On Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:43:46 -0500, CaveLamb
wrote:
Bruce wrote:
On Sat, 02 Jul 2011 11:02:11 -0500, CaveLamb
wrote:
I have a brand new suit of sails.
I'm trying to learn how they are going to trim -
and/or if I need to have any changes made.
Yesterday, winds 13 to 15, under mainsail only...
I could get all three tell tails on the leach to stream
only as the luff started to shiver (sometimes fairly deep).
The sailmakers said that they had added some shape.
I'm wondering if this may mean too much belly in this sail.
Why did the sailmaker add belly to the sail? Something you said?
Cheers,
Bruce
I think he thought they might be too flat.
This is not a common boat.
Anyway, things went better today.
I had a conflict between the main halyard and topping lift that
wasn't letting the main all the way up yesterday. In an effort
to get going I didn't notice it.
LOTS better today, but the few times I tried to pinch way up
all we did was luff.
Nice light air drive, though.
Dorothy is driving. On instruments!
It's 103 today and the sun was fierce.
So the shade is up even if it means she can't see up.
I think she did really well though, considering.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lBYPMJbul4
I did try to pinch up way high once. But all that happened was a
big luff. I can't hold 30 degrees off. Probably not even 35.
40 - maybe...
A bit of history on this...
This is a replacement main sail by the same loft.
It was made to factory specs and didn't fit all that well.
A bit short of hoist and long on the foot.
(even though I measured the rig for them)
So it looked like the red haired step kid in high water pants.
In spite of all that, it was the best shaped sail I've ever had!
And it could hold together at 30 off.
I didn't have the gps tracking that day.
(18 knots wind and a lot of meat on the rail!)
So I don't know how much leeway she made that close.
Probably horrendous...
But she WAS still pulling and making 2 knots.
A second problem came clearer today.
it looks like the shelf is mis-formed a bit.
Might that be because the tack is sliding aft a bit?
When I pulled it forward it did look better.
Last few pics - we do have the spec 2" of mast bend.
And the sail does look good at 45 degrees.
So how bad can it be???
The clew ring on the jib is bigger.
Bigger enough that he shackle would not go on.
I made a soft shackle for it yesterday, but she spit it out after
a couple of tacks. Today I lengthened the shackle and fed it back on itself.
It held even through a bit of flogging when the sheet grabbed.
I think it's ok now.
Like Wilbur said, the jib tamed the main tells.
Just like it was supposed to...
True the jib effects the main but the main should set properly with no
jib up. But I'm a bit confused. Were you getting horizontal wrinkles?
In which case it is probably the luff tension; or vertical wrinkles in
which case you can try more outhaul or maybe more sheet tension.
Clew ring on the jib too big? A cruising sailor attaches the sheets to
the clew with knots :-)
As for the old sail if it was too long in the foot it is pretty easy
to cut and re sew the leech. In fact changing the curve of any of the
edges is a pretty painless job.
In the movie I can't see any luff telltails but except for the foot
looking a bit loose the sail looks good to me. But you said that you
had the outhaul slacked off.
Is that your wife? And here I thought you told me that you were some
kind of old retired guy.
By the way, if you want to learn about boating find a copy of "How to
build a Tin Canoe", by Robb White, mostly about sailing off the
Georgia, N. Florida coast but a really good read. The author is dead
now but you can get the flavor of the book by reading articles on his
web site
http://www.robbwhite.com/
Cheers,
Bruce