BYYB Forums

Okay, here's one,

The other day I was beating to windward at my usual lake.  The wind was nice and steady for a change and not too stiff to play with.  As I was beating to windward, I noticed that on one tack I was making much better speed than on the other tack.  I was pointing as close to the wind as I could on both tacks.  I tried to stay just shy of having the sails luff and keeping the tell tales straight out on both tacks.  What gives?  Maybe I wasn't reading the wind direction as well as I should have, but I was still as close as I could get on both tacks.  Any suggestions?

Al

If you're as close to the wind as you can be without luffing, you're "pinching" and this robs sail drive by a lot. For best windward preformance you should sheet in until both tells trail aft, then ease out a little, until the windward tell just begins to dance. This the groove for most properly shaped sails. If you're too high the windward tell will point up. If over sheeted or sailing too low, the leeward tells will lift up.

Thanks Paul, I'll try that next time out.  Is the same thing true for the tell tales on the jib? 

Al

On a sloop, you should adjust your sheets to the jib set, unless sailing "to the wind" at which course you adjust the helm to suit the tells. Tell tails are tell tails, Al and the jib being first in line is the one that will tell you the most about what's going on. The main is affected by the jib when sailing on the wind, so adjustments should be on the jib, then the main is adjusted to suit it.