Sailing Close Haul

[gmerrill]

If sailing close haul in a good wind, which position is best to have your cars on the genoa tracks
Greg

[mattman]

Depends on the cut of the sail and if you are trying to de-power or not. Sounds like you mean optimal wind for the sail design. If so, then you adjust the cars for the best shape over the entire sail. Easy method, no flat spots, max draft well forward, with windward and leeward tells stalling at the same time. In light air let the sail ease with more draft to breathe. Heavy air, de-power by moving the cars aft to let the top of the sail fall off and crank on luff tension to move draft forward and minimize draft. Adjust the main flatter if it's luff is breaking. Not hard and fast rules here, just general options. What you really want to be doing is maximizing pointing ability vs maintaining enough power in the sails to drive through the seas.  Hope this helps.

[deisher6]

Hey Greg:  Mattman is right on. 

General rule of thumb for a starting place is to have the sheet sort of extend the angle bisector of the the angle made by the foot and luff.

Smooth Sailing.

regards charlie

[Tom L.]

There are many factors in trimming sails for the best results for any given sail, wind speed and wave conditions. The explanations go on for pages. Try googling head sail trim or for that matter sail trim in general and you will get as much information as you can digest and then some. It's important to have both the main and head sail working in unison. So learning how to trim sails in all conditions is very helpful.

Good luck and keep on trimming, it's a full time job.

Tom L.

[gmerrill]

Thanks for the response guys. More options than I thought. But I'll try all advice