[Rhodes22-list] Picture of heavy weather sail adjustments

[Roger Pihlaja]

Steve,

I just took a look at the picture.  Great shot man, who took it?

Your mainsail shape & trim looks pretty good.  Your forestay sag is
negligible.  The rest of the standing rigging seems to tuned about right.

Your fore/aft genoa sheet lead position looks pretty good.  But, it looks
like your genoa could be trimmed in harder if you were trying for maximum
pointing.  If you were going for power, then it looks about right.  The
water looks pretty flat to be setup for power, but maybe you were
accelerating out of a tack.  Judging from the US flag on your stern, you
were pointing pretty high.  The genoa's sailshape is much too rounded, with
the point of maximum draft too far aft for maximum pointing efficiency.
But, the sailshape is about as good as is possible with a roller furled
genoa furled up that much.  I imagine the upwind steering groove is pretty
narrow & unforgiving with a genoa sailshape like that.

Personally, I like to put another reef in the mainsail & fly more genoa
under these conditions & point of sail.  It looks like you are running with
5-7 deg of weather helm on the rudder.  While this amount of weather helm
was probably not uncomfortable, it does add drag & slow you down
unnecessarily.  Reefing down the mainsail & flying more genoa will get rid
of all or almost all of the weather helm.  In addition, reefing the genoa
less will enable your foresail shape to be dramatically better.  Does your
mainsail have a 2nd or even a 3rd set of reef points?  If not, then consider
installing the reef points on the sail & the necessary equipment on the
boom.  It's not an expensive upgrade & you will be surprised at the
improvement.

What are you dragging in the water on the port side of the boat about
amidships?  Fenders?

You could have been going much faster & heeling less if you lowered your pop
top hatch and moved the mainsail's gooseneck down to the lower position
under these conditions.  The pop top hatch is all heeling and drag & no
thrust in the raised position on a close hauled point of sail.  The genoa
sail trimmer & helmsman will also be able to see the telltales much better
with the pop top hatch out of the way.

I can also tell from the shape of your bow & stern wakes and the attitude of
your boat in the water that you could be going faster if your crew moved
forward to the front of the cockpit & were all up on the windward gunnel.
Watch your knotmeter as you shift the crew weight forward & to windward.
You will suddenly see it jump up 1 - 2 knots as you begin to plane.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kroposki" <kroposki@innova.net>
To: "'The Rhodes 22 mail list'" <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2002 11:09 AM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Picture of heavy weather sail adjustments


> Steve,
>        Thank you for the picture:
> (http://www.rhodes22.org/pipermail/rhodes22-list/attch/200212/23/scan000
> 5.bin ).
>        Demonstrates several points clearly.
>
>                                       Ed K
>
>
>
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