Crinkles in the sail

[lamarstrehlow74]

Hey all,

Just wondering in the light stuff is it alright to have crinkles
flowing through your sail shape? Does this make a performance
difference? Or should I be getting the sail shape nice and full for
speed and try and minimize the crinkles?

Any help grateful,

Huon (Rocket Man 1717)

[andrewr]

Hi Huon,

If you have a reasonably new sail a few crinkles up and down the luff of the sail don’t make any difference. In fact, in light air they should probably be encouraged because most sabre sails tend to have a very blunt entry in light winds because of a lack of mast bend. In general, if the wind is light you need to encourage the draft to move back as much as possible by leaving the down haul completely off. (The exception to this is when it’s light but there are some waves around, in which case a sail with the draft forward is usually faster because it’s easier to keep “in the groove”.) Sometimes it doesn’t look too good, but don’t confuse a fast sail with a crinkle/wrinkle free sail – they are not always the same thing!

Older sails often have crinkles/wrinkles due to their age and having lost their shape a little. In this case, you’ve just got to put up with the crinkles or get a new sail!

Also note that when the wind gets really light (eg less than 3-4 knots), you need a flat sail, not a full one. When it’s really light, the wind does not have enough energy to go around a full sail. An indication of this is if your leech ribbons are always stalled. This means the airflow is stalling somewhere forward of the leech, thus the sail is not performing optimally.

Alan Riley
Sabre 1754

[lamarstrehlow74]

Thanks a million for that Alan, all help was greatful

[lamarstrehlow74]

Does that mean on a 1-4 knot day you should pull the outhaul and downhaul on tight to make the sail as flat as possible?

[andrewr]

Hi,

As a general rule – yes, pull the outhaul on in really light air to help flatten the sail. I wouldn’t use lots of tension on the downhaul though – in light airs all this will do is pull big creases towards the luff and distort the sail.

Regards,

Alan
Zap 1754

[Author]

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