On my TR, with a 150 up and an older dacron main trimmed a bit below centerline with the correct sheet tension, I'll get a big bubble in the main about a third of the way up. That says to me I have disturbed air in the slot, and like Tim says, it's the genoa that drives these older masthead boats. So I too have taken the main above centerline, watching boat speed to see what happens. Seems to help a bit. I was surprised.
Usually, what I'm doing with an old main is trying to keep enough force aft of the turning moment to counter the genoa forward of the turing moment to I can balance the helm. Beyond that I don't so much worry about it.
Tom
6219 Differnt Drummer
on the hard for the year :-(
| Tim Ford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: [email protected] 08/24/2006 03:43 PM
|
|
sounds fast then!!
w/o photos it would be difficult to
comment on the sail shape. One thing is: the genoa drives
these boaties to such a huge extent, if you were able
to open up the slot a whole bunch and you werent dragging
around your rudder, then heck, GO FOR IT!
I'd be curious as heck to see pix from that night. In 12-18 you
undoubtedly wouldve most likely probably sorta had to dump
the trav down a bit and maybe sorta kinda crack off a little leech
tension on that main by easing sheet.
most likely sorta kinda is my bet.
but hey keep sailing fast and finishing in the top 3!!!! --tf
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> It felt good!!
>
> Oh, yeah, the helm. I wasn't fighting it at all. Slight weather helm.
>
> Bob
>
>
> -------------- Original message --------------
> From: Tim Ford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> > well, how did the helm feel? if it
> > was loaded up plenty, espec in the puffs, you could've gone a
> > lot faster by centering it and reducing weather helm.
> >
> > if the helm felt light then sounds like you were optimizing
> > the sail for its current condition (7 yr old white sail)
> > and sailing fastly. quickish. speedie
> >
> > whatever.
> >
> > so howl did it feel?
> >
> >
> >
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> >
> > > The last two times I have been out racing (different crews) on my
> > > Catalina 27, the mainsail trimmers have taken the boom above
> midline
> > > by about 2 feet. I thought that anything above midline was
> effectively
> > > putting on the brakes, but the leec! h tellt ales and mid-sail
> telltales
> > > on this 7 year old, dacron, fully battened main with loose
> foot were
> > > all streaming straight back. The main sheet was fairly tight
> and the
> > > traveler car was almost as far windward as possible. The main
> had a
> > > somewhat rounded shape, where I thought it should have been
> flatter.
> > > Winds were 8-10. We squeeked out second by 12 seconds last night
> > > (sorry Cary) so we couldn't have been totally wrong.
> > >
> > > Does this sound right? Suggestions for something better?
> > >
> > > Bob Mann
> > > Windcatcher
> > > '85 C27, #5928
> > >
> >
>
