Re: In need of advice

JBlumhorst@aol.com
Tue, 3 Aug 1999 19:21:21 EDT


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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In a message dated Tue, 3 Aug 1999 6:34:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Richard Fletcher <richard.fletcher@worldnet.att.net> writes:

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> West Wight Potter Website at URL
> http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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> Giorgos,
*sniped*
>
> 1. The boom vang - I don't think they are an absolute necessity. I
> don't have one right now and I'm spending my time learning to read the
> sails and the wind now, though I may add a vang in the future. I look
> at it more as a fine tuning device. The boom vang allows you to control
> the shape of the sail by pulling down on the boom with the vang.
>
*snipped*

Hi Richard and Giorgos,

The vang is a very useful sail control when you are sailing down wind. The boat has a tendencey to rock from side to side with the waves, and the boom will rise and fall with the momentum. Without a vang, the mainsail will rythmically fill and dump air, exacerbating the sideways rocking. With a vang, you can keep the boom from rising up, giving you a much more stable, comfy ride and greatly reducing your chances of an accidental jibe.

It's also used as a way to flatten the draft of the mainsail (by bending the middle of the mast forward), after you've gotten as much as you can out of your outhaul, and you would try this technique only in very high wind.

BEst regards,
Judy B.
1985 WWP-19 #266 Redwing
SF Bay, CA