Re: sheets inside or outside of shrouds

Bill Combs (ttursine@gnt.net)
Thu, 24 Sep 98 10:02:03 -0700

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> I assume too
>that you're saying the WWP19 sails better much further off the wind
>than I've been sailing, and that would, to me, indicate the need to
>pull the sails in even more, again a problem with the sheets outside
>the shrouds. (I'm pretty sure now that I misunderstand what pinched
>means.)

I used "pinching" to indicate sailing very close to the wind, extracting
the last bit of angle by sailing on the very edge of luffing. Eric Johnson
analyzed the problem quite well in his post last night. I especially agree
that telltales are a tremendous help. In average conditions, I find a
total
tacking angle (the difference between the compass courses of the two
tacks)
of 100 or more degrees yields better results as measured by VMG (velocity-
made-good) -- even though the WWP19 can achieve 85 degrees or so. The
wider
angle correlates well with Eric's "40 or 45 degrees off the apparent
wind,"
after taking into acoount the difference between apparent and true wind.

Regards,
Bill Combs
WWP 19 #439 (1987)
"Ursa Minor"
Fort Walton Beach FL
ttursine@gnt.net