Trimming your sails Part 3 the mainsail
Sailing 11 years ago 141,684 views
http://www.onthehelm.com In part 3 of this series we learn how to trim the mainsail and keep in the groove. If you are interested in things nautical then why not visit our members website and join in the fun, we welcome people who have something to offer the great sport of sailing and boating. Website http://www.onthehelm.com
It's all in the rigging... If you're boat don't have it you can rig it with lines... A sail has 3 corners and 3 connections at those corners... And ways to tension the luff the leech and the foot... Those three change the shape.... You can in a fractional rig put a bow in the mast affecting sail shape..... Mast rotation controls can affect the sails shape.... Boom travelers for your sheet affect sail shape..... It's all in the rigging
You just think the sail has 3 corners you can pull on... You can pull on some in many directions some things allow you to pull along the sides between the 3 corners... Like semen you bend the Mast you pull forward on the sail between the head and tack.. This pulls along the entire luff but but equally due to the fractional setup and Mast design.... So the whole point is if you have triangle sails you can pull on them in many directions to change shape and if you don't have certain things on your boat to do this pulling you can rig it.....
Often times with to many available adjustments it is easy for the sailor to kill the sails shape killing speed or power......
While I'm watching this video I see a sail that has a huge drastic exaggerated deep V shape running up from the middle of the foot to the head..... It's hard to tell shape from video but that V has flats fore and aft..... IMHO flats in a sail are inefficient as hell... Now he has the best boat speed of the day which says he is doing something right but I'm certain from that shape the flow over those sails could be improved considerably from what I see in the video.... This aversion to flats comes from my aircraft design experience.... That said though even flat door shaped Wings make lift