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• Down Wind (Running) – Fly wing-on-wing or alternate broad reaches. Accidental jibes are a concern when sailing wing-on-wing so be careful. And, for this reason, when the wind is blowing hard alternating reaches may be safest.


Twist and Draft: Used to fine tune – most cruising boats I see are not making these adjustments and are thereby losing a fair amount of available speed.


• Twist – When sailing to windward, the car should be positioned so all the telltales break at the same time; doing so assures that the whole sail is working at its full potential. Moving the car forward increases downward pull on the leach and twists the leach in (windward), moving the car back increases tension on the foot and twists the leach out (leeward). Similar to the main sail, the change in twist is most obvious on the leach at the top of the sail (Pictures 1 and 2) but the telltales are a better indicator when close hauled. Therefore, if the windward telltale at the top of the sail is breaking first when the boat is steered into wind, the sail is twisted off too far and the car needs to be moved forward. Likewise, if the bottom telltale breaks first the car needs to be moved back. On a reach, the car will need to be moved


forward as the sail is let out in order to maintain the same sheet angle. If this is not done the top of the sail will twist off substantially. Note that on deeper reaches you will not be able to totally eliminate twist due to the clew moving out away from the boat.


• Draft – is normally used to maximize the power produced by a sail. In light air a deeper draft will provide more power and in heavy air less draft is used to de-power the sail, thereby reducing weather helm. Sometime, when you have a nice steady breeze, play with the draft on both sails and watch knot meter. Draft is controlled by a combination of the sheets and cars – moving the cars forward and easing the sheet just slightly (just enough to keep the angle to the clew the same) will increase draft and, likewise, moving them back and tightening the sheet slightly will reduce draft (Pictures 3 and 4). Note that as the draft increases the point of maximum depth moves aft.


Many thanks to Bob and Pam Vizenor for the use of their boat and their help taking the pictures.


Mike Huston owns a computer consulting company in the


Seattle area and teaches sailing part-time for San Juan Sailing in Bellingham, WA. He has been sailing for over 40 years, many of them spent racing. He and his wife own a Jeanneau 43DS, “Illuminé.”


48° NORTH, AUGUST 2011 PAGE 51 Picture 4


Car and sheet forward, more draft.


Picture 3


Car and sheet back, less draft.


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