Tacking and Jibing from trapeze

Concerning jibing: don't you have a spinnaker? the Inter 18 should have one and jibing with a spi is a completely different subject than without.

Yes we have a spi, but untill today we've chosen to keep it in the bag, because this is also a new topic for us. But we have rigged the spi last week, and will try it for the first time any day now (with very low wind)

I'll start with the tack. I'm no pro and there are probably faster ways to go about the tack - but if the crew is running the mainsheet and I'm driving, as we enter a point where we think we may tack, the crew will hand me the sheet and I control it at that point until we tack. Sometimes this could be for some time if we are in a tactical position where we may have to tack suddenly (if I'm on the hip of a right away boat but just far enough away that he would have rights to tack, for instance). When I call for the tack, I usually cleat the mainsheet and toss it inboard safely on the trampoline (warning; this in

unprofessional

but it doesn't burn up too much time. It can, however, leave you in a tricky spot if you decide not to tack at that point and now nobody has the mainsheet ;-). I wait for the crew to bend their knees and just barely get their butt on the hull before I start my turn. I start my turn as I come off the wire and I focus hard on not

wiggling

or

bouncing

the rudders through the entire manuever (slows the boat!). I immediately zero in on the mainsheet near the cleat and retake control of it there. I ease about a 8 to 12 inches of mainsheet (depending on conditions - sometimes I ease more in light conditions). I rotate on my feet and a knee at the center of the trampoline facing rearward at the mainsheet blocks as I flip the tiller to the other side. I regrab the mainsheet at the cleat. At this point, the crew should be rehooking to his trapeze line as I move to the outboard end of the new hull bringing the mainsheet with me and bringing it in. With my tail planted on the hull briefly, I give the main another good pull and hold the sheet over my shoulder while I start to zero in on a good heading. The crew grabs the mainsheet ready to pull it again to send it the rest of the way home as I push back out on the wire with them. The crew has some flexibility with the timing of bringing the mainsheet in and can make up for some of my errors...he/she needs to be considerate that I may still be hooking into my trap and doesn't need to play godzilla on the mainsheet until I at least have a footing and am starting to push out on the wire.

Here is a more radical way to do a tack

first off, communication in the boat is needed on when to tack/gybe.

Crew is handling the mainsheet all the way.

Helm:

Tacking in 3, 1 - 2 - 3 - Tacking.

Starts the tack,
Crew: Sheets in to help the boat to head up.
Helm and crew heads towards the other side, mainsheet is slack.
Crew: On trapeze with main sheeted for acceleration. Crew is responsible for stability.
Helm: Moving into trapeze as it takes longer to flip the tiller behind the mainsheet.

With practice in low/medium wind conditions this can be a very fast way to tack. The key is to communicate and get in synch. A certain amount of trust in the ability of each others is mandatory with this method <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

Gybing from trapze can be done much the same way. Have the crew on trapeze until the tack have started. Then let crew come in with the sheet in hand (this eases the sheets) and just steer trough the gybe. Again, communication, sync and trust is needed, together with some structured training.

on the gybe, you are correct in that you don't want to lose a lot of boatspeed. This can cause a nose-dive when the main flips to the new side and powers up.

Keep the boat moving as best as possible, and make the gybe smooth and relatively quick. Don't head up too high after the gybe or you could face a knockdown, just head high enough to ensure you're on the new gybe and maintain most of your entry boatspeed. As the TWS increases, your gybe angle will decrease.

If you look at some boat wakes, you may even see a slight

S

turn as the boat enters the gybe, passes clew to wind, heads up (maybe 140 degrees to TWD) and gains speed, and then drives down slightly once up to speed.

The spinnaker helps keep boatspeed through a gybe. In light air, you can

float

the spin through the gybe, keeping it full throughout the transistion from one side to the other. In medium and heavy air, the turn is usually too quick to worry about it and you just focus on trimming to the new heading.

Without a spin, it helps to sheet in the traveler while steering through the gybe (to prevent a huge swing of the boom) and immediately ease it out on the other side.

As far as crew positions go, in the gybe you want to try and stay as far back as practical to prevent nosing in to the back of a swell and stopping the boat. In moderate air, it is typical to see crews prepare for a gybe by driving down and coming off the wire to

organize

for the gybe so they may resume quickly on the new heading

Your best bet, however, would be to sail with a more experienced boat and watch how they do things. Or you can sail with one of their crew for individualized instruction.

Thanks for your reply! In many way's your description looks like how we do the jibe. But, if we come in without giving slack on the sheet, we have the idea that we'll flip? (of course when there is a moderate/ heavy air) That is not the case? Do I understand correctly you ease on the mainsheet when your on the end of your turn?

And I'm sorry This is a language issue), but what means

zero in

exactly?

This sounds nice, but I think you have assumed that we have a self tacking jib? (unfortunately that isn't the case yet, but is on our list for next season)

You need a selftacker. It is a different world to sail and race with <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

You shouldn't be gybing on the trapeze without spinnaker. get the boat running downwind with both crew sat on the hull.

No problem...

zero in

means to fine tune the heading of the boat to the new course to make sure I'm not sailing too high or too low.

I believe the phrase

zero in

comes from machining where you set the zero point measurement by making fine adjustments so the dials read zero and you are starting for a very precise position.

I thought

zero in

came from gunnery where you zero in the targeting system on the target to calibrate the targeting system?

For machining I always found actual measurements more accurate than the dials <img src="<>/wink.gif" alt="wink" title="wink" height="15" width="15" />

Yes, I am a nerd and proud member of the nitpocker association..

In both maneuvers ( more so for jibing) try to keep your boat speed up. Lots of folks think doing it slower is safer but it is quite the opposite because of apparent wind and righting moment issues. Slow is dangerous as well as...slow.

That would make more sense!

The term

Zero in

probably has other meanings, but in artillery or firearm disciplines it has to do with adjusting the aiming system to hit a particular target. This can be done either by

walking the round

(reading where rounds hit and making adjustments),

holdover

(aiming the sight above/below target based on prior experience), or by various computations (it's all Newtonian physics)

For instance, a call to set a 200 meter zero would dictate you set your scope or sighting system to the settings (declination, windage, elevation, etc) which would (through prior knowledge/practice/computation) guide the given munition to a particular spot 200 meters away.

Other trivia (easy) - where did the term

Whole 9 yards

come from?

27' munitions belts.

Our current

No Prize

winner. didn't take long either...

How about

three sheets to the wind

?

Had to google that one and it says a

vessel with loosed sheets

or some such. I'm not sure how you get 3 of 'em though. How about

cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey

?

Ships cannon balls were stored in stacks in dishes called brass monkeys. The brass monkeys filled with water, when it froze and expanded the cannon balls would roll off onto the deck.

FLASH IN THE PAN

?

Some of the old guns held the powder in what was called a pan. When it went off accidently, there was a Flash in the Pan.

Maybe?

I think that 3 sheets to the wind comes from the old square riggers that had square sails with a sheet in each corner, once the crew let go of 3 of them, the sail was flogging out of control on the end of just one sheet

Try out (like for a sports team).

Seriously?!?! You didn't just make that up?!?!?

<****.
And the square rigger/3 sheets makes sense.

I will have to disagree on this one. I have toured a tall ship rendered historically accurate (and the HMS Bounty, but I think that's less historically accurate), and they don't store cannonballs in the pyrimid shapes. Can you imagine a rolling deck with those things all stacked nicely?

The cannonballs were stored on planks with holes cut out of them. I think they call them

garlands

You can see the garland behind this cannon (right bottom corner of the photo)

Down below the main deck, the cannonballs are stored in racks (like soda cans) for easy retrieval

Even better, land batteries (like Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas) had a similar rack system for cannonballs, but they were heated red-hot in a fire on their way to being retrieved, so the cannon can blast away and set a ship on fire as well. Not sure how they prevented the powder from self-igniting when they pushed the red hot cannonball down the muzzle, but I'm sure the park ranger would know...

There is some mention on the web of

monkeys

in Lord General Cromwel's inventories (circa 1650) of cannon regarded as

brasse munkeys alias Dogs

, which may allude to the smaller Minion or Saker cannons (3-4 pound shot weight/ approx 3

diameter) versus the Demi-Cannon (32-36 pound shot weight/ approx 6

diameter)

I thought

Three sheets

meant sails, but the

Google Machine

in front of me corrected my thinking. I totally forgot

sheet

also meant control line. Crappy sailor I turned out to be, I guess.

Capt'n Morgan is probably flipping over in his pirate ship by now...

<img src="http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341bfae553ef016762717e5c970b-800wi" />

Was that then?

Perhaps the brass monkeys were mostly used on shore at a fixed base and not on ship.

Which, makes me wonder what kind of drink the song

Brass Monkey

by the Beastie Boys refers to.

I would agree with you on that, Jake. Can you imagine 32 pound cannonballs rolling around the deck in a gale? Not my cup of tea at all...

isn't that some varient of

spanish fly

?