Jibs and Harleys

[Marv Irwin]

Greetings to the collective,

Summer has finally come (in September) to Northern Ontario and the winds have been ideal for at least three weeks. I've had my DS for a few years now, so I'm at the stage where I'm starting to care about some of the "finer" issues. I've upgraded the stays and purchased a new main and jib. Recently I'm noticing that when everything is balanced just right and the boats is humming along at 5 knts +/-, the bottom 6 inches of the jib develops a high frequency vibration that produces a sound like an old Harley. Its not unpleasant (if you like old motorcycles), it only seems to happen when trim is right on (jib telltales streaming aft, tiller balanced and light to the touch). If I reach over and put a little tension on the slack jib sheet, the vibration goes away, but the GPS doesn't indicate any change in speed. Should I just ignore this and imagine myself 30 years younger with more hair and a big hog....or do I need to do some tweaking?

Regards,
Marv

[GreenLake]

I only know that my jib leech would flutter in stronger winds, but unlike your case, no amount of fiddling with the jib sheet would get it to be stable. That is, until I added barber inhaulers.

My thinking is that all this fluttering must cause wear on the sail, so it's best avoided.

[K.C. Walker]

Hmm… I'm surprised that a new jib would do this. The jib on my old boat would motor and it drove me crazy. It sounded to me more like playing cards, clothes pinned to my bicycle, and rattling in the spokes. Not exactly a convincing Harley sound.

With that sail the problem was a wrinkle right along the leech. I know you're not supposed to iron sales but I carefully ironed the wrinkle out and the motoring went away. Only to return when I didn't fold the sail correctly and got another wrinkle in it.

Barber inhalls are easy to install and seem to really help with jib sail shape and pointing. If they also get rid of the motoring, it sounds like a 2-for-1 solution. People who race Flying Scots use the lazy jib inhall as a means of trimming the jib.

Enjoy your summer!

KC