Donal wrote:
Walt wrote:

Why would you want to set the traveller lower? That's usually done to
depower the main, which doesn't seem to be what you were after.

I can understand travelling the main down in a drifter to flatten the
sail, but 8kts shouldn't be low enough that you would want to flatten -
seems to me you should be powering up. What gives?

I'm not very good at sail trim.

I don't know that I am either, but here's my $.02:

Most of the time you just set the traveler in the middle, and trim the
mainsheet as needed. With the traveler in the middle, sheeting the
sail all the way in brings the boom to the centerline - probably over
trimmed for most situations, so it's rare to sheet in all the way when
the traveler is in the middle.

With the traveler let down somewhat ( a dozen cm for a dinghy,more for
a boat your size) as you sheet in hard the boom doesn't come all the
way to the centerline - it only comes in as far as the traveler
position. At that point, sheeting in harder doesn't pull the boom in
- it pulls it down, flattening the mainsail, bending the mast, and
depowering the rig.

So I view the traveler as a way to depower when beating in higher winds.


During the winter, there was some discussion here about travellor
position. It seems that I have been setting it too high. I've been
looking forward to doing some trials. However, it isn't easy in a 32 ft
boat in the Solent - the boat is too slow to respond, and the wind is
too variable. I used to set the travellor above the centreline, so that
the boom was actually on the centreline. Yesterday, I dropped the
travellor to about 4 inches below th c/l.

Pulling the boom all the way to the centerline is probably over
trimming in most situations, so letting the traveler down was likely
an improvement, even if you let it down too far. That said, we're
probably talking about speed differences of a boat-length or two per
mile - vitally important if you're racing, irrelevant if you're not.

Also, the 8kts was the true wind speed, so we had about 10 over the deck.

8 kts is borderline planing conditions for me. Not light air at all.
Much more (well, twice as much) and effective depowering is the
difference between staying upright and going for a swim.


--
// Walt
//
// There is no Volkl Conspiracy