Sail Trimming

[markpierce]

Boom roller-reefing is a waste. One can't adequately control the mainsail's shape and it eliminates a boom vang when reefed. Jiffy reefing with lines tightening down the luff and leech/clew is superior without affecting a vang.

[JPA Cate]

Here are a few things I learned a long time ago:

Your windpoint reads the wind direction and strength at the masthead, which, if there is wind shear, is not the wind near deck level. It is one of the ways sailing by your instruments can make you a poorer sailor, pinching up, where you should really foot off a bit.. If you look at the direction of the wind waves on top of the water, that will give you a good idea of what is happening nearer to deck level.

Your body is the most wonderful integrated series of inputs on the boat. Your cheeks and ears tell you the direction of the wind where you are standing or sitting, just below the boom. On the darkest of nights in the middle of the ocean, in fog, the back of your neck and ears tells you you are DDW. Make sure the preventer's on! Your feet tell you when you're about to surf or heel. Wonderful! Even your bum, if you're seated.

Robert sailor's posts are really good. A nice starting point. But I still think all you guys who want to sail to far places, where your electronics could all fail, you, you should sail on a high ranking in the local fleet's sailboat for a season racing, you will learn so much by osmosis it will put you ahead, no matter how many learned texts you study. It is having it shown to you while you're doing it, and doing it properly that you learn from. The important factors are the admiration you receive coupled with the feeling of accomplishment of doing it so she moves most easily through the water.


One thing you can do if you want to teach yourself about your own boat's handling, is to set the autopilot to a safe course, and you practice sail trim to suit what your face and instruments tell you. You can even tell which will tell you more accurately.

Sailing is such a pre-1900 sport, you will be a better sailor if you teach yourself to function without the electronics. It will change your thoughts about what constitutes safe night time approaches to new destinations, as well as daytime ones.. That old urge for self preservation is really remarkable. It will teach you to use the electronic gadgets we all love mo' bettah.

Ann

[weavis]

I learned everything from 'feel' about sailing, and also having a mentor like Boatie.. ( Not Boatie, but indistinguishable).. England breeds a certain type of mariner..

We sailed over a few years in the Lake District in the UK, the North Sea, coastal bobbing around Wales until one day he said "time for you to take the trip lad". I went from Fleetwood to Mallorca. Roughly 2000 miles as captain with seasoned sailor friends.

NOw I cant tell you all the technical names because my mind works in a segmentation stream. Today I do medical, tomorrow I do boating and then I do something else. I only remember when Im involved in the topic.... frustrating but thats the way it is...

But I can say that looking at the shape, the angle, the lean, the speed and the strain will soon become second nature.... especially if you get some crusty old seadog prodding at you for the tardiness of your sail trim.

I LOVE Hudsons attitude...

[UNCIVILIZED]

I know that some of this trimming stuff is purposefully being dialed/dumbed down, but adjusting halyard tension to match conditions is pretty dang important. Probably ranking just behind the sheet, & traveler/jib car position in terms of significance. As not only does it control draft position, & thus sail shape. But it greatly impacts heeling, along with the amount of drag that the sail produces. Which, not many folks enjoy excess heeling. So tuning it correctly not only increases speed while reducing leeway, but it also helps to keep the boat more upright. Along with a plethora of other things. Such as defining how wide or narrow a groove that the helmsman/AP has with which to steer within.

Also, Ann T. Cate perhaps hinted at a key point, & it's that getting a fresh haircut does wonders for one's ability to feel the wind. Both it's direction, & changes in it's strength. Long before your instruments will likely pick it up. Particularly in light air, & that's when it matters most to be able to discern such things.
And by haircut, the shorter in back, & higher above your collar it's trimmed the better. It's an ancient racer's trick. As is sailing at times even helming, blindfolded/with your eyes closed. This while having a coach standing right there with the helmsman of course. So that you better learn to feel what the boat is doing with all of your senses, instead of being 100% vision dependent.

The flip side is that it's good practice to learn to steer the boat by adjusting the salls, with the helm locked off on centerline (or close there to). This along with repositioning (human) ballast in order to aid in steering her sans helm input.
Which, balancing out the sailplan prior to engaging the vane or AP is commonly needed anyway, so that said automated helmsman needn't use too much power in order to control the boat while keeping her on course. So it's a very important skill to hone.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Pinching just a bit with tell tails lifting a little is just right for many higher performance boats but if you try that in an Island Packet you'll just slow the boat down and add to the leeway.

You are probably right with most of the older full keel type boats but that method actually worked for me. Like I said it could just be the telltale placement on my jib sail. (I have run the telltales almost straight up on a Nacra F-17 High Perf Catamaran. I was tramped out forward of the main beam in that situation)

A young man with an Alberg 30 and I used to race singlehanded boat for boat and this is how I could get a lead and keep it. (on a Bristol 27)

The races usually started on the downwind. We'd race about 12 miles

My main sail and jib were newer than his though .................

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by thomm225

You are probably right with most of the older full keel type boats but that method actually worked for me. Like I said it could just be the telltale placement on my jib sail. (I have run the telltales almost straight up on a Nacra F-17 High Perf Catamaran. I was tramped out forward of the main beam in that situation)

A young man with an Alberg 30 and I used to race singlehanded boat for boat and this is how I could get a lead and keep it. (on a Bristol 27)

The races usually started on the downwind. We'd race about 12 miles

My main sail and jib were newer than his though .................

I shouldn't have debated you as depending on just how tight you are sheeted to begin with your just reading telltails and if you were sheetfed a bit on the loose side then having your telltails lift a bit wouldn't hurt that much
I was trying to make the point to beginners to not sheet too tight as this is a common mistake that really degrades performance.

[a64pilot]

Ann, Uncivilized
Being a dummy, I actually have a couple of tufts of yarn about head high on the stays. I look at them to determine wind direction more than the instruments. I understand pieces of magnetic tape is an even better indicator, but the yarn is good for me.

I learned flying many years ago that a piece of yarn on the windscreen is a more accurate indicator of aerodynamic trim than the trim ball is, and you don't have to look inside to check trim.

30 yrs ago I would have relished racing, maybe even 10 yrs ago, but not now, and especially not on someone else's boat. I can't imagine I would be much of an asset.
I think my old Raymarine lies, my boat can't point as well as it indicates.

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

I know that some of this trimming stuff is purposefully being dialed/dumbed down, but adjusting halyard tension to match conditions is pretty dang important. Probably ranking just behind the sheet, & traveler/jib car position in terms of significance. As not only does it control draft position, & thus sail shape. But it greatly impacts heeling, along with the amount of drag that the sail produces. Which, not many folks enjoy excess heeling. So tuning it correctly not only increases speed while reducing leeway, but it also helps to keep the boat more upright. Along with a plethora of other things. Such as defining how wide or narrow a groove that the helmsman/AP has with which to steer within.

Also, Ann T. Cate perhaps hinted at a key point, & it's that getting a fresh haircut does wonders for one's ability to feel the wind. Both it's direction, & changes in it's strength. Long before your instruments will likely pick it up. Particularly in light air, & that's when it matters most to be able to discern such things.
And by haircut, the shorter in back, & higher above your collar it's trimmed the better. It's an ancient racer's trick. As is sailing at times even helming, blindfolded/with your eyes closed. This while having a coach standing right there with the helmsman of course. So that you better learn to feel what the boat is doing with all of your senses, instead of being 100% vision dependent.

The flip side is that it's good practice to learn to steer the boat by adjusting the salls, with the helm locked off on centerline (or close there to). This along with repositioning (human) ballast in order to aid in steering her sans helm input.
Which, balancing out the sailplan prior to engaging the vane or AP is commonly needed anyway, so that said automated helmsman needn't use too much power in order to control the boat while keeping her on course. So it's a very important skill to hone.

Your point about halyard tension is a good one and having raced for 20 years we do of course vary the halyard tension but not as much as I used to in my racing days.
The average cruiser usually doesn't trim their sails very well and I just wanted to hit the most basic sail trim because in my experience after cruising for over 30 years and observing multi hundreds of other cruisers sailing their boats basic sail trim is way down the list.
Multi thousands of cruisers have crossed oceans without very good sailing skills BUT there are just as many good sailors with lousy cruising skills. If you want to become a good sailor then nothing will prepare you better than racing however you might be a top notch racer and have next to no cruising skills. It's much safer to be a good cruiser with rudimentary sailing skills than the other way around but of course we should all try our best to do a decent job on both.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Your point about halyard tension is a good one and having raced for 20 years we do of course vary the halyard tension but not as much as I used to in my racing days.
The average cruiser usually doesn't trim their sails very well and I just wanted to hit the most basic sail trim because in my experience after cruising for over 30 years and observing multi hundreds of other cruisers sailing their boats basic sail trim is way down the list.
Multi thousands of cruisers have crossed oceans without very good sailing skills BUT there are just as many good sailors with lousy cruising skills. If you want to become a good sailor then nothing will prepare you better than racing however you might be a top notch racer and have next to no cruising skills. It's much safer to be a good cruiser with rudimentary sailing skills than the other way around but of course we should all try our best to do a decent job on both.

Cruising vs racing sailboats is definitely a whole different ball game.

I now set my sails so they are about right then sail 20 miles to my destination on autopilot. I get bored just over that short of a distance but do get to enjoy the scenery which didn't happen when racing.

On the boats I raced, (beach cats) the mainsail was hooked to the top of the mast so you controlled the luff tension with the downhaul.

The crew could control the downhaul from the trapeze. He could also control mast rotation, jib sheet tension, main sheet tension, and main traveler. (Sometimes the skipper controlled the main)

On larger beach cats with a big mainsail like the 20' Nacra 6.0, the crew would tighten the downhaul heading into strong lifting wind gusts to keep the boat down. He might also flatten the main a bit at the same time with a bit more sheet tension depending on the wind strength.....then do the reverse afterward

[Suijin]

I'm a bit fan of the North U. book:

It's clear, thorough, and does a good job of "level setting" with sail design concepts that sail trim is based on. Bill Gladstone is a great writer and does an excellent job.

Sail trim is also one of those things where everything is interconnected, and this book does a good job of explaining the relationships and how those play out in a practical manner.

I recommend this book to beginning racers as a good value and everyone reports back that it was exactly what they needed and something they continue to refer back to.

[appick]

I'd second the north books. I have two I lend out to greenhorns to help them learn the terms and concepts.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Suijin

I'm a bit fan of the North U. book:

It's clear, thorough, and does a good job of "level setting" with sail design concepts that sail trim is based on. Bill Gladstone is a great writer and does an excellent job.

Sail trim is also one of those things where everything is interconnected, and this book does a good job of explaining the relationships and how those play out in a practical manner.

I recommend this book to beginning racers as a good value and everyone reports back that it was exactly what they needed and something they continue to refer back to.

Didn't realize that was a link, thanks.

[DeborahLee]

A64 email me and I will send you some notes I got at a class. Found them to be real helpful. Private pilot. Deborahlee35@aol.com

[Hydra]

Originally Posted by Stumble

There are a lot of good books out there, but I really think Bethwait's High Performance Sailing is the best of the bunch. It doesn't only tell you what to do it tells you why you are doing it. He was an aeronautical engineer / multiple Olympic champion sailing coach, and really understands it at a very deep level.

I concur. In addition to the sails, this book also explains the wind, in northern and southern hemispheres.

Alain

[IdoraKeeper]

Would anyone like to comment on proper trim of stay sail and mizzen sails.? I have noticed that on Idora I get better boat speed when all the sails are trimmed to work together. Particularly there seems to be a pronounced effect on main sail trim when the slot forward is really powered up. Also, rather than aerodynamic drag, my mizzen seems to add balance (less rudder drag) as well as power.