Association Forum - Learning by doing instead of reading....

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

General Sailing Forum

Learning by doing instead of reading....

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Lightnup
Master Marine Consultant

Member Avatar

USA
1016 Posts

Initially Posted - 03/26/2005 : 23:08:53

I had the good fortune of having two experienced racers as crew last weekend (not racing) and learned more about sail trim and what my boat is capable of in those 3 hours than from any of the sailing books I've read. It's amazing how much I didn't know that I didn't know until someone showed me that I didn't know it. So I was able to go out today with much more confidence in my boat and my sailing abilities than I had two weekends ago. That's old hat to you salty dogs but pretty neat for this relative newbie.

I just hope I don't develop their obsession with constantly tweaking something (anything!) to squeeze another 1/10th of a knot out of her.

Happy Easter.

Steve

Steve Madden
'87 WK #5668 "Lorica"
Fort Myers, FL

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 03/27/2005 : 11:07:17

I am a systems optimizer, I want to have all of the associated systems that a primary system can interface with and I want them all functioning in harmony. When I tweak it isn't so much to get the extra speed (which I of course want) but to make the systems right. If you pull up beside a car that smokes, knocks, misses, and pulls away with "bad shock" bounce you know that person does not care about the systems in that car. You do not need to pull up next to a sailboat, its systems are on display from a distance. I am not driven by what others think, if I were my teak would be treated instead of just sanded. I am driven by my stewardship of the machine, the machine must be in tune. (It is also all I have to do on a lake with no navigation, no traffic, etc.)

In other words, tweaking is a good thing; a therapeutic thing.
Here is a boat who's upper tell-tails are streaming. Neither sail is hoisted all the way, (The cardinal sail trim sin), the jib is so twisted and bagged that the net force is minimal and there is no slot effect. The main leech is TIGHT, the vang is hard, the draft of the sail is all over the place because of the loose luff and over trimmed leach. This boat's systems are not optimized. All of the issues are sail set issues, not even tweaks.

Here is another boat with sails not only set perfectly but note the high traveler to twist off the top of the main in the 20knt wind. This boat screams "Systems A-OK", and the relaxed posture of the crew shows what a well tweaked rig does for confidence.

Edited by - Frank Hopper on 03/27/2005 13:59:38

Gloss
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1916 Posts

Response Posted - 03/27/2005 : 11:25:10

and, you can clearly see that the second boat is getting speed up to more efficiently ram the power boater

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 03/27/2005 : 11:57:04

I think the guy in the first photo is not driven by what others think, if he were, his sail trim would be optimized.

I sure do hope the guy in the first photo doesn't visit this forum!

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 03/27/2005 : 13:52:00

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by dlucier
 I think the guy in the first photo is not driven by what others think, if he were, his sail trim would be optimized.

I sure do hope the guy in the first photo doesn't visit this forum!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

You are right, I only wanted to show some sails. I should have made several other things clear:
He was having a great time (THE Cardinal rule of sailing).
It would be wrong to presume these sails are always trimmed that way.
We all do it ocationally.

I will re-crop the picture.
edit:
I changed the wording too.
Better?

Edited by - Frank Hopper on 03/27/2005 14:01:34

Gloss
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1916 Posts

Response Posted - 03/27/2005 : 15:49:00

Frank
I may spend some time with racers this spring to learn more about sail trim myself. But the first time the racers start whining about anything, I'm outa there.

Edited by - on

lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Response Posted - 03/27/2005 : 17:50:02

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Gloss
 and, you can clearly see that the second boat is getting speed up to more efficiently ram the power boater

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

There's a much more effective way of dealing with power boats than to ram them:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/sailor570/pwchelp.htm

Edited by - on

Waterboy
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
204 Posts

Response Posted - 03/27/2005 : 22:55:35

One of the deputies present was noted to have said, “So the guy has a couple of air-to-air missiles on his boat. What do you expect us to do about it?”

... gotta like that ...

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.