Looking to join the Mac-club! Advice on 26x Sail Improvement

[dlandersson]

Don't forget the hull factor.

It's well known that white hulls are faster. Are they better sailing as well?

It's important to note that I was talking about 55 degrees to true wind, which at 5 knots is around 35 degrees to apparent wind. So I think we're probably talking about the same thing. Also, with a 110% working jib I'd expect better pointing than my 150% roller furling genoa.

The M does not have much in the way of rake adjustment possible due to the rotating mast joint, which must be very close to straight up in order to function. On the M, an easily rotating mast indicates correct rake. On an X, you have some options.

[DHK79]

LOL, cute. Never thought of the hull factor.

I'm also using a 150 genoa, so that's not a difference.

If you can't adjust your rake, what about balance? Something seems to be slowing you down in a turn and if the fore/aft balance is off it can cause additional rudder drag and lead to stalling. This might also be the reason a full rudder seems to stop your boat.

Also have you measured the pivot point of your hull (this is only a possible contributing factor, as it changes the moment arms)? This is the point at which you can push the hull (no sails, rudders and centerboard down) laterally through the water. For good or worse, an X can vary this more with a partially deployed centerboard than can an M will with a partially deployed daggerboard.

[DHK79]

I Just got back from a wonderful day on the water and here's the performance report for my .

Try as I might, I could not get the boat to stall in a tack. We had 10 to 15 knots of wind today and no issues. Today I even put a complete novice on the helm and even with his constant over steering, he didn't stall. The only time this boat has ever been close to being in irons on a tack was when I didn't have enough wind to make headway. So I'd say that myth is safely busted, it's not factor inherent to the X but probably due to tuning and/or balance.

Also a hard rudder on my boat will not stop its forward motion. Now I did measure rudder deflection and with my outboard (Suzuki DF70) it is restricted to 30 degrees, so if yours is 45 degrees I could see that one.

Now I will note one new handling limitation - When backing, directional control is very poor with the nearly flat bottom hull of a Mac. Partially lowering the center board will help.

Doug

[DHK79]

It's important to note that I was talking about 55 degrees to true wind, which at 5 knots is around 35 degrees to apparent wind. So I think we're probably talking about the same thing.

Very close, the math just adds up. If you are moving along at 5 knots and you have an apparent wind of 35 degrees off the bow at 2.5 knots. Then the true wind would be 54 degrees off the bow at 8.9 knots. A tad sluggardly but conceivable, plus I don't think you presented actual numbers.

[DHK79]

Going back to mastreb's comments on Mac tacking, I did find that one day last year in fairly light winds I had my Mac stall in a tack just before crossing into the wind. Since the conditions seemed right to evaluate this phenomena, I decided to play with it a bit. What I found was that even though the genoa was flying free & luffing at that point, it was adding enough drag directly on the bow to slow the boat's speed & turn rate and make a stall more likely. To resolve this issue, I found that furling the genoa a bit prior to making the tack would again allow for a smooth turn.