Sailed for 6 hours yesterday. Gave me a lot of time to wonder about trim. Realized I didn't know much about downwind. Anyone who can answer, please do.
When you're on a reach, does it make any sense to use the whisker pole to flatten the jib and make it more of an airfoil?
When you're running before the wind, I found that if I sat on the windward side, giving the boat a bit of negative heel, there was much less resistance on the tiller. I'm assuming this is what one should do.
If you're running wing and wing, and the wind starts shifting around to the beam a little, how far forward can you let your whisker pole swing before the jib isn't helping any more?
Finally, a technique question. I started out sailing with just a reefed main, then added jib, then pulled the reef and sailed with all sail up. The pulling of the reef was a bit ungainly. I tried to keep the boat into the wind, but between the tides and having to keep the boom in the cockpit to pull the lines, we kept falling downwind. Any suggestions for a more graceful way to do this, short of putting in Ed Jones's jiffy reef?
Thanks
When you're on a reach, does it make any sense to use the whisker pole to flatten the jib and make it more of an airfoil?
When you're running before the wind, I found that if I sat on the windward side, giving the boat a bit of negative heel, there was much less resistance on the tiller. I'm assuming this is what one should do.
If you're running wing and wing, and the wind starts shifting around to the beam a little, how far forward can you let your whisker pole swing before the jib isn't helping any more?
Finally, a technique question. I started out sailing with just a reefed main, then added jib, then pulled the reef and sailed with all sail up. The pulling of the reef was a bit ungainly. I tried to keep the boat into the wind, but between the tides and having to keep the boom in the cockpit to pull the lines, we kept falling downwind. Any suggestions for a more graceful way to do this, short of putting in Ed Jones's jiffy reef?
Thanks