Enjoy the boat, enjoy the food, but my sailing skills...

[Éric Bouvéron]

Hi, 

That was a nice day, with light wind.

Some problems made us start late, and we ended to a small island, not as far as we wanted to go first, where we had an unhealthy lunch. 

However, I think I do not sail the boat properly. Look at these angles! I take care of the jib pennons, but the double mainsheet that I put on may be a mistake, the sail is not pull backward and creates a big pocket. 

Ah! And the sailing time includes the lunch break, of course...

Cheers,

Éric

[Reuben Filsell]

Eric, take a photo of the main going to windward.

[Éric Bouvéron]

Reuben, thanks for your answer, however I have gone to the original design last week end. Just can't put tension at the bottom of the sail. It created a big pocket. Double main sheet would works wirh a boom, but I don't think it's possible with the (good) Wharram sails.

[Levi Verwoest]

Using a boom will give a much better sail shape as you can get good foot tension. Off the wind it is a necessity for decent sail shape.. at the moment my Tiki30 has a piece of bamboo, approx. 35mm diameter. 

Double mainsheet is great to help control twist of sail and as a preventer in choppy seas. 

Bamboo is great for cheap easy experimenting with booms and awnings and whatever else you come up with. 

The stock traveler/sheet system I found to be an utter nuisance..

And yes a photo would help.

[Reuben Filsell]

Levi, questions;

What sail shape adjustments are possible with the stock windsail ?

What sail adjustments would be desirable ?

Does the stock sail have a shape other than the mast sock or is it just a flat panel ?

Cheers,

RR

[Éric Bouvéron]

Thank youbagain for your answers.

The original traveler is a pain, but at least it keeps the sail more in the back than the double mainsheet. A bamboo boom may be great idea,  with a dinghy fitting at the mast.

However,  with the traveller, I still make angles of 130 degrees, 65 on each tack, and its is far from good. I will try to take pictures today, for I go with a crew.

[Éric Bouvéron]

VID-20200503-WA0014.mp4

Video from My daughter.

Better may be than a picture?

Comments welcome,

Éric

[Roger]

Hi Eric,

Your set up looks pretty good, and your tell tales seem to be streaming OK. However, your jib luff looks slack, so you need to rig some sort of down haul and try and get your rig as tight as possible. Sailing to windward is all about the jib, as the main is much more resistant to stalling than the jib. With the Wharram it is very easy to find yourself on a close reach when you are trying to beat to windward. The jib streamers look good, but you are actually reaching.

As you are probably aware it is the lee tell tales that are crucial - if they flutter, the sail is stalled even if the windward tell tales look good. So you need to favor the lee tell tales and ease up to windward while keeping them flowing smoothly. When the windward tell tales start to flutter while the lee tell tales are streaming smoothly, you are getting into the groove. At the same time you need to maintain hull speed, or you will be pointing high but not moving. 

So, "follow" the lee tell tales up to windward until the windward tell tales are fluttering whilst maintaining hull speed. If the speed drops, then fall off a bit. The hull speed thing is harder in the Wharram because there are no boards to stop leeward drift. The Wharram hulls need to be moving smoothly through the water to have any lift to windward. As your speed builds to windward, you can start sheeting in your sails tighter.

That's what works for me - hope it helps.

Roger

[Éric Bouvéron]

Always nice to read your comments Roger, thanks.

[Roger]

PS it is easy to oversheet the Wharram sails and kill forward momentum. Until you have 10 knots or so of true windspeed  the Wharram jib needs a nice round entry. I try and visualize the wind angle as meeting the curve around the back of the jib.

[Ian Bamsey]

Great advice from Roger. Each year on my 21 I have been able to sail higher. The first big step was increasing the luff tension on the head sail. My fore stay is not especially tight, but the sail has a wire luff. I have a 6 to 1 downhaul and I tension this "chock-a-block".  I can see from your video that the luff needs to be much tighter (crazy tight! ). 

The boat needs a good breeze and then I can now point quite high. 

Ian

[Éric Bouvéron]

Thank you Ian. I will work on it tomorrow. I do not know what is a 6 to 1, but I bought two double blocks, should be better. .Also, I have been told to increase the mast rake à little.

[Éric Bouvéron]

Hi again, 

I finally used Ian Bansey's design for my forestay, with some differences.

I didn't put a bottle screw on the forestay, only a lashing.

I add a string going thru the jib hook. It's not as smooth as a block, but with the double blocks added I have a good purchase.

Also, I put a little more rake on the mast.  (My shrouds are now 2 cm shorter) 

I tried that this Sunday, and obviously the tension on the luff improves the pointing ability of the boat.

I was on 135 degrees, now I float between 110 and 100 degrees. I will check again with an electronic compass.

Here is from where I took the design. By the way, an excellent website.

http://tiki21gratitude.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2017-06-10T11:56:00-07:00&max-results=7

Attached is a rough design of my own arrangement. Again, I sail alone, and don't like to take picture when on the helm.

Thank you all for your support,

Éric