Sailing close hauled?

[jerdrake]

Flying a C&C 30'. When trying to sail close hauled, everything I have read says I should be able to sail 45 degrees to the wind. However, according to my compass, the best I can do is 60 degrees without luffing the jib.

I have the jib trimmed tightly, the mainsail boom on centerline. What can I do to improve my close hauled sailing?

Would moving jib inside of shrouds when sailing close hauled help?

[PalmettoSailor]

What shape are your sails in? A C&C 30 is an older boat and if the sails are blown out rags then the boat isn't going to point. It will also be near impossible to depower baggy sails when the wind pipes up making the boat difficult to control.

[SHNOOL]

Sails are a good start... then how much bag you have in your main (outhaul), then how far inboard your jib-sheets are. You'll likely point better with a smaller headsail (if it's blown out) then a genoa.

Then how fair is your keel? Your rudder (less important), how about your boats bottom?

How is your rigging, standing that is? How much rake do you have, the C&C should have a slight rake to the mast.

Shrouds...

Needless to say you've asked a complicated question that even with pictures we can't iron out which "one thing," is causing it. 5 people could look at it, and you'd get 5 different answers.

Truth is, point comes when all those "settings" come together at once, and others I've forgotten off the top of my head.

I am in your boat though (figuratively), in that my blown out sails on my Capri 25, were getting me about 50-55 degrees, I got my tune up, and I can almost get 45 now, but my sails are keeping me from my best point.

Oh and 45 is a ballpark figure, there are some that do better, but 45 should be a good number with a C&C with average tune and new dacron sails.

[Minnewaska]

You got all the likely suspects above. Sails are my first guess, but only a guess. I might add jib car location toward the bottom of the list.

Any chance that you can point higher on one tack vs the other?

[dacap06]

I concur. Buying a new jib did wonders for my ability to point.

Sail condition gets you most of the way there. The rest is sail shaping. Do you have a full set of telltails on the jib and main, and understand what they tell you? Do you use all your sail controls and adjustments? Do you move the cars on the jib track based on which telltale breaks first, for instance?

I might add that it also depends on wind velocity. I can't point as high in very light wind and very heavy wind as I can in moderate winds. In very light wind I can't get the sail shaped as well because of the weight of the cloth and the sheets. In very heavy wind the jib is partly furled, which tends to spoil wind flow over the leading edge somewhat. Now, I could fix that but I have chosen not to. I could get specialty sails for those conditions but I don't want to spend that kind of cash on sails I would not use all that much.

Tom

[PaulinVictoria]

Is it 60 degrees relative to the true wind direction (i.e. using your compass), or relative to the apparent wind direction (i.e. using your windex)?

[Barquito]

I think, all else equal, if you lead the sheets inside the shrouds you should get a few more degrees. Don't oversheet the main. When the jib is sheeted in all the way, trim the main (using leach tell tales). If the main is oversheeted, you are just adding weather helm.

[Jeff_H]

I assume this is the C&C 30 Mk I or II and not the C&C Mega 30. The C&C 30 Mk's are a nice older design which actually pointed quite closely for its day (or most any day for that matter). I assume from your description, that you are saying that by watching your compass course, you are tacking through 120 degrees course to course, rather than 90 degrees. I would agree that it is way more than I would expect on a boat like the C&C 30which I would expect to tack through roughly 90 degrees.

Other than the suggestions above, you do not say where you sail, or the windspeed you were dealing with, but in lighter air, tidal current can impact the apparent wind directions on each tack so that you end up tacking through a much wider angle.

But also as people have suggested, the prime suspects would be the condition of the sail, and the sheet lead position. I do not believe that you can lead the genoa sheets inside the shrouds on a C&C 30 since the leech of a genoa would hit the spreaders.

Its been a while since I sailed on one of these so I may be mistaken, but my best recollection of the way C&C 30's were sailed is that the genoa is sheeted inside the lifelines and outside the shrouds, to a sheet lead track which is just outboard of the coaming and inside the rail. When the lead is right the leech of the genoa almost touches the upper shroud and the foot of the sail touches the lower part of the upper shroud almost at the deck.

Jeff

[davidpm]

I'm sure you checked this but to make the thread complete:

Make sure your topping lift is slack when the mail is hoisted.
The topping lift if tight will mess up the sail shape.

Also the bolt rope on old sails will shrink. This will cause the luff to be tight and the leach loose.
You will see that the boom dips to the stern when the sail is hoisted and the topping lift slacked.

[Squidd]

Originally Posted by Minnewaska

You got all the likely suspects above. Sails are my first guess, but only a guess. I might add jib car location toward the bottom of the list.

Any chance that you can point higher on one tack vs the other?

Yes, mine does... Favors Starboard over port...

What does that indicate...?