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Submitted
on July 31, 2003 by "Windjammer"
Question: I have a 2001 Catalina
400MKII with furling main and 130% genoa made by North. This is my first
owned boat, and first Catalina, but I have been sailing and bareboating
for 20+ years.
The genoa is more difficult to trim than other sails on other makes of boats from my past, and a very experienced friend confirms my opinion. He says the sail seems to be cut "funny" somehow making it very tender or sensitive. Another friend said that North probably designed the sails specifically for this boat for Catalina and that therefore you (North) may have some trimming recommendations based on the design. I have not been able to confirm this or get any trimming guidance from Catalina. Can you help? Either with tips specifically based on the design for the 400, or with the recommendation of a good book on the subject.
Thanx,
"Windjammer"
Answer: Hi, A good place to start for general trimming guidance would be the North U Trim book or CD or the North U Cruising Workbook. You can find those in the books section of North's Air Necessities.
If you are having trouble steering to the headsail, or trimming the sail so that the front telltales will stream, the first thing that I would try is to make the sail a little more round in the luff. When the headsail has a cross section shape that is too flat or "fine" forward, the symptom is that the sail seems to be either luffing or stalled, but never just right. For the helmsman that translates into a very narrow steering "groove". It might seem like the crew is always telling you to head up or to bear off, but never saying "great job steering".
The easiest way to make the headsail fuller forward is to pull the halyard up much harder. This is especially important if the boat has relatively stretchy, polyester halyards. In that case, the headsail halyard needs to be so tight that your sail will have a deep vertical crease just behind the headstay, for the entire length of the luff, when the sail is luffing. When you sheet in the sail, the load from the clew to the head of the sail will be enough to stretch your halyard, pulling the head of the sail down closer to the tack and relieving the tension on the luff. If you don't have too much halyard tension before sheeting in, you will not have enough halyard tension while sailing. Another visual guide is to look at the fabric just behind the headstay while sailing. If there is more than 8 knots of wind, the sail should not show any creases in the luff. If you see small horizontal creases at 90 degrees to the headstay, your halyard needs to be tighter. A tight halyard pulls sail fabric to the front of the sail making it rounder in the entry. A rounder entry is easier to keep in correct trim and allows a wider range of steering angle without stalling the airflow over the sail.
Another way to make the sail fuller in the luff is to ease the pressure on the backstay. A softer backstay will allow the headstay to sag, which makes the sail deeper in the luff. The other consequence of a loose backstay is that the headsail gets deeper overall. If your mast is soft enough to bend in the fore and aft direction, an eased backstay will result in a deeper mainsail as well since less pressure means less mast bend.
Your headsail sheet lead car should be positioned so that the leech of the genoa, when viewed about half way between the clew and head corners, is aiming straight back parallel to the boats centerline when it is sheeted hard enough to make the foot of the sail wrap gently around the side shrouds.
It would be easy for any North Sails representative to give you more specific help if you can visit one of the sales and service sites with a picture, or send a picture of your sail by email. To take the picture, trim the sail the way you normally do with the boat sailing to windward. Then lay on your back on the foredeck with your head and camera positioned halfway along the foot of the sail. Aim the camera from the mid foot position towards the head, rotating the camera to fit the sail in the frame on the diagonal, so you get as much sail as possible in the picture.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Dan Neri
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