Leach control

[JIM_TEAL]

19 foot LWL Cat rigged ketch with un-stayed masts, one reef in, close hauled in F3 gusts to 5, making 3-4 knots gps, probably 1-2 knots adverse tide.
It was unusually a sunny day and I noticed the shadow at the leach indicating a tight curl to windward. Tell tales streaming OK (most of time).
There is a leach line which is adjustable but which I have never fiddled with. What should be done to clear the leach shadow which I assume affects the effciiency of the sail and progress.
Jim

 

[causeway]

Loosen it until it's a bit flappy and then tighten ever so slightly?

 

[ifoxwell]

To be honest, to me, that hook on the leech looks like its there because the sails are blown out... that's not to say that they arn't usable just that your never going to get rid of that shadow unless you slacken the leech lines to the extent that in any wind they will flap.

Ian

 

[ifoxwell]

I should also add that in practice it wont make that much difference and most cruising sails you look at will be the same.

Ian

 

[Daydream believer]

i suggest that batten tension & halliard tension should be looked at first to sort some of the crease out
then as suggested play with leach line tension which sounds to be over tight & see what happens

 

[JIM_TEAL]

Batten Tension???? How is that adjusted?
Jim

 

[Daydream believer]

Batten Tension???? How is that adjusted?
Jim

It depends on how the battens are held in the sail. Are they inserted from the leech or from the luff?
when they are in are they held by velcro tapes or short lengths of line through holes in the battens?
or do they go into pockets where they drop down into the space?
Need info to help explain

 

[reeac]

i suggest that batten tension & halliard tension should be looked at first to sort some of the crease out
then as suggested play with leach line tension which sounds to be over tight & see what happens

Shouldn't, that be batten compression? I set mine so that the leach shows a touch of angularity at the batten outer ends.

 

[Daydream believer]

Shouldn't, that be batten compression? I set mine so that the leach shows a touch of angularity at the batten outer ends.

Ok!!! batten compression or sail tension. But in any event I feel it should be one of the things looked at.
As suggested before, the sail is possibly shot, but at least try to set it up right to start with, Then go from there
As for leech angularity - I think not -assuming the sail is Ok that is

 

[JIM_TEAL]

Hi Daydream, sails are Kemp with long "power" battens held in by velcro strips at the leach. Is your idea to slacken the velcro to give some fore-aft movement of batten within the pocket?

 

[Daydream believer]

Hi Daydream, sails are Kemp with long "power" battens held in by velcro strips at the leach. Is your idea to slacken the velcro to give some fore-aft movement of batten within the pocket?

I dam not conversant with "long power battens". However ,the idea is to stretch the sail along the batten so the creases are removed. If you cannot tighten the velcro strips to achieve this then the reverse would be to lengthen the batten. This can be done by adding plastic terminals to the battens to make them longer & then tightening the velcro as much as you can. If you cannot get plastic end terminals then It may be possible to wrap some wadding around the batten end & taping it in place to make the batten longer. Then tighten the end straps as much as possible. My battens have velcro straps at the ends but at the other end there are screw tensioners which allow me to increase sail tension along the batten. Often velcro straps can be tensioned but there is a knack to doing it, you just have to experiment. I am not a fan of kemp sails but I would be surprised if they supplied battens that were too short for the batten pockets. Re the terminals for batten ends, some sailboards had outer ends which were removable. If you can find an old sailboard sail there may be some that fit your battens.