Tack angles

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Re: Tack angles

Postby klb67 » Mon Jul 11, 2016 1:40 pm

I wanted to resurrect this thread to seek some guidance.

After sailing this weekend, I went searching for sail trim advice and found this thread. I read the Tasar articles that K.C. posted and found it to be some of the best how to and why advice on trimming sails that I've seen.

What I'd like is more of the same, and more in-depth and ideally includes how and where to add more advanced sail control lines. Any suggestions?

I was taught by a fellow club member how to sail with a jib sail, and he very much encouraged sitting on the rail where you can see the jib tell tales rather than in the boat, and sailing largely by what the jib tell tales, boat feel and the water tell you.

More background - I took my 2 sons and 2 nephews out for short trips on my local lake this weekend - first my family of 4, then me and 2 older boys in heavier wind, then me and wife and 2 younger boys when gusts eased. I looked at my GPS based sailing app track afterward and confirmed that I did most of my sailing across the wind, some more close hauled, and the boat really didn't seem to want to point as well as I thought it should. Winds were definitely over 10 mph, probably gusts over 15 mph early on. I don't have reef points and wish I did that day, as my wife is not fond of the boat heeling much, so I found myself often easing the main more than I'd like to get the boat to sit back down. As the winds calmed a bit, I was trying to sail more into the wind and still found the jib luffing earlier than I thought it should. It could have been more shifty winds than I thought and it was getting backwinded - I'm not sure. I do have older sails, reconditioned by sail care a few years ago to get a few more years out of them, so I'm not using optimal sails at this point. I have midboom sheeting, single jib lead with a prusik loop and soft shackle in the middle, and was using and adjusting my 4:1 boom vang some. I have center board cleats for the jib. My max speed per GPS was 7.3 mph, I expect average speed was 5.5 - 6 mph (I don't know for sure, as the average speed in the map includes dock time unloading and reloading). Regarding jib lines, when the winds were more even, I found that if I used the off-jib lead to pull the jib clew back to windward just a bit, it really helped the sail shape, tell tale flow and pointing ability.
1976 DSII - #8039
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Re: Tack angles

Postby K.C. Walker » Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:17 pm

It sounds like you're on the right track. The Taser was designed by Frank Bethwaite as a family racing boat specifically designed for husband-and-wife teams. He and his son Julian have designed some of the highest performance small mono hulls. He's a great teacher and I like his books but they are much more complex. I like this one https://www.amazon.com/High-Performance ... 698&sr=1-1 .

Using the lazy sheet to in haul on the jib is a technique used in the Flying Scott class to help with pointing. In the O'Day Daysailer fleet, Barber in hauls are used to get a tighter angle. If you look at the pictures that Phil Root posted in the rigging guide http://forum.daysailer.org/tech_rigguide.php you will find good information there.

If you can't hold the boat flat you will not get good pointing.
KC Walker, DS 1 #7002
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