An evolution of Harken’s 2700 series of small-boat cars, the new 2767 car has no stainless hardware other than the ball bearing retainers—no shackles, pins or ring-dings.  Everything’s soft-tied.  In fact, there are just three main parts: an aluminum body, ball bearings and the two-ball bearing retainers. As a result, the car weighs in at an amazingly light 1.48 ounces.

The design was inspired by Adam Palfrey, who had been using the 2702 cars on the athwartship jib tracks he designed for use in the Etchells class (“A Sheeting Angle Solution”). For Palfrey, they were good, though not quite perfect, as he had to hog out a small section of aluminum on each car to allow the up-down line to work without chafing, plus they had stamped stainless control tangs with somewhat squared-off corners—ok, but not optimum for a spliced traveller control line.

Enter long-time Etchells sailor Chris Larson. “It started with him,” says Palfrey. “Chris knew the amount of work that had to be done to get the original car to work.”

Larson, in turn, pulled Harken’s Oakley Jones into the loop.  Says Jones, “I looked at what Dog was doing and thought, ‘We can do this better.’  I sent pictures of Dog’s modified car to one of our engineers and said, ‘The Etchells class is currently modifying our 2702 car.  Apart from not looking as nice as we’d like, the line going into it where it’s been milled out is chafing and the pin eventually bending from the where the line was going around it.’”

“Within a couple of days, Oakley had a 3D type of drawing,” Palfrey says.  “And about three weeks later, he called and said ‘Do you want to go ahead and buy some?’ It was really impressive how quickly they turned this around.”

“Luckily, we weren’t starting from scratch,” says Jones, “so we could basically tweak the 2702 car to produce the new one. We carved away all the unnecessary aluminum we could and rounded all the edges.” The car has the additional bonus of no plastic end caps, something that in older versions would deteriorate in the sun, eventually failing and releasing the bearings.

The result is a car elegant in its simplicity. Traveller control lines run though rounded oval slots at each end, eliminating the need for tangs and providing a more rounded surface for control lines.  Splice-in or luggage-tag a piece of 1/8 to 3/16″ Spectra or use a soft-tie block, such as one of Harken’s Carbo T2 block series, for a 2-to-1 setup. Three shallow grooves at the end of each oval lock the soft-tie loops in place.  “It looks great, saves custom work, which is always expensive, and it’s just perfect for the job,” says Palfrey.

The center slot has rounded corners to allow smooth up-down line movement for fore-and-aft jib lead adjustment, as on Palfrey’s jib lead system. Or, use the car in a more traditional fore-and-aft jib car alignment by tying a Harken Carbo block there.

While the 13mm system is mostly used for jib tracks, Harken is also producing an up-sized version of the 13mm car, one that will fit a 22mm track, which is used for main traveller systems on E Scows, Etchells and similar-sized boats. Like its smaller sibling, it’s very light—a just 4 ounces.  Current prices are: 13mm car ($135.50) and  22mm car ($199.95) at Harken.

The post Harken’s All-Soft-Tie Jib Cars appeared first on Sailing World.

Most contemporary one-designs are based on the principle of all boats coming from a parent set of hull and deck molds, which means the boats we sail today have exactly the same basic deck layout as when they were first built. Class rules usually dictate that the molded shape can’t be altered once the boat is constructed. Yet, hardware placement and rigging systems still evolve, sometimes over decades, and we end up with boats that are easier to sail and almost always faster. One such class is the Etchells, which has been around since the 1960s. From the beginning, it has seen development of ideas and marginal gains in performance, within the class rules. The tinkering nature of the class has often resulted a circular nature of ideas and development, where nothing is really new, but it can pay to revisit ideas long past, as what was tried and discarded years ago may work really well today, especially when done in conjunction with advancements in materials and hardware.

One area of significant development over recent years in the Etchells class has been the narrowing of the jib-sheeting angle. Historically, jib tracks were placed on the side deck, just outside the cuddy (the small raised coach-roof area). This set the sheeting angle at around 10.5 degrees. Over the years, and going back to the origins of the class, various great sailors (including some serious testing by Dennis Conner in the early 1990s) tried narrowing the sheeting angle, with mixed success and uncertainty that such tight angles were actually faster. However, we now know that sailing with narrower jib sheeting angles is quite a weapon, particularly in light to moderate winds and in relatively flat water. Why now and not then? It’s a combination of factors.

First is balance. The trend today is to set the mainsail up with less drag—trimmed flatter and firmer. Secondly, jibs are now being designed with narrower sheeting angles in mind. Notably, they are slightly straighter in the aft sections. In other words, they have “less return.” Thirdly, boats are now stiffer, as are masts, giving more control over headstay tension and thus jib shape.

Two recent performance gains have been the domination by Peter Duncan’s team (which included Jud Smith) in the Etchells Miami Winter series of 2013-’14 and the domination of the 2019 Etchells World Championship in Texas, the winning team led by the talented Iain Murray. Duncan’s team fitted a jib track to the top of their boat’s cuddy, set at approximately 8.5 degrees. That winter series saw many race days in 10-knots of true windspeed, or “full-power” conditions. The two Australian teams had a block-and-tackle inhauler system and were regularly sheeting to 7.5 degrees, complemented with a very firm and flat mainsail, and the traveler set relatively high.

Having always been drawn to deck-layout solutions, I started experimenting with how best to sheet an Etchells jib narrower. One challenge was that the class rules do not allow altering the molded surface, which includes the cuddy. So simply chopping part of the cuddy away (as seen on all sorts of grand-prix race boats) isn’t an option. Another factor is that nobody wants to freely give away sail area. So, in order to sheet the jib properly on top of the cuddy, raising the jib clew would be the last option to consider.

Initially, in 2014, we employed a deflection system, whereby a strop was connected to the jib sheets, dragging the sheets toward the boats’ centerline. Simple, but effective. However, as the angles got narrower, there was too much friction for this solution to be practical.

In 2018, we simply placed thru-deck bushes where we thought the narrowest sheeting angle would be (8 degrees) and had a simple low-friction ring connected to a below-deck purchase to control the up-down lead angle. This was great when in favorable narrow-sheeting conditions, but as the breeze built and sea-state increased, it is faster to be out to the traditional, or wider, sheeting angle. So, we installed another similar system at approximately 11 degrees, allowing us to sheet to the widest angle in 20-plus knots of true-wind speed. But in medium winds, we needed to sheet between the two extremes, which put a massive load on the system, as we were triangulating between the inhaul and outhaul system in order to get the jib lead down to the cuddy top.

Apart from the loads and friction, this system required a highly skilled jib trimmer and risked a brief performance loss if controls were not managed accurately. For instance, if you wanted to mode the boat faster, meaning you needed to widen the main’s and the jib’s angle of attack, the trimmer had to ease the inboard control before pulling the outboard control. This resulted in the jib lead rising, in turn causing the jib to lose its shape and twist profile, and the boat fell out of balance. Every time you made a change, you had to accept an initial performance loss.

During the winter series of 2019-’20, with the limitations of the double-bush system in mind, I fitted an athwartships track and car system on the cuddy top and bridged it out onto the side-deck. The idea was to maintain the ability to sheet wide in fresh conditions. This system immediately revealed several advantages, most notably the ability to achieve consistency in sheeting angle and vertical lead height. It gave us simple and accurate jib trimming, which meant less experienced jib trimmers could accurately work the system and, of course, it allowed eyes and minds to remain outside of the boat. Only two problems remained: The assembly looked appropriate for a tractor than on a sleek Etchells deck. Also, more geometric testing needed to be done to prevent jib camber and twist from changing across the entire length of the track.

The best way to place an athwartships jib track is for it to be radially equidistant from both the tack and the head of the jib, but given the Etchells’ cuddy profile, and the need for the outboard end of the track to extend out over the cuddy edge to the side deck, the same measurement from the head of the jib to the outboard end of the track would mean the outboard end of the track would be 6.5 inches above the deck! Clearly this would not pass aesthetic muster. Plus, it would be a major trip hazard for the foredeck crew and have significant windage implications.

I therefore placed the track aesthetically and equal-distant to the forestay only. I then collaborated with the UK Etchells builder David Heritage to custom-make a mounting for the outboard end of the track that would not detract too much from the traditional look of the boat. Over several weeks we tried three variations, finally settling on a shape that blended in well with the deck. It was also structurally reliable and simple for owners to retrofit. Whether we achieved a decent aesthetic result is in the eye of the beholder, but knowing the advantages it offers, I am OK with it. We customized a Harken car to get the jib lead height as low as possible to the deck, discarding the bale supplied, and rounding the hard corners of the car to prevent our highly loaded up-down strop from chafing and breaking.

Next came the geometry, knowing we had given away the equidistant measurement to the head of the jib for the sake of styling, windage and safety. As a result, the distance from the outboard end of the track to the head of the jib is about three inches longer than to the inboard end of the track. This would result in the jib leech rapidly tightening for every move outboard. The ideal solution lay in the athwartships position of the jib lead’s up-down control—which was positioned forward—and the lateral location of the jib-sheet control blocks on the aft side of the track. Essentially, the placement of hardware needed to “give back” some (but not all) of the vertical difference on the jib track. I say “not all” because, as the lead rises, the force of the jib sheet also pushes it aft, just like moving the car aft on a traditional fore-aft track.

This could only be resolved by testing. So when UK COVID restrictions were eased in May, allowing us back on the water, I was out there with friends, honing in on the correct hardware positions. I’d love to report that I nailed it first time. Close, but it took a few holes in the deck, fine-tuning of control systems and hours sailing to achieve the “same camber and twist for the length of the track” goal. The best outcome of the new system is making it easier for any level of crew to achieve consistency in jib trimming at tighter sheeting angles and a higher level of performance in a class that has been around for more than a half century.

The post A Sheeting-Angle Solution appeared first on Sailing World.

Roller-furling jibs, once viewed as a convenience for cruising boats, have become a real game-changer in the sportboat world. For example, in the prestart, when you want to control your speed and kill some time, furl the jib. Feeling late and need to get closer to the line? Deploy the jib. Downwind, when a jib is not useful, it’s much better to furl than to put the weight of a bowman on the foredeck to drop the jib, not to mention the resulting beating the sail takes as it is shoved into a pile on the foredeck, instead of being neatly rolled around the headstay. Furling also makes transitioning between the soaking mode and the planing mode a much simpler affair. The roller-furling jib gives you the unique ability to do all that and more. The key is to know when to furl and when to deploy.

For a Fine-Tuned Approach

The basic rule is, in light wind leave the jib out, because you need speed; in medium and heavy air, furl the jib until the final acceleration. In light air it’s easy to get too slow and end up late. Maneuvering and accelerating also are tough without the jib, especially when it’s light. In medium or heavy winds, it’s easy to generate enough speed until the final acceleration with the main only. Only unfurl the jib early if you end up behind the game in positioning or need to perform a maneuver, such as a double-tack when someone steals your hole. Let’s take a look at some common prestart situations.

Let’s say you’re doing a timed loop in medium breeze and your goal is to be at “x marks the spot” at one minute. That spot is on the layline for where you want to start, for example one-third down the line from the committee boat. Having done a few practice starts, you know you want to tack around that spot about 197 feet from the line at one minute. But if you realize you are running late to get to that spot and you’re furled, deploy the jib and beeline it to that spot.

Or, perhaps your initial timing was wrong, other boats forced you to sail extra distance, or your last head-to-wind took longer than expected. Time to deploy and get where you need to be. Once you’ve made up the lost time, furl, do your tack, and now you’re where you should have been in the first place.

Here’s another common situation. The committee boat is favored so much that there’s a general recall, and the committee calls everyone back and announces they are going to move the pin up. So the whole fleet sails to the pin like a swarm of locusts to get their pings. It’s a chaotic battle, with everyone taking their turns and trying not to hit each other. After all this, you check the bias of the line and realize the boat’s still favored—they didn’t move the pin enough to windward. Then the sequence begins. It’s a 50-boat line, and you’re thinking, “Oh no! We’ve got to get back to the committee boat end, and it’s a three-minute sail.” Deploy the jib.

In my usual starting sequence, I do a timed-loop with the jib furled; if everything’s fine, I unfurl at about 20 seconds. With any instruments that allow you to see distance to the line, the goal is to accelerate and be at full speed within 6 feet of the line at the gun. The instruments help you understand the ratio of feet to seconds with and without the jib, which helps you know when to deploy the jib for your final acceleration.

### Pro Tip #1

J/70 World Champ Jud Smith has a saying about furling: “Never have a bad furl, it’s like kicking your dog; you just don’t do it!” Indeed, it’s easy to put big creases in the jib when furling, which reduces the sail’s useful life. To avoid that, make sure the sheets are slack. Then, tighten the jib halyard just before furling to increase the luff tension on the sail. On the J/70, we accomplish this by bow-stringing the jib halyard where it exits the mast.

The short version is, if you’re feeling late, deploy the jib to make up the time, and if you’re feeling early, stay slow and wait to deploy. The ability to furl or deploy the jib, with the guidance of a GPS, makes it easier to get that time and distance right. The challenge is that, because the whole fleet has the same tools, everyone is that much closer to the line at the gun.

As an example, on a J/70, with the jib furled in medium wind, it’s about 1-to-1. So if you tack at 60 seconds to the gun and 200 feet from the line, and you cruise with the main only, that ratio will be going down another 3 feet per second. If you did nothing, you’d start at 0 seconds, right on the line, but with the jib furled. Of course you’d never do that. Instead, tack at 260 feet and 60 seconds, giving you 65 extra feet to work with. Now you’re marching toward the line, and the feet and seconds are still reducing at about 1-to-1. You’re watching them both go down as you’re managing your east-to-west spacing, making sure you have a hole to leeward, and dealing with threats from other boats. You know from practice runs on the start that your speed doubles when you deploy. Somewhere around 10 to 15 seconds, deploy the jib and start going 6 feet per second instead of 3 feet per second. If you get it right, you nail the start—3 to 6 feet back from the line, at full speed and close-hauled.

Some people make spreadsheets with various time-and-distance ratios for given wind strengths to help figure out how far away to set up and when to deploy.

I’ve had little success with those. The problem is that a number of other factors, such as current, sea state, bad air and line bias affect your closing speed to the line. If the pin is favored, it takes longer to get to the line from a given distance. And if the boat is favored, it takes much less time for that same distance. The more line bias, the more it affects your closing speed. Add other boats and current into the mix, and it gets complicated. I’ve found the best way to get it right is to do some practice starts, keep your eyes open to changing conditions and figure it out race by race.

For Downwind Situations

If you’re in displacement mode and sailing deep, furl. Whenever the apparent wind is forward, jib out. Another basic rule of thumb is that the spinnaker is always the first priority. If you’re having trouble flying it, furl the jib. Think of the jib as a bonus when you can use it; you don’t need it all the time.

On a J/70, the jib is mostly furled unless it’s windy. The exceptions are if you’ve overstood, or if you have to head up to defend, such as when someone behind is reaching up to roll you. Then deploy. With the wind forward, it’s faster with it out, as the jib is not blocking the spinnaker. When the jib is furled or deployed depends on the type of boat. For instance, on the Melges 20 we keep the jib out much of the time. Only in really light air, when the sheet tension on the jib goes away, do we furl.

### Pro Tip #2

It’s just before the start, and you need to go head-to-wind to do a final wind check. But with the jib furled, the main doesn’t really luff in the center of the boat that well. Solution? Unfurl just 2 to 3 feet of the jib and use that as your guide. Once finished, use it to assist in bearing off by pulling it one way or the other to backwind and help the turn. Then you can easily furl that small section of sail without having to fully bear away.

If I am unsure whether the jib should be furled, I often look at other people’s setups and VMG, then decide. I only need to know whether I’m gaining or losing. If I’m losing, I match the other boat’s sail configuration.

The jury is still out about whether to furl when jibing. If it’s breezy, and the jib is out, some crews furl, jibe then unfurl because the jib can mess up the spinnaker a bit when it’s filling on the new tack. For those who leave it out in heavy air, a standard jibe includes letting the jib luff on the exit of the jibe to help the kite fill. Once that happens, trim and you’re off and running again.

Of course, blow-through jibes require the jib to stay deployed, because it acts as a wall that the spinnaker slides around while the jib is backwinding. For those jibes, the jib is left-cleated and the skipper turns quickly, backwinding the jib and kite against it, letting the kite slide around the forestay and onto the new side.

Once the kite is around, the jib trimmer uncleats the old jib sheet and trims the new sheet once the kite is full.

RELATED: 5 Tips for Better Asymmetric Speed

At leeward marks you either need to deploy the jib, then drop the chute or drop the chute, then deploy the jib. I’ve seen people try to drop the chute while unfurling the jib at the same time, and it can get ugly. Because you have a spinning furler near a loose spinnaker halyard, it’s easy for the halyard to wrap around the jib and forestay—then it’s probably race over.

If you watch a video of a 50-boat fleet in the J/70s, 48 of them will deploy the jib, drop the kite, then round the mark. Two might drop kite, start heading up then deploy the jib. There are arguments for each. I like to get the jib out, then douse, just in case there is someone reaching in to the leeward mark before you head up. Two-sail reaching is always faster than one!

The post Headsail Furling Tips appeared first on Sailing World.

Headsails are getting smaller on the latest generation of boats as designers, builders and sailors embrace the ease of handling and simplicity provided by large mainsails and smaller foretriangles. Genoas no longer exist on modern racing boats, but the day of the overlapping genoa is also numbered for cruising sailors. They will not be missed!

Roller furling has been standard issue for generations and still the go-to system whenever possible. On sails with overlapping headsails this is typically a medium to large roller furling genoa. For the latest designs this can be a non-overlapping sail that is as large as possible but still fits in the foretriangle.

Having the right sized headsail with the right amount of overlap will make all of the difference when it comes to handling and managing it. Here are the factors you’ll need to consider and some options to meet your needs.

Size of Foretriangle vs Main

The larger the mainsail relative to the headsails, the smaller the genoa needs to be. Check the foot length of the mainsail (“E”) versus the base of the foretriangle from mast to stem (“J”). If they are equal, or if E is longer than J, the boat relies more on its mainsail for horsepower and the jibs can be smaller. The latest performance cruising boats have huge mainsails and use non-overlapping jibs as the primary sail. On the other side of the coin, more traditional cruising boats have relatively small mainsails and big “J” dimensions. These are genoa dependent, and will need larger headsails.

J vs LP

LP is the shortest distance from clew to luff. It is expressed as a percentage of “J” (150% LP = 1.5 x J). It does not relate directly to area, but is a measure of overlap. For a given percentage of overlap, you get a much bigger sail on a boat with a long J dimension.

Crew & Conditions

The make-up of your crew and your normal conditions aren’t part of your boat measurements, per se, but they are important factors to keep in mind as you make an optimized sail plan. The larger, stronger and more experienced your normal sailing companions are, the bigger the sail you can manage. Power winches can assist in sail handling as well.

When considering what size headsail will be best for your boat, factor in the average wind speeds for the region in which you will sail most frequently.

Performance

Going larger (say from a 135% to a 150%) is usually only a benefit in under eight to ten knots of breeze. Additional LP is a liability in more breeze. It is also only of marginal, if any, benefit while reaching and running. With sheets eased, most of the back end of a genoa is turned back into the boat. A higher clew is actually the biggest help when reaching because it keeps the sheeting angle consistent so you don’t lose the top of the sail.

Furling

Genoas for roller furling are usually sold on the premise that they can be used partly furled. This is true from a structural standpoint if allowances are made in the initial construction. Shape deteriorates with the amount of sail furled. Most sailmakers will quote reasonably effective reduction of up to 30% of the original LP. Beyond this, you have a triangle but not much of an airfoil. When sailing off-the-wind this probably isn’t that important, but it is if you want to go upwind.

The bottom line is that handling and versatility considerations suggest keeping the genoa as small as possible. Build only enough size to maintain the ability to drive the boat reasonably well in light to moderate conditions. The more easily the boat drives, and the larger the mainsail relative to the headsail, the smaller the LP can be.

The Working Jib

Now that we’ve looked at all the factors needed to make an informed decision on headsail size, let’s look at the working jib.

For serious offshore work, a smaller, second headsail is required. The second headsail should be a heavy working jib, with an LP between 85% and 100%. In more than 15 to 18 knots of breeze, depending on the same performance versus foretriangle size considerations which applied to the genoa, this will become the sail you will need.

If the boat were staying strictly in a light air area, it would be the sail of choice in the spring and fall, or whenever windy conditions were anticipated and could be used on the primary roller furling system. However, the difficulty of changing sails on a furling system should be recognized.

For sailing offshore, building this sail for use on an inner forestay installed separately with some type of quick release mechanism should be considered. The stay should be located well forward (unlike the classic cutter layout which puts the stay 40% of J aft), so that the working jib size does not get too small. It needs to remain large enough to be useful. In light air and constricted water, the inner forestay could be secured at the mast most of the time. This setup would allow the sail to be hanked on and ready to go when sailing offshore, and would avoid the somewhat messy change from big sail to little sail on the furling system. Roll the big sail up, attach a halyard, and hoist. The genoa could still be designed to allow for partial furling, but there is no substitute for having a purpose-built small sail for the job. Having the small jib will also protect and extend the life of the genoa, and provide needed insurance against complete sail failure when far from home. Offshore, the working jib is likely to be the correct sail a large percentage of the time. The other beauty of a separate inner forestay is that it is the perfect place to hank on a true storm jib.

The other possibility to consider would be to use a second conventional furling system on the inner forestay for the small jib. This is more of a true offshore configuration because the system will make it impossible to make the inner forestay easily removable. Tacking around the stay is the problem. However, for pure, never-go-up-on-the-foredeck ease, this setup cannot be beat.

There is a third alternative; however: the structural furler. This is a relatively recent development that is now standard issue on Super Yachts and on high performance multihulls and single-handed racing boats. Instead of a permanent stay or a wire stay that connects when needed, the system uses a hi-modulus (aramid or PBO) super rigid torsional rope inside the luff of the sail. The furling system is a free flying top-down or bottom-up model that attaches to the torsional rope. On big cruising boats the sail is hoisted up and locked off and then tensioned from the bottom (usually with a hydraulic ram) to get enough stay tension. You don’t want sag in an inner forestay designed for a heavy air sail. Usually this also requires running backstays to help keep the mast straight and the stay tight. This is not a system you would try to hoist into place in breezy conditions. This should be set up at the dock in light air before heading out on a long passage. All of this, of course, comes at a price and really requires the boat to be designed around the system from the outset.

Be sure to include your sailmaker anytime you look into optimizing your sail plan. Even if the result isn’t incorporating a new sail, having a better understanding of how your sails work together and which one to use when is invaluable. You might also be surprised to find an extra furler or some additional hardware could make all the difference in handling your headsail!

– – –

This article was brought to you by Quantum Sails.

The post Trimming the Headsail appeared first on Sailing World.

There is an old sail trim adage, “trim the front of the jib and back of the mainsail,” or where the wind meets and leaves the sail plan. Telltales are a key tool helping you figure out what is going on at these critical junctures, and that is why they are placed just aft of the leading edge of the headsail and off the leech of the mainsail. There are other places you can use telltales, off the leech of a non-overlapping headsail (jib), or sometimes in the middle of a mainsail in the upper sections, but these are less critical.

For a sail to work, air has to flow down both sides. Telltales tell us about that flow. Without them we are flying blind. They tell us all sorts of useful things depending on point of sail, wind velocity, and whether we are trimming or driving. Let’s start at the front of the boat and work our way back.

Headsail Basics

The very first time we were handed a jib sheet we learned the golden rule of sail trim, “when in doubt, let it out.” Ease until the sail luffs and trim in just enough to stop. Telltales give us a more refined look at this concept. As a general rule, start by easing until both telltales on both sides of the sail are streaming aft. Here’s a look at what you’re likely to see and how to handle it:

Both hanging straight down: If both telltales are hanging straight down you’re trimmed in too far and the air isn’t getting around the sail effectively – ease out slowly.

Leeward flowing aft, weather dancing: If you ease too far the leeward telltale will flow, but the inside (weather) telltale will lift up. Trim in a bit more to get them both flowing straight aft.

Both flowing aft: If you’re in the sweet spot, both should flow straight back.

Note: It is often hard to see the leeward telltale (especially in low light); windows are a must!

Headsail Trim on a Reach

Easing the sail on a reach allows the sail to open up (twist) from bottom to top. This effectively changes the angle of attack and the more open top telltale sections will indicate luffing (inside telltales lifting) well before the bottom. This is why we typically have at least three sets of telltales up the luff of a headsail.

To get the top telltales to flow, move the lead position outboard and slightly forward to help the sheet pull down on the clew and close down the top sections of the sail. This is where a second sheet led to the outboard rail can come into play if that’s part of your program. Depending on how far you have to ease, you may actually end up with tension on both, shifting the balance in puffs and lulls (inboard in the lulls, outboard in the puffs) as you try to maintain perfect trim.

A word of caution: you will never be able to get an eased sail to have all three sets of telltales doing the same thing on a reach. If you pull down hard enough to get the top telltales streaming aft, the bottom ones will be stalled. On a reach you have to compromise. Trim the middle of the sail perfectly. Get the middle telltales flying straight aft, allow the top inside telltale to lift some, and have the bottom outside telltale start to hang straight down – indicating stalled flow.

Ignore the telltales if you are overpowered. If the boat heels too far and wants to round up into the wind, all bets are off. You don’t need maximum power anymore, so you don’t necessarily want the telltales streaming straight aft. Ease the sail until the boat is upright and on her feet. Who cares if the sail luffs? You want it to luff to shed excess power.

Headsail Trim

Easing until there is flow over both sides works fine on a reach, but what happens when you want to go hard on the wind? Telltales still have a lot to tell you.

First, sheeted in hard, the sail should now finally luff evenly from bottom to top. As you head up, the inside telltales at the bottom, middle, and top of the sail should lift at about the same time. If the top inside is lifting well before the bottom, the lead might need to go forward. Be careful with this rule. Generally it is always best to have the top of the sail luff just a little ahead of the bottom. When in doubt it is better to have the lead too far aft than too far forward. Letting the foot flatten out and the top twist off allows you to sheet the sail harder without stalling.

The game upwind is to try to sheet the sail as hard as possible without killing all boat speed. Keep in mind the golden rule, “speed first, then point.” The sail’s distance off the spreader (or in the case of a jib how far inside the spreader tip) usually determines how far you can trim in, but telltales can provide a clue if you’re trimmed too hard. If both inside and outside telltales appear to want to break at the same time (which means the driver’s “groove” is very narrow), try easing an inch or so. Stable telltales mean a wider steering groove. The lighter the air, the more important this becomes.

In very light air small changes in wind velocity mean big changes in apparent wind angle. This makes it very hard for the helmsperson to keep up. In this situation, the trimmer can help by active trimming through puffs and lulls. In a puff the outside telltale will stall and the sail will need to be eased to keep the flow. Ease and then trim gradually as the driver slowly comes back up to the new apparent wind angle. In a lull the apparent wind will go forward and the inside telltales will lift, showing luff. Over trim for a moment to keep the sail full, then ease as the driver slides down to the new angle.

Headsail Driving Upwind

If you can’t see the headsail telltales there is no way to sail upwind efficiently. This is what makes cruising boats difficult to steer upwind. The wheel is usually so far aft to maximize cockpit space that it takes a Houdini like act to see them. Sometimes the only way around this is to go to leeward to steer. This is okay in light air, but not recommended in windier conditions.

Once you can see the telltales, the game is pretty simple. For maximum power, the telltales need to stream straight aft. If the outside telltale spins or sags straight down head up. If the inside telltale lifts bear off. In general, it is better to ride the inside telltales, having them just on the verge of lifting. In medium air with the boat going well, it is okay to have them lifting up so that the inside telltale is at a 45 degree angle, and the leeward telltale remains straight back. With good boat speed you want to stay on the high side of the groove.

Remember the adage “speed first, then point?” In light air be careful about getting too high in the groove (inside telltale lifting). Press (head down) on the jib and make sure both telltales stream aft, perhaps even allowing the outside bottom telltale to stall part of the time. Typically you are relying on the telltales in the window, the bottom set, but in light air it might be better to move your eyes up to the middle set of telltales because the bottom outside will tend to stall. This is when it is okay to steer from the leeward side to see the whole sail. Your weight down will help create needed heel anyway. If the sail is stalled at the bottom all the time in order to keep the boat moving it may just be over trimmed – ease slightly.

In windier conditions telltales become less important and the angle of heel rules. As a puff hits don’t try to keep the telltales flowing, let the boat head up to maintain the same angle of heel and keep the helm pressure constant. The inside telltales will lift indicating a luffing sail. This is called “feathering.” Feather, don’t fight. Sail a constant angle of heel letting the boat come up in the puffs and bearing off to add heel in the lulls.

Main Trimmer

When it comes to trimming the main off the wind the standard rule applies: let it out until it luffs along the leading edge, then trim in just enough to stop. Telltales come in handy when setting twist. With the boom eased out it begins to lift, opening or twisting the leech. If it is too open you are giving away power. Too closed and the flow will be stalled off the trailing edge. The telltales should be streaming. The vang takes care of pulling down and controlling twist on a reach, so add vang until the top telltale just begins to stall. The top telltale is the key, as it will stall first.

On a deep run with the mainsail eased all the way out perpendicular to the boat (or up against the shrouds) it may not be possible to get attached flow off the back of the sails and the telltales may not be useful. In this scenario you just have to go back to keeping the top batten parallel to the boom.

Upwind the mainsheet (sometimes helped out by the vang in windier conditions) takes over the job of controlling twist.

Light Air: In light air, make sure there is flow off the back of the sail by having all the telltales flowing. More twist makes it easier for the boat to accelerate. Again, the top telltale will stall first if you are over trimmed and pulling down too hard. It is almost impossible to stall the lower telltales unless you are grossly over trimmed.

Medium Air: In medium conditions you can sheet harder since the boat is now up to speed. Trim as hard as you can without slowing the boat down below target speed. The top telltale may be stalled a lot of the time.

Heavy Air: In heavy air it is just a matter of keeping the boat on her feet. Ease the mainsheet to control heel and helm. The telltales will always be streaming, but they are no longer the issue.

The Other Telltales

I mentioned earlier that sometimes we use telltales in addition to the ones on the luff of the jib and the leech of the mainsail.

Telltales can be used on the leech to indicate flow on a non-overlapping jib. As usual, it is the top telltale that counts. Usually there is only a single telltale in the upper 25% of the leech. Trim too hard or pull the lead too far down (or too far forward) for conditions and that telltale will stall. Twist is essential in a non-overlapping sail so you always want the telltale flying.

Additional telltales are also used sometimes in the upper sections of the mainsail across the middle of the sail. They help refine the twist picture and give a more subtle indication of how hard you are trimming the mainsail. They may indicate stalled flow before the leech telltale disappears. Again, they are in the top sections of the sail because that is where the sail will stall first if over trimmed. If they are too close to the mast the disturbed flow behind the spar will make them useless.

Don’t fret if this feels like a lot to digest and think about while sailing, pick a section to practice during your next sail and test it out. Experiment with easing out and trimming in, as well as adjusting cars or vang, and pay attention to how things change, not only how the boat sails, but also how the telltales change. As you practice, reading your telltales and sail trim will become second nature.

This tip was brought to you by Quantum Sails.

The post What are your Telltales Telling You appeared first on Sailing World.

It’s the final race of the 1999 Farr 40 Worlds in San Francisco, and the breeze has built to 20 knots. I’m trimming the jib on Samba Pa Ti. Our experience tells us we don’t need any jib inhauler in anything above 15 knots, so I ease it all the way off. Our speed is excellent, and we overcome a large point deficit to win the championship by a point.

Fast-forward 17 years to the first day of racing at the 2016 Farr 40 Worlds in Sydney. This time I’m trimming the jib on Plenty. Again it’s blowing 20 knots, but this time the jib is almost fully inhauled. We come off the starting line, peel off three boats that start above us, finish the day in the lead, and go on to win the championship — with the same boat and wind velocity, but a major change in how we trim our jib.

What led us to change our approach to jib trim? While I believe this has mostly been a change in technique, sailcloth development has also allowed for ever-narrowing sheeting angles. Jibs are now flatter in the back of the sail and produce straighter exit angles. With better materials, they’re also less likely to stretch into rounder profiles as the wind increases.

Inhauling is not limited to the Farr 40 class. Most grand-prix one-design classes have narrowed jib sheeting angles as well. Each time designers believe they’ve reached the limit, the next design comes with an even narrower option. In fact, the jib sheeting angle on a new TP52 is so narrow that it’s difficult for a crewmember to fit between the mast and jib leech when it’s sheeted on hard.

Although it’s a simplification, one saying I use is “The jib is your height; the main is your speed.” To maintain height, we leave the jib inboard as long as possible. Before we even think about changing it, we do what we can to reduce front load on the jib. We’ll go with more leech twist, a flatter foot (car aft), a flatter overall sail shape with more headstay tension, more jib halyard or jib cunningham, or rig tune. Only then will we move the lead outboard.

Jib sheeting systems on almost every sailboat fall into one of two categories: athwartship tracks or fore-aft tracks. In athwartship systems, such as those found on TP52s or Maxi 72s , the jib sheeting angle is determined by moving the sheeting point inboard or outboard. Here, moving the sheeting position fore and aft is controlled by a purchase system. The inboard limit of these tracks has progressively moved inboard year after year.

In fore-and-aft systems, such as what one would find on a Swan 45 or Farr 40 , the jib sheeting position is determined by moving the turning point forward or aft, and the angle is changed with an inhauler system. This method of adjusting the jib sheeting angle is more complicated than the method for athwartship tracks. Whichever system you use to deflect the sheet inboard, pay close attention to the effect it has on jib-foot depth. Different systems will produce different geometry. When you pull the jib inboard, does the foot get flatter? If so, the fore-and-aft position will need to go forward to compensate. This is the case on the Farr 40. However, the opposite applies on the Farr 30.

Since most athwartship tracks are straight, you may also see subtle differences in foot depth that result when the jib moves inboard. Another factor to remember is that the position of the sheet’s turning point does not determine the true sheeting angle; it’s the location of the sail that’s most important. In other words, with the sheeting position of a sail set at 7 degrees, the effective sheeting angle of a sail with a very low clew might be 7.1 degrees, which is caused by wind pressure pushing the sail outboard. A sail with a very high clew, however, might actually sit at 8 degrees, as the forces are able to push it farther outboard. To achieve a narrow sheeting angle for a jib with a higher clew, you will need to use more inhauler or move the athwartship position farther inboard.

The focus of this article is sheeting your jib more narrowly, but the jib can never be trimmed in isolation, as it has a critical effect on the mainsail. The best upwind performance happens when the jib and mainsail are in balance. Always consider what trimming one sail does to the other. A boat with a narrowly sheeted jib but a mainsail with the traveler down may be out of balance, possibly even washing out the main with backwash from the jib. Likewise, a boat with a widely sheeted jib but a mainsail sheeted very hard, with the traveler to weather, may create an imbalance.

There are, however, limitations to inhauling. If your jib is too round in the back, there may be too much drag to make the most out of it. Your inhauler system may also create friction during tacks, as you’re leading the jibsheet through the inhauler and the jib-car block or ring.

Boats that sail with less leeway don’t sheet their jib as narrowly, because the jib’s angle of attack is influenced by how much or how little the boat is slipping sideways through the water. The more the jib is sliding to leeward in space, the more narrowly it should be sheeted to correct the effective angle of attack.

Real-World Use

Figure out a system that works for your boat and practice using it, or experiment with using more of it if you’ve been using inhaulers already. Mark all your control lines so you can repeat fast settings.

Now it’s time to race. You can get the most out of narrower jib sheeting off an upwind starting line. We have a mode on Plenty and the Maxi 72 Bella Mente called “flaps-down,” which we stole from the aviation industry. Planes take off with flaps down to create maximum lift. We go into the same mode to generate our own maximum lift. Our trim from behind looks ridiculous, especially compared with former standards of what was thought reasonable, with the jib sheeted very narrowly and the mainsail traveler high to weather.

The result is that we regularly point higher with the same speed as teams that start above us. The best case for them is that they can tack away when we get to them. The worst case is, as often happens in the first minute or two off the start, that the boats are still on starboard close together, and there is nowhere to go. Then we put the hurt on boat after boat and make gains at the most important time of the race. This setup is not exclusively for use off the starting line. Remember, the jib is your height; the main is your speed.

Once in the open course, don’t blame the sheeting angle if you’re slow. Twist the main first. Press on the jib. Watch the numbers increase. If that’s not enough, flatten the sails. Use more backstay, more outhaul and more cunningham. Flatten the jib foot. Pull on the vang. Hike harder.

The jib sheeting angle is definitely a factor, but it’s not the first on the list. In fact, widening the sheeting angle often puts more backload on the boat. The main loads up, the rudder angle increases, and there’s more weather helm. The boat is out of balance. Now you are pointing lower, but you also haven’t gained any speed. These things are all about balance. Of course, if the main is washing out in 20 knots and you’ve reached the limits of where you want to go with jib twist and depth, then widening the jib sheeting angle is an obvious tool. Make sure you’re doing everything else correctly before you surrender to tradition and risk giving away height or putting the boat out of balance.

Always keep in mind the final goal: to sheet the jib more narrowly without compromising other critical aspects of good jib setup, such as balance in the mainsail, jib twist and jib-foot depth. Headstay sag and luff tension are also part of the perfect jib setup, but for our purposes, we will leave them off the list, as they are not significantly affected by the jib sheeting angle. The ultimate compliment to your setup will be when competitors refuse to start anywhere near you on the starting line. That is their way of saying: “Well done. We can’t do that.” You’ve won the first battle.

The post Inhaul for Height appeared first on Sailing World.

1. Use your class’s tuning guide to get in a good range for rake, shroud tension and lead position.

2. Use the leech telltales to determine sheet tension. In stable, underpowered conditions, you can stall the upper leech telltales as much as 30 percent of the time. As you get overpowered or the wind becomes unstable, the telltales must steadily flow all the time.

3. After the sheet, the most important variable is headstay sag. As you become overpowered, it is critical to reduce camber and twist the jib with a straighter headstay. Doing so can be even more important than achieving optimum mainsail shape, so sometimes the main has to be fuller than desired to achieve a tight enough headstay. A straighter mast gives straighter headstay.

4. As a base jib-lead setting, get the foot of the jib to a depth similar to the lower 1/4 draft stripe, or a little bit flatter. It’s critical to get the base position correct on high-aspect jibs. Copy a fast guy to get it right.

5. Use the jib halyard to remove wrinkles from the luff. In overpowered conditions, a little more tension will keep the draft forward. When underpowered, you can have a few wrinkles.

1. Before each race, define a good range for the jibsheet — both maximum tightness and maximum looseness. Use marks on the sheet or another solid reference. Reproducibility is critical.

2. Inhauling is an important variable that must be well understood on boats that allow it. Essentially, the load is shared between the two sheets, with the windward sheet pulling the clew forward and inboard. The degree of inhaul is also related to foot depth and twist. Make sure you have marks on the weather sheet as well, and keep an eye on the leech telltales. Often the jib lead has to be more aft when inhauling to compensate for the weather sheet pulling forward.

3. The primary control during a race is the sheet. If the boat feels fast and loose, trim tighter. If the boat is hard to sail, ease a little. In under­powered conditions, you’ll be able to trim tighter in the puffs, while overpowered conditions require you to ease the sheet in bigger puffs.

4. If you are not pointing well, the problem may not be the jib. You might have the main too flat or too loose, or you might be heeling too much.

1. Use the relative trim of the main and jib to get the right helm load. If you want more helm, try a tighter main and looser jib, and vice versa.

2. Make sure jib batten tension is correct, as too much tension can distort leech shape.

Read More: How To | Sail Trim

The post 11 Tips for Better Jib Performance appeared first on Sailing World.

As the J/Boat team leader for Quantum Sails, I spend a lot of time racing with customers on current J/Boat models. Many of these boats have non-overlapping jibs with controls for sheeting the jib. The main controls are jib sheet, halyard, jib track, and inhauler.

So what are the basics of getting the most speed and height out of the boat?

Mark Trim Locations

Creating a point-of-reference is critical for getting the most performance possible. Start by sailing the boat and marking trim locations. I like using light colored line so I can mark the line with a sharpie. Mark the spreaders for leech position, inhaulers, jib car location, and jib sheets. These marks make it easy to quickly duplicate the fast locations. This is a great start, but follow up with some thread and a needle to make the marks more permanent after you confirm the placement.

Power in Adjustments

The next thing to consider is the power in the adjustments. Adjustable jib leads are important, but under load they still can’t be moved, even if you pull as hard as you can, so make sure you have enough mechanical advantage to adjust the jib leads and inhaulers. On the J/109, we changed from a 4:1 to 6:1 purchase system. That let us adjust the lead in 20 knots. The line you use is also important; use low-stretch line for these adjustments. Spectra core is the way to go. Placement is also important. I like the inhauler control to be on the windward side of the boat. By having it there, you can ease out the inhauler while still being on the windward rail.

Setup for Proper Trim

Now that you have your boat setup with repeatable and easy-to-adjust settings, fine-trim the sail. For most J/Boats, set the inhaulers on the outside edge of the handrail, about eight degrees off centerline. Set the halyard to take the wrinkles out of the luff of the sail. Set the jib leads as far aft as possible with the luff of the sail breaking evenly. If the top of the sail breaks first, move the lead forward; if the bottom of the sail breaks first, move the lead aft. Finally, trim the sail so the leech tell tales are not flowing, then ease the sheet until they start to flow. When you get to this stage, work through the trim loop again – check halyard, luff break on the jib tell tales, and sheet tension.

One of the most common mistakes I see is a flat foot when trimming a jib. That’s okay if the luff is breaking even; however, if the lower tell tales are stalled with the upper tell tales flowing, it’s likely that you’re not maximizing your speed. Use the tell tales as your guide, and don’t worry about the fullness of the lower sections of the sail. Also, remember that most of these classes have a limited number of jibs – usually an AP (or J1) jib and a heavy jib, which can be a J2 or J3 design. That means there has to be a fair amount of adjustment for the sail to be effective through a wind range of 15 knots.

Shifting Gears

Light wind

The biggest adjustment is sailing into light wind. Let’s say you’re sailing upwind in 8-10 knots of breeze. You have everything sheeted perfectly when all of a sudden the wind dies to four knots. The result? The jib is now over-trimmed, you’ll need to ease the sheet. Adjust the jib halyard next, giving it a slight ease.

Next, check the luff of the sail. Is it breaking evenly? If not – even in the light wind, even with the lead forward – go ahead and ease the inhauler. This will shift the lower section of the jib outboard and make the sail fuller. At the same time, sheet tighter with the upper leech tell tales still flowing slightly. This should help your light-air speed and make it easier for the skipper to keep the boat moving.

Big Breeze

Suppose you’re trimmed perfectly in 18 knots of wind – the backstay is maxed out, the main is as flat as possible and slightly depowered, the inhauler is outside the handrail, and the jib leads are aft with the luff breaking even. Then the wind increases to 22 knots. Ease the inhauler to three inches off the rail, burp the main, and sail through the puff. If the wind increases and stays heavy, try dropping the lead aft another two inches and let the top of the sail break first. The key is to keep speed on the boat and not heel too much. By keeping the boat flat and fast through the water, the keel will work for you and develop lift, helping the boat to point.

Rig Tension

Rig tension has a huge effect on sail shape. The tighter the rig, the flatter the jib; the softer the rig, the fuller the jib. Learning how to adjust the rig for different conditions can yield big results. If you’re sailing in a one design class, ask your sailmaker for a tuning guide, and don’t be afraid to use it. Your sailmaker can also help advise you on how to make adjustments. Getting your boat set up with the proper rake and pre-bend in the spar is critical. Working the rig setting for more or less wind can make the difference between a finish on or off the podium.

The post Improving your Jib Trim appeared first on Sailing World.