GreenLake wrote:Well, that's a lot to digest here.
I have a 12:1 vang and still-new sails.
The vang can be adjusted under way, but isn't set up to be "played".
I do adjust outhaul for major changes in wind conditions. (If I don't forget).
I have a Cunningham, which I tend to set once. (Take out wrinkles after I get out on the water).
While I "race" the boat, the course is a fixed triangle, so it's anything but windward/leeward. Combined with local conditions, you can get all points of sail, sometimes in interesting combinations (like the day all three legs were upwind). In principle, that means that I should work on getting the best boat speeds in all points of sail. For the vang, it means that I may need to understand if its use changes (and if so how) between close and broad reaches. . .
(If I haven't shared that in an earlier post, I have pictures of my setup in my personal album in the gallery).
Season is starting again, so I will have many chances to practice.
12:1 is plenty, and if your sails still have good shape then you should be good to go. Off the wind or downwind, I really only ever use the vang for it's traditional purpose. Keep the boom down.
What I was mentioning earlier is really a close hauled technique where the boom is at centerline while sailing close to the wind. If you ease the sheet (close hauled) you are spilling wind on the angle of attack as the boom goes out (horizontally), and also spilling wind when the boom goes up (vertically) due to the twist you create. The idea of this is to keep the boom from going up, and only going out (like dropping the traveller would do). Reducing the spills to 1 instead of 2 (if that makes since). A more subtle sheet easing...
Once over powered (easing is not quite getting you there) if the boom is already snugged up (boom is already all the way down), you can quickly depower by over tightening the vang to flatten the sail. You can only pull the boom so far down, and after that point it becomes a "sail flattener".
Vang loose - open leech, twist is open, spilling wind, depowering (starting gear)
Vang snug - closed leach, twist is closed, capturing wind, power
Vang beyond that - Boom is already as far down as it can go, leech is still closed, but we are starting to depower by flattening the sail more and more as more vang is applied (the luff of the sail is getting more and more curved from the bend in the mast exaggerating as more vang is put on, which continues to flatten the sail as more is applied).
Note - If you had an adjustable backstay you would probably reach for that before "over-vanging". It is not exactly the same thing, but a mast bender (depowerer) as well. (We are trying to do things with less tools on a smaller boat, over-built vang as a substitute traveller and/or backstay).
You can probably play around with this idea without relocating anything. Go sail and tinker, just remember to loosen that vang back up a little before heading down wind.
I have mentioned triangle courses to the fellas in the past, but have little influence. These guys pretty much do windward/leeward. Reaching is the most relaxing point of sail, and the fastest... but apparently the least interesting.
We have pretty big shifts here at times (90s are not uncommon), but never remember a 360 shift. That had to be interesting. What is the lakes geography like?
The cunningham is to adjust the draft position. Pulling it on will allow you to bring the draft back towards the front of the sail. As power increases the draft can start to go to the aft end of the sail. I am not sure how much influence one would have on the DS (never pay attention to that because I do not have an adjustable one), but we use it on bigger boats. I just tie it down with some line (set and forget).