First sail in 121448 !!

Well I finally got out for my 1st sail - had all the updated rigging and my new sail from Intensity Sails. It was blowing steady 10+kts & gusting over 15. I was sailing in a pretty protected bayou so the waves were only a foot or a little more.

Reading an earlier thread on breaking in sails I tried to mostly just reach back and forth. It was quite a blast, I could cosnistently get the boat really screaming. A few questions came out of the day:
1) I seemed to have quite a bit of weather helm. Is this normal on a high speed reach or is it indicative of something wrong in my trim?
2) How much prebend should I be using in these types of conditions? I wonder if anyone has done any measurements regarding this - getting set up properly and measuring the distance from the boom to mast vang fitting. Luther carpenter had a great tuning spreadsheet for the V15 & I suspect someone somewhere along the way must have doen something similar here. I know it needs to be adjusted for individuals and specific conditions, but it would be great to have some marks that I could use to get in the ballpark.
3) The traveller knot was catching the tiller (maybe I had less weather helm than I thought ?). How thin a line can I use and suggestions on how to keep the tiller free of the knot? I have the aluminum tiller extension with aluminum rudder head insert.
4) I was having a lot of trouble getting the windward luff telltales flying. I have 2 sets of telltales low down (by the starboard sail numbers) with 1 set ~5" from the mast sleeve seam & the other set ~8". Also a set up at the height of the upper batten ~8". I couldn't seem to get any consistenty streaming (while keeping the leeward tales streaming too).

btw the sail quality seems to be very good when I compare the stitching etc to the old sail that came with my boat when I bought it. I also purchased a very high quality rooster deck cover and blade bag that I'm quite pleased with.
 
1. This phenomena is a result of unbalanced hydrodynamic and aerodynamic forces. In layman's terms, the boat was heeled to leeward too much and/or trimmed too tight.
2. This is really a "feel it" thing. Basically, keep minimal prebend until you are overpowered at full hike, then start putting it on proportionally as it gets windier.
3. Something like spectra that's really loosely woven.
4. not positive why, but my guess is disturbed air that wasn't streamlined well enough to achieve attached flow. Probably the telltales are too long. Also, not all of them will be streaming strait at the same time, because the sail shape isn't exactly the same all the way up and along the sail.
 
Those tell tales are pretty close to the luff. If the outhaul was loose and the sail quite baggy, they may have been in the turbulent patch near the mast. When the vang is off too, it gets quite a deep crease up near the mast.

Re tiller hitting traveller knot. Its usually a problem hitting the cleat rather than the knot. Do you mean the knot where the traveller comes back to make a triangle before going through the cleat ? A simple way to avoid this with an aluminium tiller is to put a bend in it, but technically this is illegal. Maybe buy a new plastic adapter to go around the end of the tiller where it fits in the rudder stock.
 

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