General Up & Down tips

Upwind:

-Weight out of the ends, especially the back of the bus was critical. Light air I drove from in front of the wheel, reaching back to steer.
-Light air dramatic amounts of headstay sag was fast. In light, lump we sometimes carried 18" of sag.
-In ultra-light, we used the baby stay to open the main leach.
-Up wind in 25+, we let the top of main actually invert, vang sheeted and sailed on a nice flat #3. You may have to reinforce the deck around the partners to really vang sheet depending on how your vang is rigged. Well, we had to anyway.
-The rig was drum tight and we ultimately had to reinforce the deck beam.
-Hike bitches!

Downwind:

-We used flat headed kites and low pole to force an assymetrical shape in light and medium airs. Sailed at about 145 TWA, in medium airs, 135 TWA in light, (or 90-100 AWA).
-We carried the pole consistently about 2' lower than the clew and always went for speed over depth until the breeze was in the teens.
-We had incredibly light light air spin sheets, 3/32" kevlar core leech cord line. NO shackles. NO guys until solid 12 TWS.
-Breezy reaches we sometimes reefed, given helm from the oversized main.
-In a breeze, we had a bullet-proof 1.5 oz. stable runner that we could carry up to about 32TWS, but by then you were dialing for dollars on the helm.
-Low pole, never back more than 45?, twinged down. As SOON as the rig started to move to weather, BAM on the wheel to get the boat vertical. No hesitation.

Traveller Up, Sheet off

Some times have the traveler way to weather and slack the main sheet in a blow. This allows the head to twist off ad de-power the main without flogging as much and allows us to point higher.

more DeathRoll avoidance

The key is to develop a feel for how hard the boat can roll before you lose it. The usual roll pattern is a good roll to windward, a stronger roll to leeward, and then an even stronger roll to windward, which is when you will lose it. The key is to steer up hard on the third roll, which will stop the boat from rolling. It's even better if you steer off on the leeward roll, which will dampen the overall intensity, but it is absolutely essential to steer up hard as the boat begins to roll to windward, so the boat stays under the masthead.

The "training wheels" strategy of pole forward and low will dampen the roll, as will keeping the chute well trimmed. Ease the vang in a round-up, but not on a round-down, since a loose mainsail leach forces the masthead to weather and makes it nearly impossible to jibe back if you lose it.

In extremis, you can blow the sheet, but do it quickly, so the spinnaker luff doesn't increase the windward roll. Don't blow the afterguy. This will break the pole on the forestay and probably the tull-luff, too.

Chicken stays should go from the pole butt to the rail. The goal is to prevent the pole from pushing the mast out of column, but if the tip of the pole is well and truly buried, something will break. The cheapest candidate is the mast car, the most expensive is the mast. A foreguy to led to the middle of the foredeck will prevent the water force from rotating the pole aft and keep it away from the shrouds.

More Heavy Air Spin Tips - thx SA!

A couple of things that can help.

Pre Event (the way your boat is set up)
1) Chicken stays. These are stays that run from the track on the mast for the pole, roughly opposite to the gooseneck, down to the rail about 1/2 way between the shrouds and the bow. They keep the mast from being pushed aft as the pole jams into the water. They will allow you drag the pole through the water without dismasting - as often.
2) Fore guy that is actually a "fore" guy, as opposed to a spinnaker pole vang. My Moore-24 has a fore guy in the middle of the fore deck, it keeps the pole forward but loads the mast a LOT. See #1 above to fix that. A spinnaker pole vang, that goes to the base of the mast, is easier to use sometimes but way weaker in many ways.
3) Don't pull the pole so far aft in heavy conditions. Keep the pole about 1/2 way between the shrouds and the jib stay, right over the chicken stay.
4) Crank the sheet in a bunch on the chute in these conditions so the boat actually feels a bit pinned to leeward and choked - stable and over trimmed is faster than loose and on your side.
5) NEVER EVER EVER let the main vang off at all. Mainsails wrapping around the mast and pushing the mast head to windward are #1 cause of death rolls, IMHO.
6) Finally, set the pole up with the butt end BELOW the outboard tip and have the butt end track hoist line easy to blow. See what to do with this in the next section.

During the event (while things are going badly)
1) Pull the mainsheet in hard - really hard - and fast. Frequently you can do this faster than pulling in the chute sheet.
2) Pull the sheet in on the chute - really hard and fast.
3) If the crew can, pull hard on the vang.
4) If 1 through 3 aren't doing it, blow the butt-end hoist on the spin pole track. The pole will shoot down the mast (because of #6 above - remember you set it up with the tip high!) and the pole will look as though the fore guy has been blown. But, it's much safer and more in control. Now, the pole is pointed up at about 60 degrees and you won't have the chute up around the mast head - the chute can't go up any more because you didn't loosen the fore guy or after guy.

Blowing the butt end of the pole is my fav thing to do, but it can wreck everything if you don't have the butt below the tip prior to the "event" and if you don't have a good stopper knot or stop on the end of the track.

Enjoy, we all do it.

BV




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What the heck am I doing here? Why aren't I out sailing?


NoStrings

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Find Member's Posts Today, 01:28 AM Post #33


Anarchist


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Joined: 9-January 04
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Member No.: 697



I think that most often a Chinese gybe will occur in the middle of a gybe in a big breeze. Up to that point, you might have had the pole forward, blanketing half of the kite behind the main, and all is "well". then it comes time to run deep, pull the pole aft, and gybe. That's when things tend to go pear shaped for most.

1) talk through the damn maneuver first. Make sure everyone knows EXACTLY what it is they're supposed to do.
2) make sure that everyone is ready to execute their tasks
3) do it and don't hesitate for god's sake. It's when you have to drive a rolly boat ddw for a LONG period of time that you get fucked in the ass. Trust me... I know and suspect that Peter Lyons has pics that he's too kind to publish.

Once you know FOR CERTAIN that you're screwed, you have a couple of choices...

1) trim the kite hard to round the boat up

if that doesn't work

2) sky the fucking pole to keep the mast in one piece.

You're not thinking about racing at this point, you're thinking about keeping everything in one piece so that you can race in 5 minutes.

Some of you guys need to start thinking about these events from the standpoint of the people paying the fucking bills. And please, don't give me some song and dance about "if you can't afford to lose a mast, you can't afford to race". If you think that way, please wear a sign on your chest so we can keep you off of our boats.



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No Strings Attached

more DEATH ROLL avoidance

DO NOT reef the main this will move the center of pressure too far to windward, resulting in an even faster roll to weather.

When it is really blowing (above 25 kts) we always use the smaller, flatter spi without shoulders.
we keep it right in front and near the boat, sheeted to tight, almost touching the forestay
twings are your friend. set both about 12-18 inches off the deck.
PICK A SIDE, the wind "flows" around your sails consistently, if you're ddw, it swaps direction (leach to luff, luff to leach) all the time, helping generate that "rock and roll" you get going ddw
Its all a bout the driver. React early, hard and often. AS SOON AS the masthead just starts to move to weather, punch the boat quickly and firmly in that direction. Bang. Then let up. AS SOON AS the oscillation starts the masthead swinging to leeward, punch the bow quickly and firmly in that direction. Bang. Then let up. Repeat. Break a sweat.

The idea is to keep the bow directly below the masthead and stop the rolling on the first or second smallish oscillation with quick, quick short helm movements. Quick so the flow remains attached to the rudder.

When you are rolling to weather, NEVER let your trimmer ease the sheet. The kite will LOOK like its strapped, because you just rolled to weather. DO NOT EASE!

Main Full Hoist - no need to grind!

Main should hoist to the marks and that to add luff tension to depower you adjust the cunningham.

sail cutting tolerances

The old adage of "measure twice, cut once" was never truer than in sailmaking.

mainsail girths coming in at between 9mm and 1mm under the max. If it was 10mm under, it was too much.