Under sail comparisons

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amytom
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Under sail comparisons

Post by amytom »

Had a beautiful weekend sailing. Left Waterline Marina in Melbourne and sailed up to the VAB in the Indian River. Spent the night anchored off the VAB with the kids playing with the bioluminescence in the water and Amy and I were counting the shooting stars. Perfect.

Now to the questions:

1. We had between 20-30 knots on the beam most of the time. At 25knots with two slabs reefed out of the main and the full jib out we were hitting 6.5 to 7.5 knots. Does this sound right or am I doing something wrong?

2. With the above conditions the main was still overpowering the jib. I had the wheel over about 90 degrees to leeward to go straight and during the gusts I had to go over further. Is this common or should I be able to balance the sails better?

3. During the trip our Helm seat finally died; the wood rotted out from under it. This sounds like a great oppurtunity to replace it with a helm seat for two. Does anyone know of one that fits the 32?

4. Finally saw some output from the wind generator. At 25 to 30 knts of wind the older style Air Marine gave us between 5 to 12 amps of power. This was after running the batteries down with the microwave and autopilot. The solar was also putting out about 5 amps. We woke up this morning with the house bank at 12.1V and within two hours it was back up to 12.7. Is this reasonable performance or should we be doing better?


Thanks for any thoughts.

Tom
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thinwater
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Strong conditions. Not the beginers class!

Post by thinwater »

1. Yes, if you mean the self tacking jib, that sounds about right. Actually, more speed should be available, which brings us to 2....

2.Yes, I think you have some trim issues. With 2 reefs in the main will not cause the boat to round up unless you have the main in too tight and the jib out too far. With the wind on the beam at that strength, you can travel the main at least 1/2 way out, perhaps all the way. Look a the tell tales on the leach; if they are wrapping behind the sail rather than flowing, the main is over sheeted or traveled too high. The jib traveler should probably be about 10" from the end of the track, but go by the tell tales. Probably all the way out but sheeted tight would give the best speed. Same with the main; not too much twist, but traveler down.

3. I would not go for a seat for 2. Personal opinion only. I would rather have a nice bucket seat for when there are beam seas. That is why your seat chose that day to crumble. I like snuggling with my wife just fine, but not with 25 knot beam seas!

4. No idea without doing the math. You can find a charge vs. voltage table on the web. Look up the AH capacity of you battery bank. Then figure out how many AHs you put in and where that should put you on the voltage curve. Bear in mind that the voltage depends STRONGLY on whether you are charging or drawing when you take the 2 readings. It is best to take the readings with a light draw (1-2 amps).

Sounds like you had fun! I spend Sunday taking 2 engines out and replacing them. A long, but eventually successful day. I need to go sailing, now that they work! :D :D
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doubledutch
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Re: Under sail comparisons

Post by doubledutch »

Sounds to me like main was in way too tight. I would expect sailing speeds in double digits in those conditions.

The condition of your main will also have a big impact. I had mine worked on to get some of the stretch out and I went to much stiffer battens to improve shape.

Henry
amytom
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Re: Under sail comparisons

Post by amytom »

Thanks for the thoughts.

I did have the main traveler all the way over to leeward and the main sheet pulled tight trying to flatten the sail. The Jib traveler was about a foot in from the end and the sheet was fairly tight but still a lot of twist in the jib. The jib was fluttering quite a bit too, even with the leach line pulled tight.

Also having the rudder over so hard probably increased drag slowing us down even more.

It probably is time to have the sails re-worked and get new battens. Is there anywhere in central Florida that can be reccomended?

Also, does anyone have a sail trim cheat sheet or best practices? That may help me out too.

Thanks again for all the help.

Tom
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MagicDragon
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Re: Under sail comparisons

Post by MagicDragon »

Googled using search term: sail trim cheat sheet and found the following immediately. The last link is neat - laminated cheat sheet to bring into the cockpit and play with. happy sailing!

http://sailkicks.com/learn/sail_trim_cheats.html

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/racing-ar ... asics.html

http://www.amazon.com/Sail-Trim-Rig-Tun ... 0071440135
http://www.MagicDragonPDQ.com
Angela Barbati
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near Cleveland, OH
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thinwater
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Re: Under sail comparisons

Post by thinwater »

Regarding battens, check my post in DIY stiffening.

http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/search?q=battens

It was a two-evening job, perhaps 3 hours all-told, and really did help.

You may need to leave some twist in the main until the boat accelerates, then sheet in. Like riding a bicycle, until you get some speed up the keel doesn't work right. Then the speed will climb and the helm will go lighter. It's kind of a "touch" thing. It is not unusual to get that situation with a full main and small jib, but with a reef in it should not be a problem.

I once read that it isn't just the settings, but the history of the settings; has the boat accelerated to speed since the last tack? It is very important with these boats to let them breath a bit after a tack and to get going.
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"Rigging Modern Anchors,"Seaworthy Press, https://www.amazon.com/Rigging-Modern-A ... 1948494078
Book Store. http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/2017/ ... store.html
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