Male Speaker: It's impossible to describe every combination of wind and sail. To get out on the water and experience sailing is going to be the best teacher of sail trim. A good starting point is to have the sails east as much as possible without luffing the sails. Luffing is a result of sails being too loose and causes the sails to flap wildly in the wind. By trimming to the edge of luffing, you'll carry the maximum amount of air possible for a given point of sail. So as a general way to find the correct trim for your sales, left them out until they began to luff and then trim them in until the luffing stops.
If yourself what has a jib, the jib should be trimmed to help air flow around the main sail. To help determine proper sail trim, many boats are equipped with telltales on the sail. These are small streamers made of yard, fabric or plastic that flap in the wind.
James Chapin: Telltales on the sail tell you about the air flow over the sails. If you are going upwind and the one on the inside is fluttering, that means there is turbulence on the inside and that the sail is getting ready to luff and stop, because the sail is really just an aeroplane wind and so it's all about air flow over the sail. So that's what they are telling you about.
If your sails are properly trimmed, wind should be moving along both sides of your sail smoothly, passing the telltales to stream straight backwards. In general, if the leeward telltale is fluttering, there is none of wind flowing around the outside of the sail. So either, let the sail out or head up. If the windward telltale is fluttering, there is an enough wind flowing around the inside of the sail, so sheath the sail in or fall off.
Wind will push your boat forward and it will push it to the side. Therefore your boat will have a tendency to roll on to its side, this is called healing. And in general, it causes drag that slows you down. To keep yourself on a level, you may need to shift balance to windward and unless your boat has a weighted canting keel, that balance is going to be human. Hiking is the act of leaning out over the windward rail to shift weight and balance the boat. Hiking straps along the cockpit floor provide a place to secure your feet so you can lean as far as necessary.
On high performance boats, sometimes setting or hiking out just isn't enough. In these situations, you'll need to use a device called a trapeze. The trapeze attaches to the top of the mast and to a harness that you wear. Although it may be tempting when you're trapezing or hiking, you mustn't dip yourself into the water, doing so creates a ton of drag, and essentially destroys any advantage you may have gained by hiking or trapezing in the first place.
In extremely light air, it is advisable to heel the boat. This reduce wetted whole surface, there by decreasing drag. Once you've got the basics of sail trim and balance mastered, it's time to start concentrating on the details. Sail draft determines the amount of power generated by your sails. So with a deep draft is a powerful sail but there are causes associated with that power. More power will generate more side ways force, this will cause your boat to lean over or heel. Heeling can be counteracted to a point by moving through way to windward but in high winds or with too deeper draft, the sail will be too powerful. In this case, you need to de-power the sail or the boat could capsize.
Another down side of a powerful sail is the angle it requires. Remember that you need a smooth transition for the air to flow around the sail. A deep draft works well in a reaching situation but it doesn't work when you are close-hauled. So while you can sail fast with a deep draft, you cannot point as high as you can with a shallower draft. Another variable to consider when trimming your sails is, twist, the tendency of the upper part of the sail to twist and flare the spill wind. Adding twist can reduce power or loft, decreasing heal. Likewise, decreasing twist can add power without increasing draft. The reason for this is because the mast access a giant lever on top of the boat. Although the sail area need the top of the mast is relatively small, its distance from the hole and the higher speed of the wind near the top exerts a great deal of force at the end of the mast.
Twisting the sail lessees air spill and significantly reduces heal. So when you are heading upwind, your first concern should be maintaining in a close-hauled course, you want to add as much power as you can but at some point, more power will require that your foot off, which will lose you more than the extra speed gets you. You want to have your sails trimmed down with a minimum of twist and the most draft you can achieve with out sterling your sails. Tying the boom vang will decrease draft and twist, ease the out haul to increase draft. Tie in the main halyard Cunningham and/or downhaul to move the draft forward.
If your boat has a traveler, use it to adjust the angle of the main sail when heading upwind. Use the main sheet to raise or lower the boom and control twist. Reaching carries many of the same considerations as close-hauling, but with a great deal more latitude and speed. You still need to fetch your mark when reaching so you catches pile on the draft. Doing so would compromise your ability to hold a steady course and a controlled heal. Add as much strat as you can without compromising heal or heading. Get yourself or your crew hiked out on the windward side and twist to counter heal.
If you have a spinnaker, fly it. Downwind whether running or broad reaching get all of the draft you can, use the outhaul, halyard, boom vang and sheets to get the biggest rounder sails you can. Experiment with the controls to vary your sail shapes to find the correct balance for your boat. As stated earlier when sailing upwind, it's necessary to sail a zigzag pattern called a beat. The trouble is if a sail boat can't sail into the wind, how do you change course from zig to zag? The answer is a maneuver called tacking. Tacking refers to turning from one heading to another where the bow of the boat turns through the wind changing the side of the boat exposed to the wind.
To tack, simply head up into the wind and continue to turn on to your new heading. Sail and boom will change sides of the boat so be sure you and your crew watch your heads. For safety, keep attention on the main sheet so the boom doesn't swing wildly. If there is a maneuver for changing tack going upwind, it follows that there must be one for going downwind as well, and there is. Jibing seems initially simpler but it's actually far more dangerous than tacking. Jibing is when you change which side the wind comes from when you're sailing downwind. Unlike tacking yourselves, you'll always be under full wind strength so the boom will come across much faster.
In some cases, there may be enough force to cause the boat to heel severely, at the least, shaking everyone up, at the worst, capsizing the boat. Thus it pays to take jib slowly, turn smoothly from one course to another and hold the sails in as you turn. As the wind changes sides keep control as you let the sails back out. The jib can become a fun and fast maneuver with practice, just be sure to start carefully and work up to a speed you're comfortable with. You steer the boat by moving either a tiller or a wheel, which moves the rudder. The rudder is a small wing that turns the rear of the boat by generating draft. Because it induces drag you want to make very small adjustments in steering as oversteering will cost you speed.
Shirley Bild: For new sailors, I'd say the most important thing is to remember to duck and avoid getting hit by their boom and it's also -- you need to remember which way do you put the tiller. And I always tell the beginners that I teach, when you're tacking, put the tiller towards the sail, when you want to jib, put the tiller away from the sail. And if they can remember that, they can probably figure out what they need to do in most any situation.
When a boat turns over on its sides spilling gear and crew overboard, it set to have capsized. Because of the resistance of the sail, many boats will tend to remain on their sides. If however the boat continues over until its mast point straight down on the water, the boat is said to have tortled. Both capsizing and tortling are dangerous situations that if handled improperly can lead to the injury or death of you or your crew.
For that reason, it is important to know what to do in a capsize situation and to be prepared for a capsize. The first thing to do is to stay near the boat; statistically speaking, the most dangerous thing you can do is try to swim to shore. Obviously you should wear a PFD at all times while sailing. If for some reason you didn't have one on when you capsized, find one and put it on immediately. The details of boat riding will differ from boat to boat. In general, you want to start by unsheathing the main and turning the boat into the wind. Next, place as much weight out near the end of your center board as is necessary to bring the mast up out of the water.
If you are sailing alone, enter your rided boat from the stern, this decreases the chance that your body weight will pull the boat back over. If you are sailing with a crew, it is possible to enter over the side with crew balancing on the other side. Capsizing can be scary and dangerous but it shouldn't be overlooked as a loaning experience. Particularly on small high performance dinghies, capsizing can be quiet common. These boats are designed with sealed flotation chambers so they cannot sink. The best thing to do is to take it in stride. As you learn what your boat is capable of, you will capsize less. You've learned pusher boats and its limits but not beyond. If you fear a capsizing, you may not sail as aggressively as your boat is capable of.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services