Advanced sail setup (technical)

[bigboned]

Hi there,
is there any more/higher technical books/data for sail setup that anyone knows of?
I have looked at many laser (& other) sailing books but find the content too generalized
(none seem to give telltale flow over the sails from top to bottom & leech telltale flow to optimize leech twist,etc).

When I started sailing on some larger boats I began to realize how little I knew about sail settings.

Thanks for your input

 

[james17]

Yeah have a look at North Sails trim guide, awesome book especially if you do any yacht sailing. Will give you the inside/out on all types of sail. Probably the best trimming book around.

 

[glasky]

The Unstayed Laser (or Finn) rig has some dynamics sifferent to conventional rigs. Steve Cockerell (Rooster) has posted a good basic article on this at the Rooster site - its is a useful starting point before reading other texts Like Avril Gentry, Frank Bethwaite, C. A. Marchaj or even Manfred Curry - if your interest is primarily in the Laser area.

Frank Bethwaite worked a lot with teltails (suggested in the Curry and Marchaj works).

You will see that the priorities seem to change depending on the Genre of craft you are trying to apply techniques to. Apparent wind sailing and sailing by the lee downwind have some very different spins on conventional wisdom.

If you get into ice yachts and gliders it becomes a whole new ball-game.

Hope the authors above are useful - can give specific references but don't have them at hand. (Most can be sourced on the net)

cheers

 

[Deimos]

If you get into ... gliders it becomes a whole new ball-game.

When I started gliding 2 years ago I was amazed at how similar to sailing it really was. Having been used to offshore boats, it was interesting that when the instructor said turn e.g. turn 45 degrees left and I turned 45 degrees left he was surprised as most people sort of just turn a bit to the left (anything between 10 and 110 degrees !!). Rising in and sitting at the top of a thermal is just like making way through a choppy sea. Sailing definitely made my learning to glide much faster (I did my first solo after significantly fewer flying hours and landings than most other students). Something else that surprised my instructors is that they need to satisfy themselves that you can "navigate" (or at least find your way back to the airfield). As a beginner you don't actually get too far away so it's more a "sense of direction". To do this, every now and again they ask you where the airfield is. Apparently most people then have to look around, circle a bit and try to work it out. They were a bit taken aback when I just pointed or said where it was.


One thing that also helps is the importance of maintaining speed to maintain control. Of course in a glider loss of speed (and thus control) can be a bit more dramatic than in e.g. a Laser (though most gliders these days need to be really pushed to get them spinning - which actually limits what gliders you can learn on as you need to be able to get into and more importantly get out of a spins and spiral dives).


Gliding is great fun and much easier to learn if you can sail and is an excellent 2nd sport to sailing.


Ian