K.C. Walker wrote:I figured I'd go with the same 3 inch length tales. It seems like scaling them down much more than that might be hard to see. I thought I'd try a couple of rows of them somewhere around where I have my steering telltales now which is about 2-3 feet up. Heck, maybe I'll make my jib furry.
OK, my question was imprecise. Of course, the telltales themselves don't get scaled.
As for placement, I think you don't need a furry jib - in fact it could even be counterproductive (as in TMI).
Having several vertically positioned telltales allows you to set your fairlead so that the luff breaks evenly. Those don't need to be full rows, I think, because you are comparing the change in behavior with increasing height.
What would make sense to me is a single horizontal row of telltales that augment the standard steering telltales. I might try that some time.
Currently, I'm sailing with a very experienced sailor as "crew" - which is a great learning opportunity. He's the one who insisted on adding another pair of telltales higher up, to help him fine tune the jib sheeting.
The cautionary tale is another sailor, who proudly showed me all the telltales on his sails, but then admitted he didn't know how to read them all yet. That's why I tend to go slow...