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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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Traveler advice?

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Gary B.
Admiral

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USA
969 Posts

Initially Posted - 04/30/2006 : 22:34:24

I originally posted this on another thread that had gotten far off of its topic of a C28..It was in reference to someone mentioning that he used his traveler to pull the boom up to the middle of the boat in order to gain more speed. I wonder out loud if this is often the course to take. I offered the following, but would love advice, myself.......Some good racer could probably fix me up with decent advice on this.....

Posted - 04/30/2006 : 13:20:17
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Okay....I wlll admit it; I am not all that good of a sailor and I have a LOT to learn. But the talk of raising the boom up to the centerline is NOT what usually makes my boat faster. IMHO. If anything, in much of a breeze, I drop the sucker DOWN on the traveler and sometimes sail with only the last 2-3 feet of main doing any work. The boat flattens out and the boatspeed often jumps.
I think that raising the boom to the centerline is good for pointing ability, often, but not boatspeed. In fact, without the main up, I can go just about as fast under headsail alone to weather. I just cannot point as high that way; seems to me that this is the function of the main when going to weather.
I would be delighted to think about this another way and get smarter and better, so TEACH me, please, where I am wrong...BTW: I am much more interested in PRACTICE than in THEORY.....
Gary B.
s/v Encore! #685 SK/SR

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Champipple
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
6855 Posts

Response Posted - 05/01/2006 : 05:47:28

you ar about 90 percent correct there gary. Some boats are driven more by mainsail, ours really isn't. The increased pointing - and possibly heal might give the illusion of speed...

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dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 05/01/2006 : 08:23:05

Gary,

When sailing close to the wind, I find that the stock traveler doesn't allow one to position the boom high enough (centerline) to produce the same angle of attack as my genoa. With the genoa set for maximum angle of attack and the main less so, the upper half of my slot starts to close resulting in poor air flow and sometimes a pronounced luff bubble in the upper third of the main. If the traveler could be set higher, I could match the angle of attack of my genoa resulting in better air flow across the main which would allow optimum pointing ability.

On days when I'm looking for things to do on the water, I'll sometimes rig a temporary mainsheet utilizing my windward lazy genoa sheet and winch. With this setup, I can bring the boom in higher to match the angle of attack of the genoa, then use my mainsheet to control leech tension and twist. With the stock traveler's limited range up high, the only way to bring the boom closer to centerline is to sheet it in tight which results in loosing the ability to adjust leech tension and sail twist.

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aeckhart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1709 Posts

Response Posted - 05/01/2006 : 08:23:42

Gary,

I have always understood the main sheet travelers function as:

- In high wind situations, ease the traveler to open the leach and spill air. This reduces heal, allowing the boat to sail upright and thus, faster.

- In light air situations, the traveler is tensioned in-board to close the leach and capture as much air as possible.

In both cases, the main sheet is trimmed according to the direction of travel relative to the wind.

My "wing" does poorly to upwind so I am seldom pointing hard to windward. I tend to ease the main and sail a little off-wind. This means a longer leg on the race course, but it also means I am sailing the boat as fast as it will go. I am still able to achieve some respectable finishes in our fleet, especially as my competition consists primarily of S-2's, Tartans, Beneteaus, a J-105, a Santa Cruz 40, and a Morgan 35. I have, in fact, been known to have a flash of brilliance and put together three good legs to beat some of the above on corrected time.

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Bruce Baker
Captain

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USA
402 Posts

Response Posted - 05/01/2006 : 10:19:55

The traveller on our little boats is pretty lame. Consider the traveller on a J-24, for example. It is about five feet long and bisects the cockpit fore and aft. It allows for a wide variation of adjustment in different conditions.

Generally speaking, when sailing upwind you want the traveller up to windward in light air and down to leeward in heavy air. In light air, you want to induce twist in your main, increasing apparent wind. In heavy air, you want to depower your main and keep the boat on its feet.

When sailing downwind, you want your traveller down to leeward to keep your boom down.

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Ericson33
Admiral

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USA
892 Posts

Response Posted - 05/01/2006 : 10:43:49

Its really all about the shape of the sail. With the top batten centered to have the boat pointing close hauled, this might infact have the travler car well up to the windward side of the boat, or in heaver air to twist the top batten off to the leeward side and have the travler more centered. When you see a puff coming you need to ease the travler not the main sheet, let the boat flatten out during the gust then ajust the travler back up to the settings that you need for the air speed. Yes the boat does go faster off of the wind, the boat should be a hull speed on a reach. But its all about the VMG of the boat and where you want to go. In our case its the windward mark. The fastest way to get there is to keep the boat pointing as high as possible without stalling the sails. On the capri 25 this is a busy job to do. I am always having to play the travler car to keep the correct trim on the main sail. In 15knts of wind I find myself with the car 8" up to windward and sheeting the main so that the top batten is slightly twisted to windward, and the boom is centered below the top batten, with the top tell tail just luffing 75% of the time. This allows for the best upwind preformace in our boat.

Now with all of the information stated above, its our goal to keep the boat as flat as possible, If the Capri 25 heals over 20 deg we slow down quite a bit. The Capri 25 has allot going on all at the same time to keep the boat up to speed, flat, and pointing high. This is what makes sailing fun.

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.