Close Hauled.... Slow Going

[Decatur]

First day of sailing.  Wonderful to be out in the weather and on the lake.   Well...Here's the issue.   Wind out of the South at 10-15 mph, sailing direction South.  My Com-Pac 16 seemed to perform poorly on a Close Hauled sail.  Had to be very careful were I pointed my Yacht.
I could make headway, but it was very slow going.  Any suggestions to improve performance?   All in all, it was a wonderful sail, I was just so happy to be out on the lake.  Overnighted too!  Pretty tight sleeping, wonderful to wake-up on the lake, but the coffee was wonderful in the cool morning!   Tim

[Bob23]

Hey there:
   Lots of variables could cause this. First off, many of the Compacs including the 16 and 23, are not very high pointing boats. Sailing very close hauled just doesn't work. Best to fall off a bit and maintain decent headway than to try to pinch her. But I'm assuming you already know this so...could be your mainsail is old, meaning misshapen so it's lost it's efficiency. That was the case with my 23 when I had new sails made a few years ago. Being my first Compac 23, I didn't know how bad the sails were.
   First time out with the new sails, and on a regular course I always sail which includes a long section where I'd have to tack a number of times to get to my destination, the new sails cut the number of tacks in half!!!! With new and efficient sails, she went to windward that much better. The addition of a foiled rudder blade made even more difference. Other than that, I'd need to know more about your particular boat to help more. And there may be more 16 guys here with info that I'm not aware of.
   The 16's and 23's behave very similarly under sail. 
   

[Potcake boy]

Tim,

I betcha Bob nailed it. You can kinda compare sails to your razor blade, when they get old they still look OK but you know it's time to replace when it becomes painful. It is hard to throw away those old blades but it sure is a nice shave with a new one.

If you are sheeted in pretty close and trying to go to wind and can't get the slack out of the luff and the leach is flat try tightening your halyard or cunningham if you have one. This will stretch the luff and hopefully take the slack out. A lot of sailors misinterpret this condition as backwinding from the jib. The reality is that the main has excessive draft and cannot properly form the orifice to create a good venturi effect. If you can't get the luff to flatten out when sailing close and your sails are 10 years old or more, then you should consider new ones. Like your razor, a new one is all the difference.

Blown out sails will also cause you some consternation as the wind builds. It will become more difficult to keep good trim going to wind and the gusts will put the boat out of control if you can't de-power (flatten) your sail. I'm sure many out there feel that kind of sailing is the fun of the sport, but it's not. These boats reward their owners when they are sailed properly and laying flat on their ear is not good form for a bunch of reasons.

One last point. When you are sailing close hauled and have your sails set up correctly, you should be able to maintain proper trim by sailing to the tale tails on the luff of the jib. For starters just keep both sides flying straight back which means the air is flowing evenly on both sides of the sail, and that is the most accurate way of telling that you are in trim. Later you can learn the tricks of pinching and powering up.

Enjoy your learning process, and keep us up to date on your results. I'm sure many here would appreciate sharing what you have learned.

Ron

[Duckie]

My 16 had new sails when I bought her so I don't really know the difference.   However, when I sail with other types of boats I am able to point pretty much as well as any of them.  The shallow draft keel will allow quite a bit of side slipping if I don't keep up good speed, or let her lay on her ear, but as a general thing my performance is right with the rest.  And I was pleasantly surprised with her speed.

Al

[Decatur]

Thanks to all for the information.   Truth be told, you are dealing with a rank amateur here.   Good advice from all.  Have new sails, standard rudder.   I will tighten up my sails and back off a bit from the Close Hauled and see what happens.  I learn something new every time I go out.
  It's all about the FUN for me.  I become a better sailor each time I am out.  Hope to spend much of the Summer on the Water.  Best Regards Tim

[Bob23]

Tim:
   The more you go out and just try different things, the more you'll get the feel of the boat. Different angles of heel, various sail positions, playing with the tiller angle. You get the idea...you'll develop the feel for your particular boat and after a while, you just find that sweet spot where she is sailing so comfortably. This will be the 10th summer I've owned my 23 and I still learn something I didn't know before. Or maybe it was something I thought I knew but forgot!!!! Ha!! Could be that.
Bob23

[mattman]

I have spent a bunch of time with the gps, measuring speed, tacking angles, and sail trim on my 16. The short is this, with barber haulers bringing the jib lead to the edge of the cabin top, sitting forward, and keeping the boat on her feet, the boat is pointing at 50 degrees, making about 11 degrees of leeway. Cracking off does not appreciably improve vmg and from racing a host of cabin boats and several one designs the guys that crack off fall behind by the windward mark, I am not saying pinching is faster, I am saying sailing close hauled to the mark is faster than pinching or cracking off (remember huge risk in banging the corners!). There is a thread here somewhere that discusses the relative speed increase required to offset each degree of falling off. Also, I have found that taking the barber haulers off and cracking off those few degrees results in only one degree less of leeway. On a beam reach leeway is still 6-8 degrees depending on seas. What I find is that I average consistent tacking angles of 60 degrees off the wind, not watching shifts. By watching shifts you gain whatever the shift is. Best of luck.

[Craig Weis]

What's the rule of thumb?
In big wind do the tighten up and keep the sails flat and reef.

In light wind make a balloon.  Let out the main sheet until a vertical 'wrinkle' appears at the main sail luff just behind the mast.

See if that speeds things up..craig

[Potcake boy]

Great information Mattman - thank you for sharing.

Ron

[kickingbug1]

    i have sailed with matt and learn something each time we go.

[ChuckD]

Commodore Skip,
You had me at "balloon."

I'm a rookie sailor.
Today, I applied your "balloon" principle...
and the result was pretty dramatic.

I mostly used it on the jib, and it felt like I pressed the pedal to the metal!

Thanks for the effective simplicity!
Chuck

[Decatur]

Please forgive my naivete', What would you consider light wind?  5-10 mph, 10-20 mph, or something a bit faster?  At what wind speed (light winds) do you use the balloon technique for main sail and jib?   I know sailing is like flying and airplane.  At what wind speed do you tighten/flatten the sails.   Note that I sail in the Mid-West on small muddy lakes with not much wind most days. Think I'm beginning understand, but would not mind some clarification.   in light winds the mail sail and jib should be ballooned?  In stronger winds sails should be pulled taunt and flat?  Please tell me what I do with the main sail/jib in light winds sailing Close Hauled.   Thanks in Advance!! Tim
Oh...Yes what do you consider moderate wind and high wind speed? for sailing a small yacht. Sounds like Craig knows what He's talking about.

[Craig Weis]

Forgive my ignorance but I can't say what light wind is and what heavy wind is ... it's ether windy or not.

On lake Michigan our best sailing on the Star Boat was when two red pendents were flapping straight out at the yacht club ... then we knew we were in for a ride.

Me? Best sailing is between two storms. The cockpit combing of my CP-19 was dipped into The Bay of Green Bay and flowed out the scuppers flying only my 155% head sail lapper with the main sail tucked away and covered on the boom. I remember that as being a windy day. And I recall standing straight up laughing my butt off with my feet on the opposite edge of the settee watching the water flow under me legs.

I don't have any way to measure the wind speed other than to look~see at a flag on a pole. If it's straight out that's twenty knots.

craig.

[Duckie]

I'm pretty bad at assigning a number to wind speed so I don't bother anymore.  I have been told that when the boat feels over powered, it is time to make a change to the sail set.  Being over powered can be different things to different people.  The best description I have heard is, if you are heeling so far that the tiller gets to be a real tug of war you are over powered.  If you find yourself wanting to sit on the combings to try to stand the boat back up, you are over powered.  If the boat wants to round up, ditto.  With each of these symptoms, it may be a good idea to reef.  If you don't want to go to all that trouble, you can spill some wind out of the sails.  That is called a fisherman's reef by some.  I'm a big fan of spilling wind because it is interesting to see what I can get away with.  Sailing with a reef tucked in on a windy day is really fun because it shouldn't be scary at all, but you have plenty of wind power to play with.  If you experience any of the above, you should flatten the sails as the first thing you try.  By flattening the sail you will reduce the amount of lift that the sail will generate and give back some of your control.  It doesn't matter what speed the wind is, it only matters what you and the boat are experiencing. 

On the other end, one theory of light wind sailing has you trying to catch as much wind as you can in bag instead of letting it slip around the edges of your sail.  That is why spinnakers are so balloon like.  I've been told that eighty percent of cruising is light air sailing, so it pays to get good at it. 

I have found one book in particular to be immensely useful in my ongoing sailing education.  " The Complete Sailor" has helped me whenever I run up against a situation that I am confused about.  The illustrations are particularly useful.  I can't recommend this book too highly for new sailors.  In fact I have two copies.  You can buy it in paperback from amazon for not much money compared to what it is worth.

Al

[carry-on]

Decatur,
At 10-15 mph wind, the 16 will easily make hull speed. So something is off. Probably sails. When you flatten the main, the luff and the foot should be stretched. Maybe your rudder blade is not down all the way; quite important. Weight distribution is important in the 16 particularly in light wind. If your OB is heavy and crew weight is aft, the boat will squat.
I don't know the model of your 16 or sail set up/sail cloth weight however, with your face/nose directly into the wind, point the bow 50 degrees off the wind. Trim the jib, then the main. That is about close hauled for the 16 and sailing should be easy. The vertical bulge in the main should be about 1/3 back from the mast. If the bulge in the main is farther aft, the sail is questionable. The jib bulge should be mid sail.  When the wind is say 4 to 6 sailing is more difficult if the head sail is small and 5 ounce cloth.
At 20 mph (small craft advisory), the boat is fine, but the sailor should have the main sheet in hand to dump wind.   
Suggest you look up Sailboatrichlands.com. In the left hand margin you will see a section about sailing the 16...full of experienced advice from Keith Scott.
If you google Beaufort wind scale, you will find a table of wind speed correlated to water appearance.

Enjoy your 16.