Twist Off

[mental floss]

I put a leech tail on my sail today for the first time. It was 5 mph and below. No matter what I tried, I could not get the tail to flow away from the sail upwind.

How do you get the upper part of the sail to twist off a little in a drifter?

Where should the leech tail be placed?

 

[Int. Sailing Academy]

yeah Lasers don't twist at all, and stall super easy. put vang on so you can sheet out, and trim the entire sail to be open.. Vang sheeting in light air is pretty much all you can do to get the leech tell tale flowing back. put the leech tell tale on the top batten if anything, but to be honest, there are easier ways to tell if your stalled upwind.

 

[mental floss]

How do those guys set up their sail when they are healing slightly to weather in light air?

 

[Int. Sailing Academy]

Actually healing to weather doesn't work like how it was explained in the Boat Whisperer. You can gain height off of your foils, but no matter what the boat slows. Rather, to have a flat boat is ideal for VMG. The most important thing for light air sailing is to trim your sail to your boat speed.. I wrote an article about it in December, you can read it here: http://internationalsailingacademy.com/2012/12/feeling-slow-in-light-air/