Channel Sailor
Active member
i am wondering if others have noticed this. In trying to put off putting a reef in the main, I can flatten the sail with backstay tension, outhaul tension and cunningham. Which does appear have the general desired effect. But if going upwind into a choppy sea then I appear to have lost the low down grunt power to keep the speed up. Also the flat sail appears to be less forgiving with helm control which results in a degree of wandering of the course mixed with varying heel. So a I put a reef in and the speed is about the same, consistent or even slightly better and importantly the yacht is easier to helm.
So my question is, can flattened sails be made to give a good result or is it a compromise one has to accept because you want the sail area when on the down wind leg? It could be the yacht is out of its sweet spot wind speeds so in a mixed fleet it is never going to do well anyway.
Decent cloth Dacron radial cut sails. Short handed sailing so not a lot of weight available on the rail.
i am wondering if a crew is needed to constantly adjust the flattened sail trim as the yacht’s slows down (due to choppy sea) and then accelerates, for example playing the backstay tensioner might be practical.
So my question is, can flattened sails be made to give a good result or is it a compromise one has to accept because you want the sail area when on the down wind leg? It could be the yacht is out of its sweet spot wind speeds so in a mixed fleet it is never going to do well anyway.
Decent cloth Dacron radial cut sails. Short handed sailing so not a lot of weight available on the rail.
i am wondering if a crew is needed to constantly adjust the flattened sail trim as the yacht’s slows down (due to choppy sea) and then accelerates, for example playing the backstay tensioner might be practical.