Sails 2

[sidon]

May I apologise for typing in capitals, I did not realise it was classed as shouting. To get back to the point though, I raced dinghys ie National 12's and Merlin rockets with a fair degree of success. However, I have only owned larger boats for 4 years and maybe I did not make this clear. The boat is not loaded with water,diesel or any other cruising items when I race. The reason I posted this thread was because last week I raced in an 18 mile race and came in 12th out of 34 boats on adjusted time. It was on the windward leg that I noticed we were pointing 10-12 degrees further downwind than the other 3 boats in front and I put this down to the fact that the genoa was too full and would not flatten (and it had no rolls in it) the other boats also had furling genoas. Whilst I appreciate the sails are nearly new, they are cruising sails, and therefore, are a compromise. I merely raised this point because I am a long way behind the times (last raced 1983) and would be grateful for any genuine advice given on which way to go with new sails. Many thanks in anticipation

 

[Chris_Stannard]

Before you go to new sails look at the following:

Is your mast raked back about two degrees, most cruising boats are set up with the mast more nearly vertical. A slight rake will improve your upwind performance at the expense of a little downwind performance.

Did you increase the halyard tension, in moderate winds you do not want too much tension but from the sound of it, there was plenty. I usually just take the wrinkles out and then slack back about an inch or two. You do have to adjust for different wind strengths. People often forget this and it will improve the upwind pointing by about 5 degrees on the apparent wind.

Can you increase the tension on your backstay? You will note that you forestay sags of to leeward. Increasing the tension will reduce the sag and improve your upwind performance. However be careful not to over do it as you are tending to pull the ends of the boat up, whilst forcing the foot of the mast down and you can end up with a banana shaped boat. This will improve your upwind performance, and again you need to adjust for the wind strength.

Are your cars in the right place. If they are too far forward there is not enough horizontal tension on the lower part of your genoa and it will be too full. Again the setting depends on wind strength. You also need to remember that when you come on to a reach they need to go forward to keep the sail in shape.

You need to apply the same criteria to your main, going up wind in strong winds you need to increase the halyard tension and pull the foot out to the black band on the boom, but it will not need to be so stretched in moderate winds.

If you want to do well, you need to go out and practice all of the above when not racing so that you can move things around and find out where the settings are. For example, if you establish the halyard tension for a 10 knot true breeze, mark the halyard with a marker pen. Then go out in 15 knots and you can quickly find how much more tesion you need. You can then say for example, three inches more on the genoa halyard. Marking the position of the cars is very important so that you can get the right settings quickly, but you do have to record the optimum positions so you can go back to them.

When you are racing the rule is to start at the front of the boat and check every thing, and when you get to the back start at the front again. You are looking for 1/100s of a knot. Offshore the conditions over a leg, or even one tack will not be the same and you need to be constantly aware of the variations in wind strength and you need to react to them.

Chris Stannard

 

[jamesa]

As a reference, the North Sails fast course is a good place to start - an example online at http://www.northsails.co.uk/articles/fast/default.htm.

I agree with the previous comments, though don't over do mast rake if you've got a masthead rig.

Finally, having a similar dinghy background to yourself I came into big boat racing and have raced with a roller genoa for the last 18 months. Over that time I've become really frustrated with the compromises you have to make with it, finding it either overweight for the light stuff or too full to be any use once furled - no matter how you cut it you'll always lose out somewhere. As a result I've taken the (painful!) decision to invest in some proper genoas for next season. The first new sail (a #3) got its maiden outing yesterday and the boat was totally transformed in terms of performance, feel & ease of handling.