Are Laminate Sails worth it for cruisers

[Daydream believer]

I think it's nice that sail trimming and sail shape is still mostly human and analog in nature , although you could possibly argue that wind speed and direction readouts come into play.

I think it was an aerodynamicist , Arvil Gentry , also a keen sailor that came up with the idea of Tell Tales on sails . Interesting that only two of the five boats I have owned came with tell tales. I don't know if that is par for other yachtsmen .

I remember a piece by Tom Cunliffe who mentioned that before tell tales, it took many years to learn how to trim a jib . All the other stuff we have, GPS,radar etc have been hand me downs from commercial shipping. It will probably be some time before sails come with electronic sensors all over them to a readout and suggestions on the helmsman's screen . I hope it's not too soon.

I think you are possibly out of date. try the AC boats. I expect that they are smothered with them.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I think Ted Wells (designer of the Beechcraft Staggerwing and multiple Snipe world champ) mentions telltales in his 1940’s book.

 

[Daydream believer]

I think Ted Wells (designer of the Beechcraft Staggerwing and multiple Snipe world champ) mentions telltales in his 1940’s book.

Now there is a tale to tell

 

[Snowgoose-1]

I think Ted Wells (designer of the Beechcraft Staggerwing and multiple Snipe world champ) mentions telltales in his 1940’s book.

Ah ! Well corrected. ✔

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Now there is a tale to tell

I have one, courtesy of our recent visit to Kansas. Touched the prototype of his design, in the museum in Wichita, site of the Beechcraft works. There was his photo on the wall of fame. I have his book, my father gave it to me aged 14. Much of it is still relevant. And here’s his creation

 

[Roberto]

Did quick spreadsheet - assumes course is straight to waypoint

For a more general one, in particular if you have live feed for boat speed and TWA, you might try this

Input boat speed V and True Wind Angle TWA.
Cells are for 0 - 5 - 10 - 15... degrees deviations from dead downwind, say each angle measures Dev°
In each cell you compute the value V x (cos TWA)/(cos Dev°)
The value at 0° will give your current VMG.
If you are going at 5kt, 10° to the wind, you will find your speed value 5kt in the 10° cell, all other cells will tell you the breakeven speeds at those angles to the wind; the 0° cell will give your VMG.

Depending on TWA being 0 - 5 - 10 etc or 180 - 175 - 170 you might need to change the cosinus sign.

If the destination is not straight downwind then more trigs are needed to transform VMG into VMC

 

[GHA]

For a more general one, in particular if you have live feed for boat speed and TWA, you might try this

Cheers. Might even have a play tomorrow if there's enough wind to sail. Suspect this anchorage will start to get a bit rolly soon so seems sensible to move on. lovely though it is.

Here's a WhereIsIt for ya'll >>>

So kinda done about laminate sails it seems - anything else to be said of interest regarding cruising boat sails? (as in long distance ocean crossing cruising)

Happy with mine, apart from the main is getting on a bit. Love a cutter rig, gets feisty out there get rid of the roller furling yankee & get all the force down low with a tough as old boots hanked on small staysail & triple slab reefed main. Kindle/podcasts out & wait til it all calms down again

Though keeping some speed up in light airs is a more common occurrence.