Sailing Upwind

[Schock Therapy]

Schock, I also find that I get more speed reefed in winds aproaching 20 knots than I do with all the canvas in the air. Upwind that is. Weve hit 7 knots beating and reefed down in wind that stiff. I cant do it with all of the canvas up with the excessive heel.

Yes, that ties in to my point that "flat is fast". Excessive heel is not fast on any boat, and flat bottoms should be kept as close to flat as possible. That is why you see racing crews hiking hard on the rail while sailing upwind. It is very important to make sure you have just the right amount of sail area up for given conditions. The Macs sound like very tender boats, and as such, require you to reduce sail much earlier. Personally I can count the number of times I've reefed the main on one hand. That is because the boats I sail on, and my own boat have full inventories of headsails for all conditions. I hate reefing, and consider it to be a last resort!

Reefing the stock genny will raise the foot of the sail to a point that it will drive the bow to leeward. The stock genny was not designed as a "reefing" head sail---only a furling sail.

I'm not sure where you are coming from on this one! There is no reason why the foot of your genoa must be at a certain height. As long as you have enough adjustment in your lead position to maintain decent twist, it doesn't matter how high it is. The only reason race boats use "deck-sweeper" genoas is to use the deck as an "end plate" preventing spillage under the sail. Many #2s, #3s and storm jibs have high clews.

Scott, I hope you don't mind a bit of critique.....



Your mainsail looks WAY too full in this pic. It looks to me like you just pulled your halyard on hand tight. You need to get that puppy on a winch and CRANK it! If you have, and it still looks like that, then your luff rope has shrunken, and you need to get it redone. It's harder to see fullness in the middle of the sail, but judging by the wrinkles and the curvature of the shadows I would say the whole sail is much to full. you need to crank on that outhaul!

The thing that I notice most out on the water is that alot of people seem to be afraid to pull things tight! Don't be! don't think of your rig as a "clothes line" that you hang your sails on! Think of it as a frame to stretch it out on! Don't worry, sails are designed to be stretched that way!

[Scott]

Schock, I dont mind critique at all, I dont recall the trim when that pic was taken.

It looks to me like Im luffing a bit but you could be right. I usually put all 170# of moveable ballast on the halyard before I cleat it. (The bolt is a bowstring at that point) and as much tension as I can get in the outhaul.

Notice how close to level the boat is, Wifee was possibly spilling some wind with the sheet. That and the belly of the stock mac main IS way too full.

[craiglaforce]

I also found the stock mainsail to be cut poorly with a HUGE belly that could not be removed by halyard tension. I replaced it with a new one from CD Sails. I told them I wanted the new sail cut fairly flat, and they made me a sail just like I wanted.

I also asked for a smaller roach on the new sail which has limited the top speed a bit so maybe this was not a good idea. I was just sick of fouling the topping lift and having to work harder to keep the leech of the sail happy. (yeah, I know, get a boomkicker). But having the smaller roach has made the boat more manageable in high winds (I very seldom reef the main even though I have 2 reef points that are very well placed on the new sail.) I always find the boat is slower when reefed.

I still would like a halyard winch. I have resisted the trend to bringing the main halyard aft. I am comfortable up on deck in most any conditions and need to be up there anyway to lash the sail to the boom. To me bringing the halyard aft never made any sense, except it lets you use a line stopper and one of the sheet winches to get tension.

Maybe putting the line stopper right at the base of the mast by a turning block would make sense for me. This would let me raise the main at the mast like normal, put a little tension on, then go aft and winch the rest of the tension on, then reach forward and secure the line stopper and free up the winch.

[bscott]

Schock---I am only reporting how a quality head sail designed for roller/reefing/furling performs when reefed. A sail that has luff tapes will not ride up as high as a standard luffed headsail and will be relatively flat. Yes, you have to adjust you jib cars and harden up the jib halyard to flatten the sail.

As a stock sail is rolled in it rides up the forestay to the point where it raises the CG of the rigging and, with the baggin effect, acts like a wind sock. This will cause the rigging to heal over in heavy winds.

The reason I reef is to reduce lift and try to avoid the higher velocity winds aloft---thus reducing heal and improve pointing.

There is a point, probably about 50% reefed that even the best designed head sail will ride up and bag---time to change out the sail for a smaller one.

[Schock Therapy]

I still would like a halyard winch. I have resisted the trend to bringing the main halyard aft. I am comfortable up on deck in most any conditions and need to be up there anyway to lash the sail to the boom. To me bringing the halyard aft never made any sense, except it lets you use a line stopper and one of the sheet winches to get tension.


Your other option is to put a reasonably powerful cunningham system on. That way you can tension your halyard by hand and then crank a few more inches with a purchase system. That would be much cheaper and easier than mounting a new winch at the mast base or on the mast.

Schock---I am only reporting how a quality head sail designed for roller/reefing/furling performs when reefed. A sail that has luff tapes will not ride up as high as a standard luffed headsail and will be relatively flat. Yes, you have to adjust you jib cars and harden up the jib halyard to flatten the sail.


I agree that if you are going to roller-reef, your headsail should be built for that purpose. If the sail was not intended for that kind of abuse, it would deteriorate very quickly. To be honest, I have little experience with roller reefing, since I don't want to abuse my sails that way. I do have an old cross-cut dacron #2 that I use for cruising that I have tried reefing. (my boat powers up very quickly even with 4000lbs of balast!) I don't much like how the sail looks when I do that, so I avoid it. That's not hard in my area where light to moderate wind is the norm. If the weather really got stinky I would just strip the #2 off the furler and hoist the #3. That would be a much more efficient sail. The problem with roller reefing a headsail is that once the luff has been rolled up a bit, the halyard tension is next to useless.

The reason I reef is to reduce lift and try to avoid the higher velocity winds aloft---thus reducing heal and improve pointing.


Agreed. Actually, a couple of my old headsails have old fashioned reef points in them. There are grommets for a second, shorter hoist, tack and clew. This will reduce sail area aloft, and still maintain good sail shape. Can't say that I've tried it yet, and it is slightly more complicated than just pulling the furling line, but it is simple enough. Just drop the halyard a few feet, connect the new tack, tie the lazy sheet onto the new clew and tack onto it.