Upwind, do you T4.9 guys ever travel out, or do you just play the main? The windspeed I'm interested in is kind of the 13-18 mph range. Goodall's description on the AHPC site and some limited experience on my part says traveler centered, play the main. This is counter to my past cat experience, in which I've always travelled out enough to keep the main mostly sheeted. But if I travel more than 1 or 2 inches, the boat seems to lose the ability to point. Any advice would be appreciated. Any other advice for lightweight 4.9 sailors upwind? I weigh 135-140 lbs, and I've been maxing the downhaul out at about 13-15 mph.

Also, is upwind technique any different sloop-rigged vs. cat-rigged? So far I've sailed mostly cat-rigged.

Thanks!

Michael Coffman

Dear Michael



Below is some information I provided to Kirt some time ago regarding cat rig set-up and sailing based on the set-up I was using in 200/2001 at the Nationals (Aussie) Basically I only sail cat rig so I can?t comment on sloop rig aspects of your question.



I know that Darren Peters who won the following year has also put some ideas down on one of the Taipan web sites on his cat rig sailing tips. Darren is lighter than me and so his ideas may have more relevance to a light sailor. We also use different mast sections (Darren uses cat-rig section) and I don?t use a mainsheet cleat whilst Darren swears by them. I can?t remember the website but I?m sure one of the other forum members will know it and post it here for you.



Hope this helps.



Cheers



James



T 4.9 AUS 153 ?Woof?



A. SAILING SETTINGS



Upwind settings

The trick to sailing the 4.9 fast upwind a cat rig is keeping the rig clean and flat and sailing fast rather than high.



Rotation

Unless I am really struggling to get power in lumpy light conditions I never rotate my mast beyond 45 degree upwind (where 0 degrees is fore and aft). In most conditions over 12 knots I would have my mast set on 20 degrees or less. This keeps the rig reasonably flat and clean. In extreme conditions 25 knots plus the rotation is set on about 5 degrees. Anything less than this kills pointing ability too much.



Outhaul

Again keep the rig flat and clean. Unless in light lumpy conditions I always sail with the outhaul on hard to keep the sail flat. In both light conditions this improves the lift of the rig by reducing stalling and in heavy conditions this reduces drag.



The real secret to sailing fast upwind is the traveller. In most conditions I will have the traveller eased. In light conditions this might be as little as 50mm (2?) but in heavy conditions with big waves and winds I quite often sail upwind with my traveller out as far as the foot straps (400mm or 16?) Even in ideal conditions the traveller will be out 100mmm.



This allows the boat to balance, particularly through gusts and prevents loss of speed by having to bear up and stall the rig. Even though the Taipan points very well you will go faster by footing off just marginally to begin with and bearing up as you pick up speed ? in fact the extra speed usually allows you to point high anyway. Even with my weight (100Kg) I cannot keep the 4.9 down enough through gusts with the traveller centred and maintain optimum speed. Even the lightest skippers who are in the know ease off very quickly.



Crew Position

The other secret to sailing fast upwind is balancing the boat with your crew weight position. In previous classes I sailed like NACRAs I found the boats went well by keeping forward. The 4.9 prefers the crew to be further back. In heavy conditions I find that my front foot is about level with the centreboard case which puts more load on the rudders and stops the boat from bearing up in gusts (refer attached pictures). Previously my front foot was about 300mm behind the sidestay and this was not as fast. It is my suspicion that a different rudder section would assist in this area. (PS you will note in the attached photos that my rudders are raked forward a fair bit ? this was not intentional they were hung at two O?clock in the morning before the first race and have since been re-hung)



Traveller versus Downhaul

I find that sailing with the traveller eased allows you to sail up through gusts without releasing the mainsheet. This keeps the sail at optimum shape and therefore speed. I guess the rule of thumb is to release the traveller only as far as you need to sail through gusts by steering and changing course slightly instead of releasing sheet (except in exceptional gusts)

Releasing sheet is OK but if you have to do it frequently or in large amounts the mainsail is not at optimum shape because the sail?s draft moves back when the sheet tension is released. This costs you speed and/or pointing ability.



The downhaul is still a major part of upwind settings. Basically it is used a lot upwind and sometimes to maximum. The traveller is not a replacement for downhaul and the downhaul is adjusted before the traveller. I find however that if you use too much downhaul (ie maximum) and not enough traveller your sail gets too flat for some conditions (ie waves) and you start loosing too much point. There is certainly a balance between the two and this will change for different conditions.



My only rule of thumb is to avoid having zero rotation and/or maximum downhaul both of these will cause you to loose too much pointing ability. Using the Ronstan number strips on the mast my sail?s maximum upwind power is about 3 or 4 and maximum downhaul that I can achieve is about 7 or 8. I aim not to have more than 6 to 6 ½ at any time unless it is survival conditions. Please note that all sails have different maximum and minimums depending on the sail and where the number strips are positioned on the mast but it gives you an idea.



Downwind

Basic settings for downwind are the mast over rotated (100 degrees), outhaul, downhaul and traveller eased. Steering is dictated by the mast windicator. Sheet tension is not loose so to keep the sail powered up.



I almost never Wildthing because we sail in waves and it is faster to surf the waves and bear down when you have speed. Similarly in lakes with unreliable wind direction going mild allows you to be closer to the bottom mark if the wind direction changes marginally.



In basic terms it has to be ideal conditions before going wild will be faster than going mild on a 4.9. Certainly lighter crews will benefit going wild more than heavy crews such as myself.

When going ?mild? both centreboards are raised to reduce drag (as far as uphaul will raise). When going wild the windward centreboard should be ideally raised and the leeward board fully lowered. Usually both boards are left down for ease of handling, gybing etc. As previously mentioned they are low drag profiles and leaving them down going wild makes little if any difference.





B. SETUP



Mast Rake

50mm in front of rear beam. This rake is used in all conditions.

Using trapeze line with additional rope extension touch point on centreline of top deck at the front tang position. Keeping line the same length now move to rear of boat and touch line to deck on boat centreline. The point of contact is measured from front face of rear beam. I find that some skippers use more rake (ie distance to rear beam is less) but this setting allows me to power-up down wind without having problems upwind or reaching. I would not suggest rake forward of this measurent. The furthest back I have heard skippers using and going well is about 30mm behind rear beam measured from rear face of beam.

With a kite I would suggest using more rake (approx 0mm in front of rear beam) to optimise upwind performance as the kite will obviously help downwind.

We now use the Staymaster sidestay adjusters to provide more accurate adjustment of rake and tension.



Rig Tension

Just enough to stop rig swinging around too much ? firm but not tight. Obviously to windier it gets the more tension you need. The intention is to prevent tight stays from restricting the mast rotating when going downwind. In addition a looser rig will move back slightly under sheet tension upwind and move forward going downwind ? both advantageous.



Mast Set-up

Several sailors including myself have recently changed our spreader arms from the standard fibreglass arms to adjustable arms made by Proctor. I believe Greg now provides these as an option on new boats. They allow greater tuning of the mast to your sail and certainly allows the Superwing mast to be made more responsive when sailing cat rig upwind.

With the fixed fibreglass arms my settings were:

Speader rake (fixed) ? 33mm

Mast pre bend ? 37mm

Diamond wire tension (Loos Gauge) approx 37



With the adjustable arms my settings are:

Speader rake ? 48mm

Mast pre-bend ? 33m

Diamond wire tension ? 35



All measurements are taken with the wires in place and under tension.

Speader rake is measured from straight edge between wires to rear of mast.

Prebend is measured from tight string from end to end of mast to rear of mast at deepest point ? usually higher than where spreader arms are fitted.

Tension is relative depending on your gauge as they can all vary by 2-3 points. A good place to start tuning your rig is by always keeping a record of tension settings. The overall aim is to have your wires as loose as going upwind fast will allow. ie if the wires are too loose you will find the rig is unresponsive and overpowered in gusts which is very slow.

Do not adjust diamond wires at any time unless they are off the arms (ie not under tension) otherwise you will strip the threads of the swages.



You will see that the adjustable arms allow the rake to be significant increased and the pre bend reduced. The nett effect is that the mast becomes more responsive upwind whilst not de powering the sail downwind which occurs when you increase pre bend.

You will notice a large difference on the Superwing mast if you have adjustable arms.



Due to differences between masts it is not always possible to dial up the same settings exactly on two different masts but the above will give you some ballpark numbers.



Main Sheet

Two summers ago I made the decision to sail without a mainsheet cleat and have not looked back (after the initial trial period) My current system which I have used for the last 1 ½ seasons is an 8:1 which comes off the boom (last block is a ratchet hanging on the boom) I like this system because:



1. Upwind the lack of a cleat allows you to feel the rig loading up with gusts before the boat heels and you can ease the sheet by dropping a loop off your hand which helps keep the boat in the groove and accelerate through gusts ? makes a big difference on long races.

2. Downwind the lack of a cleat allows you to dump sheet very quickly when hit by a gust from behind. Downwind is definitely the leg you are most likely to capsize sailing single handed and getting rid of the cleat allows much quicker response ? especially going wild.

3. The mounting of the ratchet on the boom provides better sheeting going downwind and makes the sheet much easier to pick-up going through tacks etc because it is literally hanging there to be grabbed. It also prevents too much sheet being let out going through tacks when you don?t have a cleat (when you move towards the centre of the boat you are letting out sheet when there is no cleat)



My mainsheet is an 8mm rope tapered down to a 4mm rope.



Downwind Fittings

There are two vital items for sailing well downwind:

1. Mast mounted Wind indicator

2. Effective over rotation device.



Wind Indicator

Many of the cat rig skippers have a wind indicator fixed to the leading edge of the mast. The simplest and most effective is a bracket holding a piece of wire which points forward about 200mm from the mast with a vertical section on the end about 30mm long pointing either up or down (ie the wire is L shaped with the short leg on the vertical).



A piece of music cassette tape (not video) is tied to the end which is just shorter than the wire (ie finishes about 2mm from the mast when flowing back)



When sailing downwind with the mast over rotated to about 100 degrees (rear of mast pointing 10 degress forward of front beam) the trick is to keep the tape flowing to point at the centre line on the leading edge of the mast by steering higher and lower as required. This is a simple way to keep the boat roughly in the groove downwind in most conditions. We sail downwind with our eyes glued to this device and it dictates our steering unless there are waves or other boats in the vicinity.



Obviously you can?t use this when sailing sloop rig as it will get in the way of the jib. The fitting is fitted as high as you can reach up the stepped mast when standing on the beach to allow you to fit it and remove it .



Over Rotation Lever

The other big gain to be made is by having an over rotation device which can be set with one hand. The standard cleat on the boom and loops around the mast as fitted by AHPC is an effective over rotation device but can cost you several seconds at the top mark getting it set and it is not so effective in light lumpy conditions when the mast wants to rotate back and forth with the boom. Some sailors including myself have begun to fit over rotation spanners to the bases of our masts which cleat off the front beam.



This is identical to the current Tornado arrangement and can be pulled on with one hand. Our spanners are carbon fibre which we make ourselves or which are made by a local fittings manufacturer. The system looks a little complex at first but is very simple and effective. I?m not sure whether it would get in the way of spinnaker gear near the mast base and it will not work with the early pin and socket mast step (ie the non-hinged version with the pin on the beam and the cup on the mast base).



Basically the mast should be able to be over rotated to 10 degrees past the 90 degree position when sailing downwind ? anything less than this will cost you pointing ability. When on the beach check how far the mast will rotate before stopping. If you have a hinged mast step like me you will find that bottoms of the diamond wires and nuts under the mast base will hit the mast step at a certain point preventing the mast rotating further. To allow my mast to rotate further I moved the diamond wire holes further back in the base casting.



For me that meant buying another casting but I suspect that AHPC have moved the holes back as standard now and you may be OK anyway. Don?t be tempted to over rotate too much as this will actually slow you down also.



Sails ? Different Cuts

Basically one of the reasons that so many sailors like the Taipan is that the platform is constant but the sails can be cut to suit your weight and sailing style (a bit like a Tornado). I found that in NACRA?s and Hobies that the standard sails suited a narrow crew weight range which restricted competition. Also one design sails in Australia cost about 25 ? 30% more for a given sail size and are questionable quality design and construction.



There are no restrictions with respect to different sail cuts except for overall sail shape and area as defined by the rules. Similarly there is no restriction about which sailmaker is used.

At the last Nationals there was a large range of different materials. Construction, cuts and about 6 different sailmakers? represented in the fleet. (Goodalls sails are consistently at the front of the fleet but are not always the winners). I personally use Goodall sails. Greg?s sails have won 9 of the last 10 National Championships here in Australia in 4.9 Cat rigs.



There are some broad differences between sails used on sloops versus sails for cat rigs. The cat rig sails are generally fairly flat in the top and have their fullness in the bottom half. This is so they can be de-powered effectively and have good speed still from the bottom of the sail. Sloop rig sails are generally fuller in the head and a bit flatter in the bottom so as not to interrupt air flow through the slot from the jib. It is possible to have one sail for both configurations but it wont be the optimum shape for either. Most sailors here have sails cut to suit the configuration they do most of their sailing.



I do all of my sailing cat rig and my sail is cut to suit. Even though the principles of cat rig sail shape are similar between different boats there is a large variety of sail shapes used in the cat rig fleet. For example my sail is very powerful because I am a heavier skipper. I have selected kevlar sailcloth because it has less elasticity and translates more power to the boat. I also have dyform rigging for the same reason ? there is less give and more power translated to the boat. This would not be so suitable if I were lighter or if I sailed with a cleat because the rig is designed for maximum power and has a little less give / responsiveness.



If I were lighter the boat would be more inclined to heel in gusts. My sail is radial construction because I have found this gives the sail more range ? ie I can flatten it effectively but it can still be powered-up downwind. The penalty I pay for such a powerful rig is that I have to work more sailing upwind. I found the adjustable spreader arms made a big difference because it made the rig more responsive whist retaining it?s power.

Michael



Try this website run by Rob Wilson as well. Some quite good stuff in the tips and tricks.



http://www.users.bigpond.com/robandheath/atca/



James Sage went into quite a lot of detail so I won't go through my ideas as it will be repeating it all again. Main thing I would re-iterate is mainsheet tension. Pull the thing on hard while on the wire and use the mainsail twist by dropping the main an inch or two in gusts. The downhaul is your main depowering agent.



Cheers

James

I appreciate the advice - it should help keep us from reinventing the wheel over here.

Thanks,

Michael Coffman

T4.9 #32

Michael,



You indicated that if you traveller out you loose pointing ability.

I have also found this to be the case when using a sloop cut sail (cat rigged) because of the flatter bottom to the sail. In this case I have found the pointing problem to be solved by easing the foot of the sail. This affectively tightens the leach of the sail a little and returns the sails ability to make the boat point.

You wouldn't do this if the bottom of the sail was cut fuller.





I sail both sloop and cat rigged depending on the event .

I have found the diff between the settings for each config with my sail are as follows:



Cat rigged, I find easing the traveller essential to get the boat to drive well upwind, but this must be accompanied by easing the foot of the sail or I also loose pointing ability.

(James addressed the issue of cat rigged sailing with cat rigged sail and in that case the foot was kept tight.)



In addition to this I put stiffer battens in the top of the sail for cat rigged sailing. This also helps make the boat drive really well.



When using the same sail and sailing sloop rigged I centre the travellerand tighten the foot of the sail and that also works great. If I ease the foot in this config it really kills my boat speed and stuffs the balance of the helm. Traveller out in sloop config only as a last resort in survival conditions.

Just the way I see it.

Hope this helps.

Phill