Ditto. The topping lift is there to hold the boom when the sail is NOT raised. Of course, if you are sailing with the bimini up you probably don't have any idea what your sail shape is anyway, so....
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The only time you might want to sail with the topping lift tight is if you're in very, very light winds... and that only in very rare circumstances. 
Other than that, it should really be slackened enough to allow the boom's weight to load the leech properly....
Other than that, it should really be slackened enough to allow the boom's weight to load the leech properly.... 
Full sail for light air.
Flatter sail for heavier air. I will flatten a sail prior to reefing.
Compare that to airplane wings. Short Take Off and Landing planes have deeper camber, while high speed fighters have much thinner wings.
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Flatter sail for heavier air. I will flatten a sail prior to reefing.
Compare that to airplane wings. Short Take Off and Landing planes have deeper camber, while high speed fighters have much thinner wings.
There's evidently some disagreement here among authorities, with at least two schools of thought. I'm still learning; my general understanding was similar to jackdale's, but perhaps things are not so simple...
Dedekam's Sailing & Rig Tuning says that in very light air (2-5 knots) your traveller should by high and pretty much everything else should be really loose, bagging out the sail and maintaining high twist to open the leech.
Mainsail Trimming by Marks disagrees, stating the sail should be (quoting) "flattish" by having the outhaul and backstay both half-on. This is for the same reason Skipper995 gave, to maintain air attachment, whatever that means. (Dedekam did not mention this effect at all; I'm guessing it hypothetically has something to do with formation of a boundary layer?) Marks agrees about the open leech, though.
So the advisibility or importance of flatness is not really clear to me. I think really what is needed here is experiment. SF Bay summer weather is still a ways off, so I think there may be some opportunity yet.
Dedekam's Sailing & Rig Tuning says that in very light air (2-5 knots) your traveller should by high and pretty much everything else should be really loose, bagging out the sail and maintaining high twist to open the leech.
Mainsail Trimming by Marks disagrees, stating the sail should be (quoting) "flattish" by having the outhaul and backstay both half-on. This is for the same reason Skipper995 gave, to maintain air attachment, whatever that means. (Dedekam did not mention this effect at all; I'm guessing it hypothetically has something to do with formation of a boundary layer?) Marks agrees about the open leech, though.
So the advisibility or importance of flatness is not really clear to me. I think really what is needed here is experiment. SF Bay summer weather is still a ways off, so I think there may be some opportunity yet.
Yes, but in either case, you want to keep the leech of teh sail open...without adjusting the topping lift to support the boom, you can't do that.
There's evidently some disagreement here among authorities, with at least two schools of thought. I'm still learning; my general understanding was similar to jackdale's, but perhaps things are not so simple...
Dedekam's Sailing & Rig Tuning says that in very light air (2-5 knots) your traveller should by high and pretty much everything else should be really loose, bagging out the sail and maintaining high twist to open the leech.
Mainsail Trimming by Marks disagrees, stating the sail should be (quoting) "flattish" by having the outhaul and backstay both half-on. This is for the same reason Skipper995 gave, to maintain air attachment, whatever that means. (Dedekam did not mention this effect at all; I'm guessing it hypothetically has something to do with formation of a boundary layer?) Marks agrees about the open leech, though.
So the advisibility or importance of flatness is not really clear to me. I think really what is needed here is experiment. SF Bay summer weather is still a ways off, so I think there may be some opportunity yet.
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