Clew Outhaul

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BlueSkyNick

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If you have a loose footed mainsail with up-and-down reefing, rather than in-and-out, how often do you adjust the clew outhaul, if at all? Go on, be honest, I bet most never actually touch it.

How is it adjusted, back end or front? Is the line brought back to the cockpit?

Just about to invest in new sails and reefing, and would like to understand the best way of working it.
 
We have a loose footed main.

Have found that sailing close hauled helps to have to the clew outhauled more, as it reduces backwinding from the genoa, and gains us a few degrees.
Also in strong winds it helps depower the main.

But, I have to honest and say that loosening it in low / moderate wind strengths, and not close hauled does not appear to make a huge difference. I have experimented to a limited extent, but found sail twist has more effect.

Our adjustment is at the boom gooseneck, not fed aft to the cockpit, as all the clutches are fully utilised. Maybe if it did feed back to the cockpit I'd be more inclined to fiddle.
 
On a racing dinghy I alter it on almost every leg of a course, easing it on reaches and hardening on runs and beats. The amount of change depends on the wind conditions.

On my yacht I have no adjuster and simply tie it on fairly tight at the start of the season ... and often wish, on a beam reach in a pleasant breeze, that I could let it off an inch to get some more fullness to the foot of the sail.
 
Nick

We have a loose footed fully battened main. Normally the clew outhaul is set at the black bands which is lightly tensioned and gives a nice full lower part of the sail. If we were racing it would be lashed there and we would use the flattener reef clew a bit above it and the cunningham to tension the foot more without taking the sail past the measured marks. However as we don't race these days, normally I attach the clew outhaul line to the normal clew rather than the flattener, this line goes through the boom via a jammer to a winch on the aft face of the mast. With it like this and the outhaul pulled tight the foot is past the black band but it doesn't matter. Adjustment of the outhaul and the cunningam are both done at the mast, but these are light weather adjustments so at the mast is fine. All other lines (reef lines, halyard, kicker, traveller) are led back to the cockpit.

Do I adjust the foot tension? Yes, though it isn't played with as often as the traveller, mainsheet or kicker. The initial set before the sail goes up is usually with it too tight and it is then let off a tad as needed when underway. If the wind gets up or we are going upwind then I will tension it more and adjust the traveller but much more and the first reef goes in.

Robin
 
I adjust mine quite frequently, but I have vertical battens, so can take advantage of the much better sail shape that these provide over a non-battened loose footed main. I also have a small winch set up to make the change of tension a relatively painless operation.
 
I've got a loose footed main and slab reefing. I alter the outhall and cunningham frequently. It makes a huge difference to the boat speed and handling. It's well worth experimenting and the right settings will help you get the best out of your boat and make your sailing much more enjoyable.
 
I use it to flatten the sail in stronger winds. It really makes a difference. It is cleated on the underside of the boom and is just reachable from the cockpit.

After reading some of the replies here I am inspired to try playing with it more to improve performance in other conditions.

Joe.
 
Got fully battened slab reefing main. On average adjust outhaul every other trip, makes clear difference to perf of mainsail so why not? You don't have to be racing to want your sail to look and draw to it's best.
 
Even with a non loose footed main (and that on a cruising boat) I will usually only loosely tension the foot with the clew outhaul in lighter conditions (even though not loose footed the clew is on a car).

Whether it does any good or not don't really know, but at least it looks better from the wrinkly point of view - however, for me, it is often easier to just start the engine /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif.

John
 
The loose footed part of the question was a little bit irrelevant IMO because our previous sail had a slide in bolt rope foot but a 'shelf' foot in that the very bottom was made of a lighter cloth. Easing the clew outhaul on that worked just the same as with a loose footed one except that there isn't an 'end plate' closing the gap to the boom. On a conventional older bolt rope footed main the only difference is in the cloth weight closed in the gap and the amount of it but the shelf foot and loose foot will allow a bit more adjustment.

Our current main is fully battened which we have had before but is the first we have had with a loose foot although our previous one had a shelf foot. I was somewhat sceptical when we ordered the sail but am really pleased with it now we have it and we are now on our 2nd season. The amount of shape change possible is still limited and really only in the bottom 25% of the sail but it looks so much better in lighter winds. The reduced friction from having no foot rope makes the adjustment easier and removing the sail is easier too, just put ties around the flaked sail in the lazyjacks (but not around the boom) and slide it off.

Robin
 
[ QUOTE ]
The loose footed part of the question was a little bit irrelevant IMO ....
Robin

[/ QUOTE ]

You're quite right (this time!) Robin, the question is the same whether loose fitted or not. I just wrote it 'cos that is what I am planning to buy.

Yours and all other comments are interesting, too.
 
1. How often. Fairly regularly if sailing in light conditions. I view this as my first reef, if you count starting to flatten the sail at 6-10 knots as a reef. By 15 knots I have the clew outhaul pretty hard out, halyard tight and back tensioner also coming into play, 'specially if sailing up wind.

2. Mine has a jammer on the front of the boom. However I am too tight to put another set of blocks and clam-cleat into the coach roof. As I generally have several hours (days) notice of the sort of conditions I am expecting, I rig as follows:

A. Light winds passage, feed outhaul back to cockpit using blocks and jammer for third reef. Adjust outhoul from cockpit.

B. F3 + passage, set and jam at gooseneck, rig 3rd reef back to cockpit.

C. When passage is so long to encounter conditions A to B, or B to A, fill in a few minutes swapping over to kill a bit of time!
 
I have a loose foot main, outhaul led back to cockpit via clutch with access to winch if necesssary. I trim as often as needed, even small change in wind speed/direction can call for re-trim.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I adjust mine quite frequently, but I have vertical battens, so can take advantage of the much better sail shape that these provide over a non-battened loose footed main. I also have a small winch set up to make the change of tension a relatively painless operation.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've got 5 full-length horizontal battens with a very aggressive roach which overlaps the backstay by 650mm, giving me about 35m2 as opposed to designed 30m2 in the main.
That's to maximise the light winds you find in the Med.
The reefing winch is only needed for really flattening it, that's a self tailing Antal 16.
 
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