Telltales breaking inside AND outside

Sail trim, rig tuning, and related topics.

Moderator: forumadmin

Post Reply
chris_z
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 8:00 pm

Post by chris_z »

I am having a heck of a time getting the genoa on my boat to look right. I have times that the outside lower telltale is breaking, while the two inside telltales are luffing straight up. The book says to move the jib car forward, but when I do the boat slows down and stops pointing. Any one else experience this? Or more importantly, has anyone else fixed this problem???
Guest

Post by Guest »

Christopher, Are the "the two inside telltales are luffing straight up" the upper tells? If so could be a simptom of not enought rig tension (headstay sag/bending off at the top).

[Posted by: Craig Wright
]
chris_z
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 8:00 pm

Post by chris_z »

Craig,

Yes, the outside telltales breaking are the bottom, and the inside telltales breaking are the middle and uppers. Do you think maybe I need another turn on the uppers? Or should I tension the middles and lowers as well?
Guest

Post by Guest »

Christopher,
What did you do with the sheet when adjusting the car position? I would have tried (and I say "tried" because I frequently find that what I think should work doesn't) letting the sheet out a tad to take care of the bottom outside telltale breaking. Then reduce the twist by moving the car forward. Then re-valuate the sheet again. And hope that the person at the helm held a steady course, that the wind didn't change, that we didn't get hit by the wake of big power boat, etc. so that I could evaluate what I had done....

I do find that everything else being equal, the boat tends to go faster with a little more twist than textbook, so that could have been what you were seeing. And "luffing straight up" isn't like they were dancing around. That's in the "go with it if the boat likes it" range.



[Posted by: Leah Beckman
]
chris_z
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 8:00 pm

Post by chris_z »

Moving the cars forward when the telltales are breaking on the top first is the textbook answer. When we do that (and of course then retrim the sail) the boat slows down about .2 knots and I lose about 5 degrees of pointing.

I have since tightened up the rig a bit (two turns on the uppers, one turn on middle and lowers) and that seems to have helped. We will keep playing with this, but only six races left in the season here...

Z
Post Reply