When sailing the I-20 with its chute up. What are the basic principles of halyard tightness in various conditions?
We generally just pull it up and go but I would believe that in varying conditions it could be advantages to loosen a foot or have as tight as you can go.
Mark
Inter 20 no. 274
Houston, TX
-Hi Mark -
You will get some varied opinions on this ,
generally as much luff tention as possible seems to help particularly reaching with the spin. -
-The only time I,ve experimented and let the spin halyard out is in light to med. winds running deeper allowing a fuller shape and opening up the slot between the spin and main at the top .
-The same theory and effect as opening up the jib slot in lighter conditions .-which has proven to be faster .
-hope this helps -
best regards
Carl Roberts
I really don't have any experience with an A-sail on a cat but have alot on sport boats (viper 830, J-105, Melges, etc...). Generally we always wanted to go to full hoist on the halyard, but then would play the tack line to adjust luff tension. The more of a reach, the more luff tension. What was really surprising for us was when we were running deep, we'd ease the tack line a foot or so and this really helped rotate the sail out to windward and make it act more like a symmetrical chute. In heavy air, we would ease it about 2 and a half feet and this really helped lift the bow and get the boat flying.
Not sure how all this applies to cats, but would be very curious to find out if the lift will help counteract the boats tendency to bury the bows.
TB
Tornado USA655