01-03-2010
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Just another Moderator
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: New Westminster, BC
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The winch is for tensioning the halyard if necessary.. not so much for raising the sail in the first place. If you sailing upwind you want the draft of the mainsail (deepest part of the curve) at the mid point or slightly forward of that, if the halyard isn't tight enough the draft of the sail is too far aft, creating extra weather helm, more drag and there fore less drive.
Typically you'd hoist the sail and tension it until you had a vertical wrinkle in the sail before setting off beating up wind (the wrinkle will disappear when loaded unless the halyard's too tight), and less tension (without the wrinkle) in lighter wind and down wind conditions.
Similarly you want the tension of the jib halyard appropriately set too... too tight means draft too far forward, a wider entry angle and poorer pointing ability.
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".. there is much you could do at sea with common sense.. and very little you could do without it.."
Capt G E Ericson (from "The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Monsarrat)
1984 Fast/Nicholson 345
Last edited by Faster; 01-03-2010 at 08:45 PM.
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