Order of trimming main

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by Richard5

Humor me. So your opinion is validated because someone else thought the same? Honest question. See you at the mark.

I'm not making a value judgment of your opinion but I am saying you shouldn't derive value of your opinion on that of another opinion. The proof is in the pudding at the mark.

Lord, what crawled up your butt? He was just pointing out that he thought you in error, and noted that others did too. Doesn't mean he's a lemming FFS.

I think you're wrong too. You want to power up your sails in light air, and loosening the halyard allows them to assume their designed shape, which is optimized for maximum horsepower. We're talking your average sail here.

[ozskipper]

Shape the sails to the conditions first. So in heavy air, vang. Cunningham, backstay and outhaul are cranked on.Then trim with the sheet. If needed set a lower Traveler position when cruising. When racing, I would leave the mainsheet tension and play the traveler before easing the sheet tension.

When, racing I put a reef in when I can no longer balance the boat with a tight sheet and fully extended traveler. When cruising, I would reef when I start spilling beer

All of this is to windward of course.

[ozskipper]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

Really? That's not what I've been taught. Light air = low halyard tension, is how I was taught.

He is correct. In 'very' light air flatter sails are more efficient (say up to 5knots) after which , the rule mention above applies.

[ontherocks83]

Originally Posted by ozskipper

When, racing I put a reef in when I can no longer balance the boat with a tight sheet and fully extended traveler. When cruising, I would reef when I start spilling beer

All of this is to windward of course.

See that's what I needed to know!!!! How do I keep my beer from spilling, I was thinking about making a gyroscopic cup holder but the balanced sail plan sounds better.

Seriously though that's actually really good simple info! !!!