How Your Mainsheet Affects Sail Power

Visit http://www.skippertips.com for more sailing tips. How does your mainsheet affect speed, power and performance? No matter whether you day sail, cruise or race, this often forgotten draft control can make a big difference in balance. Learn the sailing secrets you need to trim your mainsail like a pro! Captain John with 25+ years of experience shows you the no-nonsense cruising skills you need for safer sailing worldwide. Visit his website at https://www.skippertips.com and sign up for his highly popular Sailing Tip of the Week. Discover how you can gain instant access to hundreds of sailing articles, videos, FREE e-Books and much more!

How Your Mainsheet Affects Sail Power sentiment_very_dissatisfied 2

Sailing 10 years ago 11,387 views

Visit http://www.skippertips.com for more sailing tips. How does your mainsheet affect speed, power and performance? No matter whether you day sail, cruise or race, this often forgotten draft control can make a big difference in balance. Learn the sailing secrets you need to trim your mainsail like a pro! Captain John with 25+ years of experience shows you the no-nonsense cruising skills you need for safer sailing worldwide. Visit his website at https://www.skippertips.com and sign up for his highly popular Sailing Tip of the Week. Discover how you can gain instant access to hundreds of sailing articles, videos, FREE e-Books and much more!

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Most popular comments
for How Your Mainsheet Affects Sail Power

FoxIslanderSteve
FoxIslanderSteve - 10 years ago
...love these Capt. John vids....each short, to the point and generally covering one subject.
Captain John's Skipper Tips
Captain John's Skipper Tips - 10 years ago
Thanks for the comment, Steve!
Greg Gray
Greg Gray - 10 years ago
When you refer to adding tension, do you mean with the outhaul or boom vang?
Captain John's Skipper Tips
Captain John's Skipper Tips - 10 years ago
Greg, the video concentrated on the mainsheet to shape the leech with the boom still over the boat (i.e. close hauled). So, the vang will not have a lot of effect until the boom moves over the water. So, for example, if you have too much twist in the sail, you can add a bit of mainsheet tension to add fullness aft, which will move the draft aft. You can fine tune draft location with the halyard or Cunningham. You might also check out my earlier video "Mainsail Draft Secrets for Sailing".
Dougyelnats
Dougyelnats - 10 years ago
excellent tip..
Captain John's Skipper Tips
Captain John's Skipper Tips - 10 years ago
Thanks, Dougyelnats!
spelunkerd
spelunkerd - 10 years ago
The shape that looks most like an airplane wing is the second illustration, at 0:38. Why is it that maximal power comes from a shape less like an airplane wing?
Captain John's Skipper Tips
Captain John's Skipper Tips - 10 years ago
The second illustration shows a sail that's way too flat in the back half of the mainsail. Follow the curve of the sail all the way across from the mast to the edge of the leech. Note how it forms somewhat of an elongated "S" shape. On your mainsail, the most power of the sail comes from the aft section. If you over flatten this section, you lose power. Compare this to pressing down on your car's  accelerator; then taking your foot off the accelerator. The car keeps going forward, but loses power.  This sail will still drive the boat forward, but with a big loss of power.

There will be times when you want to "over-twist" the leech to dump air off the top of the sail. In high, gusty winds, you may want to depower the mainsail to keep the boat on her feet, and weather helm and heel under control.  Of course, you will want to reef as soon as possible, but depowering techniques are good to know. But this video was not about heavy weather techniques, but basic sail trim in moderate sailing conditions. Also see my video on "Mainsail Draft Secrets for Sailing".

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