What a difference sail-trim makes!

[Twister_Ken]

There are all sorts of other rules about tacking on windshifts and getting clear air, but the rudder one is very significant in two ways. First is never to just ram the rudder over when tacking - it acts like a brake, you lose far more speed and can take ages to recover it. The second is to get an idea of what tiller or wheel movement corresponds to 5 degrees of rudder, and if you find yourself holding on more than that 5 degrees going to windward either let off the top of the sails, harden the backstay etc or reef. Again the rudder is beginning to act as a brake.

Only learned this thanks to the forum this winter and have been astounded how much difference it made. My previous habit was to hang on to sail, toe rail under, 20 degrees of wheel on and wondering why we werent going faster! Just look at the turbulent wake behind you and the power you are wasting

The boat I did most of my racing on had a six-spoke wheel. Half a spoke off of centre was the max steering we used racing in light airs, a spoke and a half in heavy airs*. If anything more was needed we'd screwed up.

*except on a hairy downwind run, when the wheel was spun like a kiddy's top.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

And for those of us with a roller reefing genny. If the halyard is too tight you get a 'fold' or 'gutter' behind the foil. Totally wrecks it's aerodynamic qualities. I was amazed the difference made by simply slackening off the genny halyard.
Mind you, when there's a few rolls in it still sets like a dog

 

[Racecruiser]

And if you get all keen and start flying a spinnaker or cruising chute in "ghosting" conditions, if you want to get the most out of it turn the autohelm off and take the helm.

Then (assuming you want to go downwind) head up until the apparent wind is on the beam and let the boat accelerate. As it does, the apparent wind will go forward and you can slowly bear away, whilst keeping the apprent wind on the beam. If you bear away too much the chute will suddeny collapse and you'll grind to a halt in an "apparent wind crash".
So then you'll find yourself sailing in a series of gentle S curves, bearing away in the little puffs, and heading up in the lulls. In cruising mode it's quite easy to do this with the kite sheet cleated and just steering to the wind.

Then gybe and do the same on the other tack.

Throughout all this remember that the main is very much secondary now, and your first thought when trimming it has to be not to choke the flow off the back of the kite. Don't be afraid to oversheet it, but make sure the kicker is eased to help the flow at the top.

Then a mobo between hull speed and proper planing will come past and knock the wind out of the sails - don't you love it when they don't even look behind to see the effect ....

Must say sailing on a flat sea in a Force 2 can be fantastic when you got the boat gently powered up as Flaming describes - really feels like you're getting something for nothing!

 

[DipperToo]

Quantum published a couple of useful trim guides which can be found here;
http://www.quantumsails.com/kbase/summary.aspx?file=70bc11b1-c285-4133-97e0-23cdc7728082
http://www.quantumsails.com/kbase/summary.aspx?file=93ad19c9-c79d-4a2a-a65e-799c09819553
Very easy to understand and contains most of the tips from earlier posts.

 

[LittleSister]

I developed a light weather technique on my old Hurley 22, as follows.

Wind falls and boat slows to a near halt. Fiddle around with the genoa sheets until it’s nearly but not quite right. Fiddle around with genoa cars. Readjust sheets to suit and repeat a few times. Adjust halyard tension and start again. Repeat for mainsail, substituting mainsheet traveller for genoa cars. When that’s right start again on the genoa. At this point speed has crept up, but not by much, so rummage around under the forepeak berth and find the spinnaker. Move all the genoa sheets and roller reefing line to make space on suitable cleats. Set up short handed cruiser style spinnaker pole – with fore and aft downhauls so you ‘lock’ the pole in place and can drop the spinnaker alone if you need to and not have the pole flying around until you’re ready to deal with it. Clip the spinnaker turtle to the pulpit and set up the spinnaker sheets. Hoist the spinnaker. Fiddle around with sheets. Get genoa in (complicated because you’ve now taken all the lines off the handy cleats and doubled them up on something else). Readjust spinnaker sheets. Reset the spinnaker pole position using the three different lines. Readjust sheets to suit. Repeat a few times. By this time you should find either (a) you’ve picked up speed appreciably, but this is because the wind has had time to pipe up to the extent that the spinnaker is getting a bit worrying and needs to be got down, or (b) you are so far behind schedule you need to get the sails down and put the motor on.


Seriously, though, lots of useful suggestions here. I’m going to print it off. If you see a blue blur streaking past off the East Coast in light airs this summer, it may be us!