Sailing in short chop

[James Taylor]

Hi all

what is the best way to make a N12 sail in short sharp chop was sailing around the chop the best we could but had a lot of sea saw action any ideas would be great .

Cheers
James
N3402
N3304 Up For Sale

[MarkSimpson]

James
You could try easing the jib an inch or so, moving the fairleads back and not pointing as high as normal.  This should give you a bit more speed to help the boat through the waves.

Mark

[Jimbo41]

James !
If you haven't done so already, ease the lowers upwind. The mast is then free to bend a little, the rig takes the shock and stops you stalling.

If you've got an Alverbanks jib, they have two calibration marks for the fairleads at the clew. Take the shallower one and move the fairleads back until the sheeting angle is slightly greater than this mark. More or less tuning manual, but some haven't "read" it yet... Sail fast and free....

Cheers!

Jim.

[John Meadowcroft]

James

how much wind?

lighter winds, sail with more twist in the leech.  do whatever you need to do to keep the speed up, including easing a little at times, but be sure to wind it back up again as well.  

higher winds - as you have a Chapter which loves a bit of chop compared to other contemporary designs -  hike hard, keep the boat flat and punch straight through.  dont worry about steering around as the waves will be too close to each other to do anything meaningful.  maybe look out for the odd really big one.  if you hit one really badly then bear off to get the speed back up.  Get rid of some of the fullness from your mainsail and use cunningham to get the top of the main to blade it off if you need to depower more.  Depower appropriately but flattening the sails too much eg letting the lowers go will give you a flat sail and I think that a deeper one (if you can hold it) will work better in helping you to accelerate if you need to get speed back up.  evidently some of this is a little contradictory.  The key thing is to keep your speed high.  Using the rudder to steer means too much braking action.

enjoy