mizzen staysail again

[Guest wwbaginski]

Is it useful (or neccesary) to adjust tension of the luff edge of a mizzen staysail? Moving it up is limited with a knot on the lifting rope as far as I remember. How about another end? To leave it adjustable, or just to fix  once it's adjusted properly? In such case I could fix the aft part or the rope (which now acts as a preventer) too. And to operate the sheet only. Is it okay? I will appreciate your opinions.

[Hirilonde]

The key to any sail performing well is shape.  There are 2 key components to sail shape.  One is the sailmaker's craft.  The second is the person in control of the sail.  Tension on all lines controlling a sail influence shape, as do the angles of those lines.  So the simple answer to your question is yes.  Halyard tension is important in adjusting the shape of the leading edge of the sail, and will need to be adjusted each time the sail is used, and again if the wind changes during use.  Whether you increase tension with the halyard or the tack downhaul is a matter of choice.  When flying 3 sails together, keeping shapes and the slots between the sails complimentary to each other are both important to maximum lift and speed.

For day sails and cruising you may not get overly picky about trim details.  If you race you might fuss almost non-stop.  How important trim details are is a matter of opinion.

[Dogdad]

[quote author=Hirilond

[John Turpin]

Like Bob Bitchin, I only trim sails on Thursdays.

[Scott Dunsworth]

I truly beleive you are suppose to trim your sails when you hit the water and not touch them again till you anchor. :cool: I would have built a power boat if I where in a hurry to go anywhere. I fill sorry for those folks like :smile: Graham that see's a sail trimmed badly( like I do most of the time) and it annoys them. Just to much work! I often, say like if I am on a close reach and the sails need trimming Ill trim with the tiller. Just bear off a bit or round up a bit. Some people just take this stuff to serious. Heck if your moving forward isn't that what sailing is all about. Besides when you get home a day or two late and the wife has all her feathers ruffed up you can blame the darn wind.

There is a lot of pro's to never ever learning, or fussing over sail trim!!

Scott

[Travis Votaw]

On PILGRIM, my PS22, sailing with the staysl is all off the wind, anyway - I doubt it will sail much closer than 90 deg .  It seems that the sheet tension is more important than the luff tension in setting the sail, providing the luff is snugged up to the preventer knot on the halyard, and the halyard is cleated off on the windward side; but, I'm not a racer, so what do I know :???:

[Guest wwbaginski]

Thanks for the nice shot! it  shows clearly both sails and slots between them mentioned above... I was flyig my mizzen stays'l about half an hour during all the year (11 sailing days totally) , but it was really exciting experience.  The boat used to speed up. I stopped being scared with the stays'l  at least.

To operate the stays'l I was tying a short line to the end of the sprit where the mizzen sheet was tied. The line was ended with a block through which the stays'l sheet was running - to another block, fixed to the gunwale (I have a rail) and next through a camcleat. Never thought to picture it, but now I'm curious if someone has made such photo?

[Guest wwbaginski]

I  've just found this movie:

Paul would you please explaine how you operate  the mizzen staysail sheet? Looks like it runs to the mizzen mast , but most interesting details are hidden behind the mizzen sail...

[Designer]

That is a great video that Paul shot while Allan steered. If you look closely, you will see that they have the working sails wing and wing, with the mizzen staysail set between. The above shot of Travis's Princess 22 flying the mizzen staysail has the main and mizzen on the same side of the boat. When sailing wing and wing with the staysail you need to let the mainsail well forward of the beam. The time to change to wing and wing is when you can't sail deep enough downwind without sucking the main back to the staysail.

[Ken_Potts]

I'm going to remember that tip.  It would have come in handy at the lake today if I had crew aboard.

Wojtek (I hope I spelled that right) - I don't know exactly how Dawn Patrol's staysail is rigged at the clew of the mizzen but I think the mizzen staysail sheet is typically run through a block on a line tied to the clew of the mizzen.  That's the way mine will be set up when I finally get around to finishing the rigging.  right now I'm running the staysail sheet through the attachment point of the mizzen sheet.

When tacking, the mizzen staysail sheet is disconnected, taken forward around the mizzen mast and reconnected on the opposite side.  You can pull the sheet out of the block run it around the mast and re-thread it or you can add a snap link or something to the block and carry the whole thing around the mizzen mast.  Whatever works best for you.

By the way - My staysail is set incorrectly in the photo you see, so don't copy me.  That's a jury-rig I set up to figure out how the sail works.  I'll update the photo once I get the sail rigged right and Paul or Dawn sends me a better picture