CS17 beating help

[James Bandle]

I

[Charlie Jones]

Haul the sheets in, and she'll go to weather- get ready to tack and just push the helm over. For the most part, just forget the sails- over they go, and you are off on the new tack.

Usually a piece of cake.

[John Turpin]

You might also experiment with some water jugs (or similar moveable ballast) that you can move fore and aft. My last boat really improved its windward ability with extra weight up front.

[Kidd]

If you want to come across the wind faster you can have your crew back the main and push the bow around lickety split. Mostly it's like Charlie said, just put the helm over when you are ready to tack. I have been very satisified with the way my CS handles beating.

[mustangermatt]

If there is any kind of sea running it's better not to try to sail too close to the wind. The boat isn't heavy enough to plow through large chop, not only are you going slower but leeway increases too.

If you fall off a little, the increased speed more than makes up for the few degrees in pointing you give up. Besides, it's always more fun to go faster no matter which direction your pointing :-)

[Randy Marshall]

While sailing with Graham during the EC, he tended to avoid pinching, favoring maintaining good boat speed rather than maximum pointing. We often tacked more often than I might have in a sloop, but I'm sure we made our goal more quickly because we kept moving well. I was often called upon to back the main to bring us through the eye of the wind quickly, especially when we were beating up very narrow channels.

[Tim]

What Charlie said -I'll only add one thing don't forget to put the board down. If you launch from shallow water, sometimes you don't have enough hands fast enough and suddenly you forget the board, try to steer into the wind and you can't. I've beat myself up over this before. :oops:

Enjoy your launch; It's a real high to pull in the sheets the first time on a hand made boat.

[jaxsailr]

Was looking through my CS17 plans and could not fine sail handling info, I thought it was there. Anyway I will ask here.

How is the main and mizzen set going up wind? Is the main trimed first then the mizzen?

Thanks for the help,

Niels

[James Bandle]

Youall make it sound too easy!

Are telltales useful? Were woud they be positioned on the sail?

Jim Bandle

[Gordy Hill]

Boy! Y'All are making this sound complicated!

Point the boat upwind. If it doesn't work, bare (or is it bear?) off a bit.

I usually kept the mizzen sheeted in almost as far as it will go and then pretty much ignored it.

After it fills, I ease the main a bit for power to gain some speed and I fly the tell-tails. Also, when the main fills it tends to want to pull the bow further around than I want, so easing it a bit helps. As I get back some speed I sheet in and still fly the tell-tails.

I had three sets of tell-tails on the luff about 12 - 18 inches aft of the mast

I noticed Graham had them on the leach as well.

If I still had the boat I'd have those cute little windows in the sail so I could see how the leeward tell-tail was doing.