Leech Tell Tales

martyn

Member
Hi all,

I've just bought a Laser after having a had a Solo for a couple of years.

In the Solo when reaching or running I would depend on leech tell tales to decide how much vang I needed to put on. None the Lasers I have seen have them.

So my question is, does anyone use leech tell tales, If you do, what material do you use, I haven't seen any for sale, only the tadpole luff / draught ones, and where do you put them? If you don't use them how do you know how much vang to pull on ?

Before anyone says I should be running by the lee, I'd like to walk before I start running (Pardon the pun)

thanks in advance

Martyn
 
My OH (who is a sail designer so knows his stuff) always tells me that we don't have luff telltales as the laser main is basically one big jib. You wouldn't put them on a jib as they wouldn't be any help for anything.

Using the telltales low down (near window) and another telltale near the top of the sail you should be able to trim your sail.
 
To judge what vang tension should be in light-med winds, most set it based on the "springyness" of the leech (I know, that's not a real word) What you are looking for is the upper leech that will flick or spring open/closed. What you want to avoid is a leech that flops open on each wave (vang too loose) or stays closed all the time (vang too tight)

There are some general settings that quickly get you in this ballpark - vang off enough so the mast is straight in light air, and then tighter as you need to stop it flopping open and have it flicking closed as the breeze increases.. In heavy air, you'll find it's more a matter of control (you tend to have it tighter then it needs to be to stay in control) until you have a lot of time in the boat.
 
I tried a leech telltale a long time ago, and I found that a telltale near the upper batten in the middle of the chord of the sail was a good indicator of how much by the lee I was sailing. The little flag wind indicator at the top of the mast works well, too.
 
I have the Rooster 8.1 sail which comes supplied with leech tell tales but I cen never get them flying except for when going upwind. I have stuck a few normal tell tales in the usual places for the Laser sail and I seem to go quick enough (much to the chagrin of our Phantom sailors).
 
To judge what vang tension should be in light-med winds, most set it based on the "springyness" of the leech (I know, that's not a real word) What you are looking for is the upper leech that will flick or spring open/closed. What you want to avoid is a leech that flops open on each wave (vang too loose) or stays closed all the time (vang too tight)

Sounds like time in the boat is what I need to be able to read the "springyness" (That must be an American spelling :D)

I find it a lot easier to look at other peoples sails and see what's right and wrong than it is my own.
 
You're right 99%of laser sailors don't use leech tell tales, and I don't really get it. How can you set your main / vang to windward, and shurely it helps trim offwind. The first thing that I did when I got a laser was put them on and I use them all the time. What I have done is get some lightweight fabric ( spinnaker cloth is ideal) cut into strips 4mm. wide and 10" long and tape them to the outer end of the battens. They then are held in by the batten and stream out from the end of the batten pocket.

So go for it - put them on, (and then you can sail past all the others without them, when the wind drops and they sit there with their leeches stalled and "parked-up" going to windward).
 
On occasion I've seen a few folks with 1 or 2 leech tell tales along with the normal luff tell tales. However, at my last regatta I saw a guy with bright red and green tell tales all down the leech of his sail and NO tell tales on the luff to be able to detect lifts and headers.

Everytime I saw him his leech tell tales were streaming beautifully. The only problem was I was usually a full leg ahead of him. His finish position for the event out of 23 boats?

23rd.
 
My OH (who is a sail designer so knows his stuff) always tells me that we don't have luff telltales as the laser main is basically one big jib. You wouldn't put them on a jib as they wouldn't be any help for anything.

I dont know about you but in all the boats that I have sialed with a jib I always use jib leech tell tales, particularly at the 1/3 leech height. This gives you information about the twist in the jib, the size and flow from the slot and the placement of the jib sheet cars.
 
telltales on the leach is used for track setting on keel boats :S

aint seen any dinghys even a rooster 8.1 :( so cant realy see the use on a dinghy

time spent with a clock and 2 bouys probs best way to help test vang
 
Tell tales

Three sets: one for upwind near the luff, one in the middle of the top third of the sail, and one for by the lee two feet in from the leach. Light yarn works nicely because it isn’t too jumpy.
 
yea my preference is top middle bottom on tthe inside of the sailing. and most important is feel of the boat. but that comes after experience.
 
I don't think that telltales are that important for laser sailing, I only look at the ones near the luff for lifts and headers. The laser sail will not give a certain "shape" like you can expect in keelboats so a lot of keelboat sailors find it hard as they are used to staring at the sail all day trying to get that shape.
 
An eight inch long half inch wide bit of spinny cloth taped on the actual leach an inch above the top batten, for fine tuning.
With the old style kicker things were very much " on or off " with only so much adjustment available, hence the eyeballing and the "springiness" method it's rough even using permanent marker on the kicker rope..but the new generation kickers allow true minute and precise adjustment and its quite easy to suffocate the airflow up there by being only slightly on too much even though it 'looks' ok.
Something, anything up there is invaluable.
 

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