I need some help from you experienced folks. I bought the NACRA 500 in August and love the boat. I have had the chance to take in racing about four times with mixed results. I’m slowly but surely making the transition from monohull sailor to cat sailor. One major issue that is slowing down my tacks is the fact that my battens are not popping over to the new tack after I tackor jibe in light to moderately light breezes (I would say 8 knots or less). I tack, get on the new tack and give the main a quick pump. Most of the time a majority of the battens pop over. However, the second batten from the top is not popping over. I’ve tried to pumping continuously but nothing happens. I found that the best way to get that batten to pop over is by trimming the main sheet super tight, the batten pops and then I ease. This would work on tack, but not so much on jibes. I have the batten tension relatively tight since the breezes were light. Do I 1) ease batten tension, or 2) fair or taper the batten.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Mike
Laser
SR21
NACRA 500

What type of battens are you running? If they aren't the stock ones you probably the plastic ones or shortened foam/glass ones that arent tapered and therefore too stiff. You can do both the things you mention. Start by reducing the tension on the short battens and definitely consider tapering them or getting a couple pretapered ones.

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Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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macbeans

I have the batten tension relatively tight since the breezes were light.

Use light to medium tension for light air. You only need very tight battens for 10-15 knots in chop conditions. This gives your sail a lot of camber, which gives you power needed to overcome the chop. Otherwise a lot of camber would only slow you down.

I've had the same issue on my H17 new squarehead. The top battens need a bit more tension to remove wrinkles, but if there is too much, they would be hard to pop. Just remove the tension a bit. Make sure to remove the wrinkles, and then give it a bit more tension. This will give you a medium tension good for most conditions.

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Jack B
Hobie 17
BC, Canada
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also try and build up a bit more speed prior to tack

and try and carry your tack a bit further to "force" the issue ... although you may overshoot your layline a bit.. you can correct that and the loss of vmg will be made up without you having to take the time to keep whipping your sail around to pop it back into the right shape

I've found that temporarily adding some cunningham (or downhaul) will help a lot. My C2 is notorious for this is as well. Timing the boom pump with the mast rotation during the tack can help too.

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Jeff R
'88 H18 "Jolly Mon"
'10 C2 USA1193
NE IN / SE MI
cramsailing.com
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