How's my tack?

[RayMetz100]

The pic is my tack home yesterday heading south from Kingston to Shilshole. The boat is an '81? Cal 2-25 with a 130% furling genoa. The winds from the SE were maybe 10 knts at the start, then blowing about 22 on that last leg. We reeled in the genoa just after the last tack.

I'm new to sailing, but this doesn't look anywhere near 45 degrees into the wind. Is this nominal performance for a small cruiser like the Cal? My dad was at the helm and I was up on the rail for the second half of the trip back when the winds picked up. We also had two others on board.

The way I trimmed the main started when we raised it. I first loosened the outhaul, vang, and mainsheet and cranked the halyard to get some shelf in it. Then I brought the outhaul out to remove the shelf. Once we were close hauled, I pulled the mainsheet hard on and raised the traveler half way in the 10knt winds. As the winds picked up, I put the traveler back in the middle, and continued dropping it until all the way down in the high winds. I basically set the traveler based on the weather helm my dad was getting. The genoa was just yanked in as tight as we could get it until we had to roll it up towards the end.

Any tips on how to make it point higher? Adjustments to crew positions or running rigging is what I'm looking for. I can't do anything else to the boat as it's a charter.

[Sailormon6]

Ray, that track actually looks pretty good to me, considering the fact that relatively new sailors are trimming the sails and at the helm. I've seen inexperienced sailors who couldn't get the boat to sail to windward. With every tack, they ended up further downwind. You're doing pretty well.

The most common mistake I've seen in sail trim by new sailors, by far, is that they don't trim the jib in close enough when they're beating to windward. When you say the jib was yanked in as tight as you could get it, were you just pulling it in by hand, or were you using the winch handle to crank it in? When the windspeed gets up into the high teens, most of us can't pull the jib in by hand the last few inches, and we need the winch handle to help bring it in the rest of the way.

I have sailed a Cal 25, but don't remember exactly how close I trimmed the jib, but suggest you start by trimming it until it is about 4-5" off the spreader. That might be a little too close, but I doubt it. If anything, I'm more inclined to think it might not be quite close enough. Start at 4-5", and then experiment with it trimmed in even closer to the spreader, until you find the point where it keeps the boat driving with good speed, while allowing it to point as high as possible. After you find the best trim, remember it, because that same trim will always be optimal for that sail in those conditions and for that course of sail. In other words, every time you tack, for a beat to windward, trim the sail to that distance from the spreader. (As conditions vary, such as in light air or choppy seas, you might want to ease the jibsheet an inch or so, to give the sail a more powerful shape and help keep the boat driving, but those will be relatively minor tweaks. If the windspeed increases or the choppy seas smooth out, then return to your optimal sail trim.)

[christyleigh]

I would suggest that instead of moving the traveler down to aleviate the weather helm you say your dad was fighting that you ease the mainsheet instead, allowing the boom to rise a bit to twist off/depower the main a bit, but then bring the traveler back up to keep the boom near centerline since your complaint is pointing ability. The traveler controls the Angle of Attack and yes, by traveling down you depowered the main and reduced the weather helm, but what you were doing was rendering the main sail useless. It doesn't matter how nicely you shape the main if you travel it down too far so that it is parallel to the wind. The way it sounds, as you kept traveling down you were closing the genoa-main slot defeating the whole system. If you don't have line adjustable genoa tracks I know it's tough to adjust while under load but moving the car forward is the way to power up the genoa - not - easing the sheet unless you have it badly over trimmed to start with. You have to Look Up to see that both sails are twisted or not twisted at the same angle to balance them.

[Faster]

Doesn't look so bad, Ray- assuming that's a GPS track some of the tacking angle could be due to adverse current.

Using the traveller to combat weather helm is what we do - if you're that loaded up you need a flat, low power shape. IMO easing the sheet at that point will create a more powerful shape when you least need it. There's no need to keep the boom centered in those conditions. Reduced weather helm will speed the boat up, make the keel work better and ultimately result in better progress to weather.

Even if the main is backwinding some along the mast that is not necessarily bad, and you can move the jib lead aft to twist off the top of the jib a bit to open up the slot again. If the entire main is luffing, then it's long past time to put in a reef.

When you speak of wind speed are you talking true or apparent? In 22 knots true I'd really expect to see a reef or two in on a boat like that.

[christyleigh]

Ray, The finer points of sail trim can be discussed ad-nauseum but I'd like to comment more on powering or de-powering the main. The next time you are beating into the wind and the weather helm is increasing try easeing the main sheet and Look Up to see why it is being De-Powered. When you ease the mainsheet the boom rises and goes to leeward which opens up the leach to leeward in the top third of the sail (twisting off) and reduces power, weather helm, and heel. The 'roundness' that act creates in the lower sail is often mistaken for a power generating belly - not much if any really. The power generating roundness or belly of the sail is roundness fore and aft - it's a wing - not the vertical roundness created when the boom rises. Again de-powering can be done in different ways, but having No Twist in the main, and moving the genoa traveler aft to Twist Off the genoa is never right. If you can't reef and it's getting real bad of course you do whatever you have to, but if you are going to have both sails up then they should be working together either twisted or not twisted with a good air accelerating slot in between.

[T34C]

Ok, I'm no expert, but I can read. (contray to what some may say)

Christy- what you are proposing flies directly in the face of what most "experts" will tell you or write about. See: "Sail" Dec. 2006, "Upwind Mainsail Trim" by David Schmidt and Chris Howes.
"...Weather helm will often call for the traveler to be lowered...", "Boom on centerline is the rigs power position; it creates the most speed, but also the most heel and weather helm... If your cruising and the helm still feels overpowered, ease the traveler gradually until the load on wheel ligtens... By constantly tweeking the traveler-and not the mainsheet-during puffs, it's possible to depower the sail while maintaining proper shape and boatspeed."

"...You can create a powerful light-air trim by putting some twist in the mainsail; simply raise the traveler and ease the sheet (note that you won't be able to point as high). In heavier air, maintain good boom/batten orientation by sheeting IN the main and easing the traveler."

If your goal is to "depower" the main why would you give two shits about slot orientation???

[RayMetz100]

Thanks for the great tips.
The 22 knts at the end was true. Graph here.

Good point about the current. I think it was going out a little at the end, which means we were fighting it some. We did use the winch on the genoa but didn't look at it's position relative to the spreader. I'll have to check that next time. I liked the explination about the curve in the main, that a curve from front to back is for power and a curve in the leach from top to bottom might depower the main. I don't know that I'll be able to apply that right now, but I can look for it and see how adjusting the mainsheet vs. the traveler affects things. I'm still not very clear on twist. My dad wasn't fighting or complaining about weatherhelm, it was just me asking him and trying to apply my training. He was sort of irritated that I wouldn't just leave him be. Other than these last two trips with me, the last time he steered a sailboat was about 25 years ago on his orange plastic 12' styrofoam core sunflower.

[Giulietta]

All the info you can get, and all above are good tips, however, YOU and only YOU will make it happen.

I know a guy, that can hardly read or write, yet, on a boat he will go faster than anyone. Sailing is easy, however sailing (really good) is like flying or other activity, that requires some personal gift. And that, you either have (and sail good) or don't have (and can sail from A to B).

Looks like you can go from A to B. Now go out and develop your skills. Look around, look at the sails, change things and see, observe, get experience, do it on your own. You will not get it here.

Good job.

Merry Christmas

[Faster]

Ray - different things work on different boats. I'm just trying to pass on what has worked for us in 20+ yrs sailing in a predominantly high wind area, on a variety of boat types.

As Guilietta points out, it's up to you to try this and that and determine what works best for your situation.

The other advantage of using a traveller to control helm and heeling is it's usually an easier control to manipulate (as long as you have a good traveller setup)

A very good sailor once told me to think of the traveller as your gas pedal - if things (trim etc) "look" good, yet the boat seems to be hesitating or slow, press down on the gas (lower the traveller) even just a little and you'll feel the boat free up and move out.

One more general rule of thumb for mainsail trim - sight up the sail from below the boom, and try to get the top batten parallel with the boom in average conditions, slightly falling off in heavier stuff.

As always, just a point of view....

[christyleigh]

T34C.... What I don't 'give 2 shits' about is a bunch of out of context expert quotes. Yes, I also can, and have read that, and many other articles. Going deeper past those little snippets... yes, when the main is sheeted in bar tight and eased a bit the twist may accelerate the air flow and give a boost of power - but - if you continue to ease the sheet you will start spilling that power out of the opening leach as the boom rises and goes to leeward. The same with the traveler in another snippet referred to as a 'gas pedal' when traveled down - to a point - then luffing begins. Actually on my c320 where I had the traveler lines routed back to me at the helm (to avoid my wifes head sleeping against the bulkhead as my only crew) I did use the traveler more for depowering the main because they were right there and reaching the mainsheet would involve a trip across the cockpit to one of the winches (needed for mid boom sheeting). The double ended mainsheet was nice though for winch/line clutch management. Now on my NC 331 with end boom sheeting the mainsheet (no winch needed) and traveler is right at hand but the mainsheet only takes one hand - easy choice for me on my particular boat. It's also an easy reach back to the end boom mizzen sheet to mimic the main adjustment. I'm still working on a better mizzen traveler setup as now I just un-clip and re-clip to a different stanchion supporting the 1"x3" teak life line rail (that little mizzen won't hurt it). As for why I 'give 2 shits' about the slot - simple - good sail trim. As I said before when it hits the fan you do what ever works of course - but traveling down what may as well be a luffing triangular piece of plywood chokeing off the slot of the genoa could never be called good sail trim even by your 'experts'. If I'm not going to use the main I don't raise it. If I have it up then I try to balance the sail plan.