trapeze. We need to run the downhaul, or dump armloads of sheet combined with luffing up. Of the two, we choose the latter.

Great fun, Doug.

Wouter

Rolf, I said sheet tension to kee pthe telltales flying, not tight.

On the Spitfire (and my 17) I woould say it was "one hand, no leg bend, not actually that tight" tight...for the "light" 0-1 wire conditions..

As opposed to "max tight" being "both hands, bending and extending legs, bending boom and creaking tight" tight



I would also suggest adding many telltails to a sail when learning and then mucking around with Rotation, Downhaul, mainsheet and traveller untill you

1, Work out what is fast
2, work out which telltails you need to use in which situations (and which ones to ignore).

I think I have around 10 sail telltails (on each side of the sail) plus 4 leach telltails on my Inter 17 sail and I don't use all of them in all conditions.