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I’m jealous. No regattas allowed here in Victoria at the moment. The only club still operating that I know of is Lysterfield Lake Sailing Club. Been getting some great sailing there. The club is VERY happy to have visitors and it would be hard to find a more friendly club. So if you’re in Victoria and want to have a sail and/or race – come to Lysterfield! It’s not quite as warm as Qld, but it’s fun!
Alan
Hi Slow Hand,
I’ve worked out how to add a picture to a post so you can see how I was using the Loos gauge. Note that in the picture the tension is not quite at 25.
In answer to your questions:
1. See the attached picture on for how I used the Loos gauge.
2. No, I didn’t change the alignment of the halyard. In the picture you can see the halyard twice. The inner one is the halyard running on the inside of the sheave box at the top and bottom of the mast. At the bottom of the mast I had a knot in the halyard. The outer part of the halyward runs from the sheave at the top of the mast down to the boom vang. The distance between the two parts of the halyard is about the diameter of the masthead sheave. I measured the mast bend from the back of the mast to the inner edge of the halyard.Hope this helps!
[attachment=0:1iynbkg6]Loos Guage.jpg[/attachment:1iynbkg6]
Regards,
Alan
P.S. It’s interesting putting the Loos guage on the vang when the boat is rigged up, pull the vang on to your heavy weather setting and watching the way the tension measured by the Loos guage varies as you move the boom from running up and down the centre-line to all the way out against the side-stay. Try it and see what happens!
Nope. No boom or wire involved. I measured mast bend using the halyard. The boom vang is permanently connected to the bottom of the mast. I tied a knot in the halyard at the bottom of the mast to stop the halyward from running out when pulling tension on it. The other end of the halyard was attached to the vang. I then used the vang to pull tension into the halyard. When there is some tension on the halyard you can use at Loos gauge on the halyard in the same way as you would with wire. You then adjust the tension using the vang until the Loos guage shows 25. Then I measured the mast bend at the mid point of the mast (about 2.6m from the bottom of the mast). If I could figure out how to add pictures to this post I could show you!
Regards, Alan
Hi SeaDrift,
If you are lighter, I’d go for a light flexible mast. Just make sure the mast isn’t so flexy that the sail is too flat and full of creases because the mast has bent too much. It doesn’t matter where you source it from, it’s the stiffness and weight that matter. As an indication, I have come across masts that weigh more than 7kg (with stays and vang attached) down to just over 5kg. I suspect the heavier the mast, the stiffer it will be. As an indication, mine weighs 5.7kg and when tensioning the halyard to 25 on a loos guage it bends 53mm at the mid point.
Are you calling yourself SeaDrift because you have the SeaDrift Social Club (Sail 1564)? If so, welcome to the club – that’s my old boat!
Alan Riley
Sabre 2094Hi MRDawson,
Yes – there are many boats using an internal outhaul with a Laser/Area style strap loop. My boat uses this arrangement, but I don’t use the velcro strap. I simply use a piece of dyneema for the loop around the boom.
AlanHi Ian,
In my opinion the traveller on a Sabre is largely a waste of time. Like you, I have mine let out all the time so it’s block to block when the mainsheet is is fully on (it’s around 32cm from the top of the thwart to the bottom of the traveller rope at its highest point. How high it is mostly depends on your mast rake). Use the mainsheet to stand the leech up straight going upwind until you are over-powered, then swap to vang sheeting when over-powered. With vang sheeting, the vang holds the sail in the correct shape and controls the leech. The mainsheet merely controls the in/out movement of the sail. In this arrangement, the higher the block on the traveller, the more the mainsheet is controlling the in/out movement of the sail rather than applying any tension to the leech, thus giving better gust response.
I never adjust the traveller, so I have tied my traveller it in position and taken the cleat off.
Alan Riley
Zap – 1754Hi,
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 1754Hi 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 1754Hi Sue,
There is a fenced/secure rigging area on the North side of the club. Lots of grass there and they have their own water so boats can be washed after racing. Boats will be able to be stored there safely locked away each night. From the rigging area there are two wooden ramps down to the beach. The ramps are reasonably steep and a bit slippery when sand gets on them. The beach is quite soft (so you need decent wheels on your beach trolley) but not very wide (not like Brighton Seacliff!). You launch off the beach. You do need to be careful when launching because about 10m from the water’s edge are lots of small rocks and stones. The boats float over them at all times, but rudders and centreboards don’t like them! In my opinion the biggest issue will be car parking – there is a car park there, but it’s a popular place and it fills up quickly!
Hope you have a safe trip down! See you there 😉
Alan
1754Hi Matt,
I’m not aware of Gate Starts being used at State or National championships before – certainly not since 2003 when I started in the class! Brighton & Seacliff had the 505 worlds there last summer. 505’s love gate starts, so maybe this has influenced the decision. I also note that the SA state titles have been moved forward to November with the first weekend at Brighton & Seacliff and they intend to use gate starts at that series.
In case anyone is wondering how Gate Starts commonly work, see the following as an example:
http://www.rs-association.com/docs/RS%20SI%20AppendixD_2006.pdf
Alan
1754Hi,
Your general premise is right. My experience is you need the board fully down when going upwind no matter how strong the wind is.
On a reach, it should be about half way down – the amount is best measured by feel. As Matt points out, you need to have just enough down so that if you hike out hard to flatten the boat it shoots forwards, rather than just skidding sideways.
A run or very broad reach is a little more tricky. Most of the time I only pull the board up far enough so that it will not snag the vang when gybing. I find I often gybe on impulse on a run, so I don’t want to trap myself by having the board up too far! Contrary to Matt and Mike, I don’t mind the boat skidding sideways when on a quarter run/broad reach when there are waves around, so I will often pull the board up a bit more in such situations (ie. when I’m not expecting to gybe). I’d only do this in moderate conditions though – too little board down in heavy winds and waves makes the boat easily skid out from under you and capsize to windward.
The reason I don’t mind skidding sideways a bit in wave catching conditions is that it allows you to catch a wave and let it carry you low, while at the same time, you can get a better angle for your sail relative to the wind. In fact, if you let the sail twist a lot you can often re-establish windflow over the top part of the sail, so you end up with more power, and more speed, while still going low. Again – only do this in moderate conditions, since this is sailing “on the edge”. Letting the sail twist a lot also decreases stability, so you need to be quick to take corrective action (sheet in, steer lower, and move more to leeward) to catch the boat before it slides out from under you and dumps you in the drink to windward (again).
Cheers!
Alan Riley
1564Hi Shane,
Pumping is covered under Rule 42, which covers Propulsion. Rule 42.2(a) defines pumping as “repeated fanning of any sail either by pulling in and releasing the sail or by vertical or athwartships body movement”. When you “pump” a sail, it gives you a momentary “kick” in boatspeed. Therefore, if you repeatedly do it, you can propell your boat faster than just using the wind and waves alone.
However, under Rule 42 pumping is illegal except as allowed by Rule 42.3(c), which states “Except on a beat to windward, when surfing (rapidly accelerating down the leeward side of a wave) or planing is possible, the boat’s crew may pull the sheet and the guy controlling any sail in order to initiate surfing or planing, but only once for each wave or gust of wind”. In other words, when going downwind you can pump ONCE for each wave or gust of wind to make the boat surf or plane. It’s a good skill to acquire (and I mean skill – you have to time the pump just right to help you catch a wave) since catching waves makes you go heaps faster. However, you do have to be very careful when doing this, because if you fail to get your boat surfing or planing you are in the “yellow light” zone and in danger of being disqualified for illegal propulsion.
Check out http://www.sailing.org/rrs2005/42interpretations2005.pdf for a fuller discussion of Rule 42.
Hope this helps! 😉
Regards,
Alan
Sabre 1564Matt,
I think you are probably right, you need to use more vang tension to control the leech. However, you can use up to 8:1, not just 6:1. I find 8:1 more than enough to control the sail shape successfully. In heavy winds, even if I am using a 4:1 mainsheet system, it is only used to control in-out movement of the boom since the vang is doing all the work in these conditions.
The other thing you can try when going downwind is using 1:1 sheeting. Let the mainsheet all the way out to it’s end knot, then grab the two “strands” running from the floor block to the boom block, and the boom block to the traveller block. You have to hold both “strands” so that the mainsheet does not run through the boom block – giving you 1:1 sheeting! You can only do this in light/medium winds (unless you are built like Mr Universe), but I find it the most effective sheeting method for downwind and particularly efffective for pumping.
Regards,
Alan Riley
Sabre 1564The Sabre rules require the last block of the mainsheet system to be to the floor of the boat behind the centreboard case. You can’t put it on the thwart! However, there is no rule on how you can control the mainsheet ie. although the last block is attached to the floor, there is no rule saying you have to use it! Thus you can use off the boom sheeting if you like it.
I used off the boom sheeting for most of the 2003/04 season, including the Blairgowrie nationals (coming 3rd overall – in fact, I only used a 2 to 1 mainsheet system that year!). For me, it’s the most comfortable way to sail. I certainly didn’t have the problem in heavy winds Matt mentions – I could always get enough leech tension by using the vang. Where I did have an issue was in lighter winds where you want leech tension without using the vang. The problem was, most of the time when pulling on the sheet the boom came in towards the centre, rather than tensioning the leech.
These days, I compromise. My last mainsheet block comes off the floor of the boat using a bit of electrical conduit to get it up to toe-strap height. From there, I use a piece of rope about 20-25 cm long to get the block up to about the height of the traveller. It works and feels fairly similar to off the boom sheeting, but allows you to sweat down on the mainsheet to get more leech tension if needed with the added advantage that it holds you up a bit when hiking – thus helping the thighs and stomach muscles on windy days!
Downwind I always use off the boom sheeting with as few purchases as possible since the vang controls the leech so you get a much better “in-out” response off the boom.
Alan Riley
Sabre 1564.Hi Shane,
The “optimum” length is whatever you feel most comfortable with. Just remember that the longer your tiller extension, the more rudder angle you will use while tacking so you don’t get it caught on the mainsheet. If you have too much angle, the rudder acts like a brake, which is slow.
My tiller extension is a standard Ronstan one. It’s about 104cm long, which I find to be a good length.
Regards,
Alan Riley
Sabre 1564
