Association Forum - Sail Shape While Sailing

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 25 Specific Forum

Sail Shape While Sailing

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Cate
Navigator

Member Avatar

199 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/20/2007 : 15:18:12

Question for the group. The shape of our sails under sail seems to curl and twist.It looks like the top off the sail is not capturing the wind at all. This is true for both of our sails.
Our main is original, 1983 (yes I know it's old)
Genoa is 4 years old, but was cut from 150% to 140% (not sure if the cut was right).
Any advice is much appreciated.

1983 C-25, Standard rig, swing keel

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 08:18:28

Cate,

It would be difficult to answer your question without seeing your setup and sail trim on the water.

Do you have telltales on both your headsail and main?

Edited by - on

DaveR
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
2015 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 08:25:13

Cate,
Sounds like my sails, which are original also. I think they're old stretched sails. I'm good with it for now as I don't race but will replace or re-cut both main and head sails in the next couple of years.

Edited by - on

Cate
Navigator

Members Avatar

199 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 08:36:26

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by dlucier
 Cate,

It would be difficult to answer your question without seeing your setup and sail trim on the water.

Do you have telltales on both your headsail and main?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Yes I have telltales. I'm not sure it's a trimming problem because no matter what tack I am on, the sails still seem to spill off air at the top and then curl around at the bottom. I will try to take pictures of our set up under sail...or I'll see if I can get and answer from other sailors at my marina.

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 09:45:41

twist on the main can be a good thing - to depower in heavy air or to power up a little off the wind.

When pointing or heading up, it is not so good (a little, OK).

The top batten of the sail should be parallel with the boom, not twisted way off. To flatten the sail :

(1) maybe your boom is too high. Lower it, and tighten the halyard more than you are doing. You probably don't have a cunningham, but you can tighten that. Most likely you are not using enough halyard tension.

(2) pull the main sheet in tight.

(3) tighten outhaul

(4) tighten vang (not usually needed upwind).

(5) Mast may be raked too far aft.

To flatten the upper part of the jib:

(1) move cars forward a little, and sheet in hard.

(2) increase tension on jib halyard.

My old 155 jib no matter what I do it is loose around the spreaders - its a little blown out. I usually only use it downwind or on a light air day for practice.

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 09:52:35

Do you have a boomvang? Do you set the boomvang when close hauled so the leech has the same tension on all points of sail??

PS, you need new sails.

Edited by - Frank Hopper on 09/21/2007 09:54:07

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 10:13:13

Cate,
I highly recommend "[url="http://www.dedekam.com/sailtrim.html"]Illustrated Sail & Rig Tuning[/url]" for figuring out what's going on with your sails. The book has great illustrations and a very step by step methodical approach to getting your sails & rigging up to snuff. I struggled with this until a friend showed me a copy of his book. Now things are starting to gel in my head as to why things happen, and what I can do about them. It could simply be that your sails are old & stretched as you suspect, but with this book you'll be able to definitively figure it out.

Edited by - on

Cate
Navigator

Members Avatar

199 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 11:30:43

Some very good advice here as usual. I'm going to try making some adjustments to the genoa cars, halyard tension (main, genoa is on furler), boom vang, boom height, etc. as suggested. Will also look into great book recommendation. Our sail shape is not working when pointing close haul,close to wind. It's been frustrating as I used to be able to come very, very close to upwind with smaller sailboats I learned on. Thank you one and all.

Next year-NEW SAILS!!
(Would have had them this year if the darn original rudder hadn't broken off at the tiller-rot,rot,rot. Now have beautiful IdaSailor kick-up.)

Edited by - on

Chris Z
Captain

Members Avatar

452 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 13:15:57

Cate,
How do you like the kick-up rudder. That is on my list of wants.

Edited by - on

Cate
Navigator

Members Avatar

199 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 13:30:54

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Chris Z
 Cate,
How do you like the kick-up rudder. That is on my list of wants.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Chris- I absolutely love the IdaSailor kick-up rudder. (about $810 sailboatowners.com) The airfoil design has been a noticeable improvement. Seems like the boat turns on a dime now. The kick-up has also been great for our SK in our shallow bay. We can go many places the fixed keel folks can't. Pulling the rudder up requires a bit of strength, but I just put my foot on the stern and give it couple of good pulls and the whole rudder is out of the water and cleated down. Lowering the rudder requires just a little nudge by hand. The gas struts are nice. Only downside is that the old tiller wouldn't fit so now it has become nautical decor in our hallway. Sentimental value I guess. The new tiller is beautiful mahogany and ash. Very nice wood.

Edited by - on

stampeder
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

1608 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 13:59:51

I too have a very old main sail - I believe it is the 1981 original.
Last spring I had it re-worked at Northsail. They put three tell tales on the leech. the tell-tales have aided my understanding of optimal sail shape.
I put my own tell tales on my crappy jib, and that too, helps.

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.