Telltales

[altair]

I have read in the SB and on this site the different options for telltales. To those out there that use them, which are the best and what is the best location?

 

[mike4947]

A fly on the top of the upper spar for downwind. A pair of flies off a V on the upper spar about eye level, and I've used the arangement of 2 per side on the sail like Scott Kyle showed in his article on setting up the Sunfish.
I use casette tape for the both the upper downwind and the front V wire and Davis sail telltales for the sail mounted ones.
The front one is simply a coathanger bent into a V and duct taped to the fron spar with little hooks bent into the ends to tie the cassette tape pieces to. It folds up against the spar for travel.

 

[Tim Polaski]

I think you are referring to sail telltales, not a wind indicator, right? If so, I followed the recomendations in the SF bible, page 352. Seems to work OK, but the telltalse do lose sensitivity on port tack because the mast gets in the way. I use the nylon ones, although once wet they get pasted onto the sail until they dry. Some prefer the real woolies for that reason.