DaySailer.org Forum

I'm pretty sure I know what the answer is. Now that the market has crashed and my retirement account is worth about as much as a set of sails, I figured I'd just go ahead and spend it all. I might be living on the boat soon anyway, so I might as well get better pointing and less heeling while I'm at it

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If I was only looking at the first picture, my inclination would be to say yes it is blown out, but that I would want to see it full of wind. Now looking at the second picture with a bit of breeze, I am not so sure. Its hard to tell from the angle of the shot, but if the draft is 1/2 to 2/3 back, I would say it is blown. If however the belly of the sail is forward of the 1/2 way mark then you may be okay. If it is still in the first 1/3 you are indeed ready for the nationals!

Sails, life, and tools are a lot alike. You don't know from bad until you've had good, and once you've had good you don't know how you did without it.

My sails are 25 yrs old so I don't know what a good set looks like.

P.S. I'm thankful to have my old sails.

Compared to the original sails that came with my DS1 “Feather” (built in 1963) your sail looks new. I would say that you have many more years of cruising before needing a replacement. Also from what I can see in your pics the sail appears to be in good repair. Can’t help but think also that a little sail trim would make the shape a bit better. Maybe replacing the halyard. If you feel the need to spend your retirement on a new sail I would say go for it and use the new sail for racing events and keep flying your old one for general cruising. Brad

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Here's some more info.

I've added a couple more photos that might give a better indication. Fairly light winds. I don't have a vang yet so that might make a difference. The outhaul is kept tight. The sail has a cunningham cringle. Should I use that along with the downhaul?

The jib seems to be quite a bit newer, the material is very crisp compared to the main. That's what got me thinking. Maybe I think too much.

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Something's wrong, but I don't think it your sail. From the battens back the sail is not full. Slack off on the clew outhaul and see if you can get a nice continuous curve in your seams. The biggest belly should be in the first 1/3rd of the sail, which is where yours is, but that may be affected by the flat of the sail where the battens are.

Also tighten up your halyard and your downhaul, (cunningham). That will move the draft forward. Your sail is also partially backwinded near the two top battens. Sail more off the wind to catch more wind in the sail and allow the wind to shape the sail.

Also slack off on the jib sheet in case that s what is causing the backwinding of the main.

I am having difficulty determining where your draft is when the sail has that flat part near the leech. Remove that and either take another picture or analyze the seam curve to determine if the greatest belly is at the 1/3 mark from the mast.

Boom vangs do help but your sail seems fine in the area that the vang would be primarily effecting. (Mainly in light winds, moderate to strong winds would definitely see a benefit by using a vang system).

Try adjusting your traveler so that there is no slack in it. Seems that the leeward side would be beneficial to sail shape if it were tightened some. In the pic all the support from the traveler is from the windward side. That can adversely effect sail shape and your ability to hold a course with the tiller centered or nearly centered. If the leeward side were tightened the triangle would offer better positioning of the main.

The halyards and running rigging that came on my boat were a bit weathered and stretched. I replaced them and found it was much easier to fine tune the tightness and maintain a more consistent sail shape. Brad

Thanks for the great feedback guys. I will pay more attention to the initial setup with the halyard and outhaul and see if that helps. I've been reading "The Sailmakers Apprentice" and the author notes that an overly tight foot can cause the baggy pocket along the foot, so I will follow Roger's suggestion to ease up on the outhaul.

The traveler is set up like Phill's:

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and it looks to me like his traveler block is fixed, so that's the way I built mine. I could be wrong though. I'm not sure that I've got the block height correct though, so that might be a factor. I'm also changing the jib sheet rigging so that should help with the jib angle...

Hopefully I can get on the water one more time and check all this stuff out!

In looking at your image I am curious about the tension on your side stays. It looks from the image that the mast does not have enough tension to bend it to match the luff curve in your sail. It does look like your sail is well worn but as others mention, it only matters if she does not sail to your satisfaction.

Does the boat get enough weather helm going upwind? If you have lee helm that would support my theory on the rig tension being an issue.