Control line settings. And sailing by the lee. Help please. (Im new)

tcwings20

Member
I am very new to Laser sailing but I have other sailing experience and this may be a stupid question but could someone please explain the control settings for the outhaul, vang, cuningham, ect. in light heavy and average winds. Thanks.

I've been looking around and I can't find a forum that puts sailing by the lee in terms that I can understand. This may be my own stupidity but could someone please put it into "layman's terms" for me. Diagrams or pictures would also be helpful I can't get the other ones to load correctly. Thanks again for your help.
 
So this is what I understand sailing BTL to be. The green being a broad reach the red BTL. Can the sail being out like this also be achieved by totally offing the vang?
 

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Sailing by the lee simply means that the air flow across the sail is reversed; from the leech to the luff.
 
there is "regular" flow and "by-the-lee" flow on the sail,

the settings are pretty straight forward, assuming you have your boat setup properly
Upwind Light Med Heavy
Vang on off-on cranked
Cunningham little none-some cranked
Outhaul full sail full sail-tight tight

Downwind Light Med Heavy
Vang eased eased eased
Cunningham off off off
Outhaul eased 20cm eased 15cm tight

Reach Light Med Heavy
Vang on on on
Cunningham off off on if overpowered
Outhaul slight ease slight ease slight or no ease

a full sail is about a hands length from the boom cleat, tight outhaul is not all the way in, leave some draft in the foot and crank the cunningham when needed.

traveler should be fairly tight all the time.
 
So this is what I understand sailing BTL to be. The green being a broad reach the red BTL. Can the sail being out like this also be achieved by totally offing the vang?
This is a common misconception and is NOT correct. Doing this will result in more capsizes to windward - with the sail in front of the mast the airflow over the sail will pull the mast into the wind, getting you wet in puffs and strong wind.

Having said that, having the boom past 90deg does seem to work for me in very light winds and helps keep the boom out and sail filled if you sail with a little windward heel.

By the lee sailing involves having the wind flow in the opposite direction across the sail - from the outside edge towards the mast. Instead of the wind coming from behind your head it comes from the leeward corner (i.e. the same side as the boom). This allows you to see waves approaching.

You have to remember that the mainsheet controls are reversed - to set the sail pull the mainsheet in until the leach starts to flicker or loose power (i.e. about to gybe) then let out an inch (i.e. the opposite of setting on a reach where you let the sail out until the luff flickers). If you gybe you usually have too much kicker. If you are going to death roll or need to depower - pull the mainsheet IN and BEAR-AWAY.

Have ago - I was in a race about a month ago and was the only laser out of about 5 who didn't capsize when a strong gust hit us on a run
 

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This is a common misconception and is NOT correct. Doing this will result in more capsizes to windward - with the sail in front of the mast the airflow over the sail will pull the mast into the wind, getting you wet in puffs and strong wind.

Having said that, having the boom past 90deg does seem to work for me in very light winds and helps keep the boom out and sail filled if you sail with a little windward heel.

By the lee sailing involves having the wind flow in the opposite direction across the sail - from the outside edge towards the mast. Instead of the wind coming from behind your head it comes from the leeward corner (i.e. the same side as the boom). This allows you to see waves approaching.

You have to remember that the mainsheet controls are reversed - to set the sail pull the mainsheet in until the leach starts to flicker or loose power (i.e. about to gybe) then let out an inch (i.e. the opposite of setting on a reach where you let the sail out until the luff flickers). If you gybe you usually have too much kicker. If you are going to death roll or need to depower - pull the mainsheet IN and BEAR-AWAY.

Have ago - I was in a race about a month ago and was the only laser out of about 5 who didn't capsize when a strong gust hit us on a run
Sorry if I'm wrong again but my understanding now would be its more like broad reaching with your sail on the other side (for now the wrong side) and having the wind flow over it the opposite way. This would explain all of the worry about accidental gybes. If this is right how would I prevent it from gybing?
 
Yes it is. The problem with dead running in any boat is that the wind will flick from flowing one way over a sail to the other (think how a flag flaps as the wind blows from behind it) and so causes stability problems (stayed masts have problems with the boom angle as well, but the principle would apply).

In general you should let the boom out a bit from the point where it is threatening to gybe, and if the sail depowers as if it is about to go over, let it out more / head up slightly. The advice appears to be that you should have very little kicker - too muck kicker leads to accidental gybes. I think it is because the twist allows the bottom of the sail and the top of the sail to be at different angles - you can see when he bottom of the sail depowers to gybe while the rest of the sail is still filling fine.
 
Yep exactly. Letting the sail out rotates the sail to an angle more across the wind (equivalent to over-sheeting on a reach) but this means that there is less chance of the wind getting behind the sail which is more of a problem now as it will gybe. Heading up (tiller away from you) moves the direction where the wind wind is coming from further towards the back of the boat making gybing less of a possibility.
 
Ok thank you for the information. I'm going to try this as soon as I can get back out on the water. Just wondering would this work in bigger boats?
 
Ok thank you for the information. I'm going to try this as soon as I can get back out on the water. Just wondering would this work in bigger boats?
Let's not go there; most bigger boats are different, with a jib and shrouds and all that. Accordingly, sailing techniques will be different as well.
 

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