I have noticed, when sailing on port tack she doesn’t point as well as when we sail on starboard tack! Anyone have a solution for it? Am I not trimming it properly? Do I maybe need a new sail? Puzzled in Michigan!
Cub: It would help if you sign your posts like most of us do. This tells us what you have and where it lies.
Joe Valinoti
S/V iL Gatto NS30U #221
Sea Harbour YC
Oriental, NC USA
Are you sure your wind instrument is properly calibrated (centred)?
Paul M
NS30U #211, Sandpiper
Cowichan Bay, B.C.
Mine is just the opposite. It points higher and sails faster on a port tack via GPS and knotmeter.
Joe
Mine too. I suspect that it may have something to do with the mast being stepped offset from plumb. A few millimeters off at the step set screws and the setting of the wedges at the deck flange may cause significant offset higher up the mast.
Pat Furr
NS 26C #133
Charlotte, VT
Do you all verify that your angle of heel is EXACTLY the same on both tacks
1/2 degree difference will considerably change the wetted surface
Need I say more!!!
Safe Sailing (& fast!! Upwind)
Cedric
Single Malt. 26C
207
Chester Nova Scotia
Couple of degrees on the keel or mast would be enough… also there is a favoured side when sailing to wind, the wave action is not exactly perfectly aligned to the wind…
Cubby I’m glad to see you are now making use of this excellent discussion site.
I too once experienced a whole knot difference in my tacks when the breeze was on the nose, during a 20 mile leg of the Lower Lake Huron Single Handed Challenge. Earlier I had done so well on the first two legs that I “was” anticipating a major win and that the younger racers would later want to know all about this Nonsuch boat, which they knew nothing about. Alas, nearly everyone who I had passed earlier were now able pass me as they clawed their way to port better than I could.
I subsequently learned that experienced racers hang a weight to their halyard and check it to the port and starboard toe rails. Sure enough my mast was slightly of to one side and when I checked the wedges at the deck level it was evident why.
I hope that helps and that the newer sailors on Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron will some day bid up the price on your boat if you should decide to move up to a 36’, or what ever.
Cheers
Herb G. Huber, Lake Huron Nonsuch Association, MISTOFFELEES 30C#91, Bridgeview Marina, Port Huron/Sarnia, Ontario
Well, that answers THAT question. Between the mast off just a few degrees (on deck but more aloft) and, of course, the wave action, that should certainly affect boat speed on a particular tack.
I like the idea of the weighted halyard - leave it to those racers.
Ernie A. in Toronto
My boat also favors one tack. The mast may be 90 degrees to the deck (port and starboard) but how the boat is loaded will affect trim. On a 30 ultra the fuel tank and black water tank are on the starboard side. As is much of the stowage. Further, on FATE the batteries are also on starboard.
Jim Cosgrove
FATE 30U #343
Galesville MD
All of the above. Mast trim is a factor, wind and waves are a factor, unevenly distributed payloads (both fore and aft and port and starboard) are factors. Although I suspect it’s negligible, I wouldn’t be surprised if the differential drag resulting from our prop shafts being offset from center contributes.
Without knowing the size of the difference, I can’t advise on how much it’s worth worrying about.
Some of it might come down to experimenting with the variables folks have laid out to minimize the difference. Some of it might be in strategizing based on accepting a difference, e.g., if you’re racing, you may just want to fall off more on one tack than the other to get the best VMG.
I was just reading “Bott’s Thots on Sailing a Nonsuch” (referenced in another discussion thread recently). Ed Botterell being the guy who built most of the original sails. He kicks off with an anecdote about Lightning racers tuning their rigging bar tight after the winner of the Worlds tightened his rig with a piano tuner, only to be defeated two years later by “a chap from Buffalo [who] won the trophy with rigging so loose the mast fell from side to side on every tack!!” He quotes a friend as saying about it, “But that’s why we sail.”
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C #143
This thread interests me a lot. On my NS30U, Quickbeam, I can sail at 30 deg to wind on starboard tack, but only 60 deg on port tack according to my Raymarine ST60 wind instrument. I have tried calibrating multiple times, assuming that the wind gauge was off. I find it hard to believe these boats can point at 30 deg to the wind. 45 deg seems logical.
I’m not convinced that the ballast in the boat would make that significant of a difference considering it isn’t heeled at rest. Even then, I can’t imagine a 30 deg difference in the luffing of the sail when pointing. I do have a separate wind vane on the mast as well, so next time I’m out (like, tomorrow) I’ll have to take a picture of the wind vane on both tacks close hauled to see if there really is a noticeable difference.
Bob Gehrman
NS30U #396 “Quickbeam”
Baltimore, Maryland
thanks for the insight! I will be checking for plumb using the method Herb described.
Bob,
definitely sounds like something is off on the calibration. I have a basic wind instrument on La Reina. It will only show apparent wind angle. She sail comfortably up wind at 35 degrees apparent. I can point to 30 degrees but she really starts to slow down at that wind angle. I am trying to work it out in my head but if (hopefully no current) you head directly into the wind and take a bearing on your ships’s compass and then fall off start sailing and work back up to the wind with the sail over the rear quarter until the sail just starts to luff and full off degree or two and take another compass bearing that should give you the true wind angle. Repeat on the other tack. Don’t use the GPS compass headings because that would add leeway to the equation. If you have a Davis wind vane at the top of the mast and know the angle that you have set it will give you another check on the apparent wind angle. You need to make sure it is set up accurately and that the birds have not messed it up. I have mine set at 70 degrees so if I can get the tail of the arrow over the rear tab I know I am at 35 degrees apparent. That combined with the compass headings should let you know the difference between true and apparent wind angle. Compare those to your wind instrument.
where I sail, the wind, current and waves do not always line up so I will have one tack that is better than the other in terms of boat speed. I also find that over time the calibration on the wind instrument will drift. Fortunately I have access to a mast tower that allows me to recalibrate periodically.
By the way my theory is better than my practical application and my theory is not that strong so take what I say with a healthy amount of caution.
Mark Powers