Troubleshooting

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Ashevillejanes
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Troubleshooting

I have a troubleshooting question, I know there are lots of variables but need opinions on what to look at that I need to work on.

Sometimes I get my rigging dialed in and feel great, but sometimes I don't, I try to set everything up exactly the same but......
My issue yesterday was realizing that I had a death grip on my back hand, going both directions, I would slide my back hand back on the boom and sheet in. When I reminded myself to relax, I would sheet out and would feel good, but inadvertently, would return to the death grip position.
Any thoughts?

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moredownhaul
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Re: Troubleshooting

Try different downhaul outhaul settings, More downhaul/outhaul for higher wind, less for less wind. Try that or move your harness lines back a bit if you are using them.

What kind and size sail we’re you on. Sail could have just been too big for the conditions

Alan

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webguy
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Re: Troubleshooting

Good to hear from you - btw, where were you sailing yesterday?

I, too, dealt with "death grip". I had to as I was at my first OBX trip and death grip for a week means blisters. The pics of my bloody hands still haunt my trip mates 25 yrs later... Enough about my problems. Lol

For the reflexive death grip - if everything else is right but you are still clutching with the determination of a chihuahua grabbing a hot dog - relax your fingers and "play piano". While harnessed in, just twiddle your fingers every so often to remind yourself to relax. After a while, your body lessens the automatic tendency to grip so hard.

(You may be doing all this properly but this is also for the benefit for others in the same situation. I"m using the generic "you".)
This all assumes that your harness lines are balanced, in the correct range etc and that the death grip isn't a symptom of something else. Modern sails are typically very draft stable. Unlike the old days where every puff meant we had to move our hands around to compensate, today, a puff just means more pull on the harness. Our hands are just steering until we unhook for a transition. This works better if your harness lines are spaced no more than 8-10" apart. Even racers using big sails will have their lines close together. Ideally, you want to be able to release both hands and not have the sail fall away to either side. If the pull is on the front hand, move the lines forward, and vice versa with the back hand.

Some people starting out are reluctant to move the lines back far enough because having them forward works a bit like a safety valve - when overpowered, the sail wants to open. More experienced sailors will either a) translate the extra power to speed b) stayed in the same position but rotate the sail open on the balance point by pulling in the front hand and simultaneously letting off with the back hand and/or c) heading upwind to kill some of the power (if you are headed downwind, you can kill power by heading even deeper downwind). Racers will actually bias their lines to the back a bit to make sure any puff is translated into power.

In point b above, I alluded to a very important point. Sail trim should be done not by pulling in and out with the back hand but rotating the sail around the balance point - ideally where the harness lines are. Sheeting in is done by pulling in the back hand AND pushing out with the front. This is one reason intermediates struggle planing in lighter winds - they try to sheet in and end up bringing both hands in which doesn't do much. In very light winds because the apparent wind is so far forward, you often can't really sheet in with the back hand - you have to push out with the front hand.

If your lines are not in the proper size range, you end up using your arms to adjust. This tends to happen when people start out and want to make sure there's enough slack in their lines to easily unhook while not planing. When they begin to plane and the rig rakes back, the lines slacken and their arms now are doing the work the lines should be doing.

Does any of this ring a bell for your situation?

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webguy
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Re: Troubleshooting
moredownhaul wrote:

Try different downhaul outhaul settings, More downhaul/outhaul for higher wind, less for less wind. Try that or move your harness lines back a bit if you are using them.

What kind and size sail we’re you on. Sail could have just been too big for the conditions

Blush Alan says in 25 words what I said in 3000...

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moredownhaul
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Re: Troubleshooting

You just expanded on what I said.
New russian

Alan

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webguy
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webguy
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Re: Troubleshooting
moredownhaul wrote:

You just expanded on what I said. New russian

Expansion in a way that only cosmologists would appreciate Lol

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Ashevillejanes
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Re: Troubleshooting

6.6 then a 5.5 as winds got stronger,

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Ashevillejanes
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Re: Troubleshooting

Thanks for the reply,

We have been going to Green Pond Landing at Lake Hartwell, Anderson SC. Just under a 2 hr drive from AVL and water is 15 degrees warmer!

I think that I had too much outhaul, and the paragraph about sheeting in with back hand and not pushing out with front hand it accurate.

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webguy
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webguy
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Re: Troubleshooting
Ashevillejanes wrote:

Thanks for the reply,

We have been going to Green Pond Landing at Lake Hartwell, Anderson SC. Just under a 2 hr drive from AVL and water is 15 degrees warmer!

I think that I had too much outhaul, and the paragraph about sheeting in with back hand and not pushing out with front hand it accurate.

Yay warmer water! We need to do a Hartwell gathering when things become more normal and safer. Langdon and I were last up there in January before 'rona.

Too much outhaul makes a sail twitchy - it either feels full on or off and no in between. Even in windy, overpowered conditions, you need some pocket in the sail. If you are overpowered, pull a bit more downhaul and adjust the outhaul accordingly - just a bit more to compensate for the extra pocket you've just added with the downhaul. Remember that the boom setting for the sail is the maximum boom setting and that the ideal setting for conditions is usually less than that. And, in lighter conditions it's fine for the sail to be touching the boom - for big sails, it may touch the boom all the way up to close to the harness lines.

You may (or may not Biggrin ) find some of the stuff in this video helpful.

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webguy
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Re: Troubleshooting
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