The main time I get interested in trimming for performance is our Sunday afternoon social club race called SAGS. Its a handicap start and my interest isn’t in winning per se its in comparative elapsed time performance, the first goal is to be the fastest multi, and we usually are or are close, the second goal is to point as good as cruising monos, and we do. I have a view that any dill can sail in 10-25 knots of wind, where you have to work for it is low winds and high winds. Low windspeed performance is excellent. I am amazed at our ability to move along in very light, think F1-2 breezes. The first photo below indicates what we can achieve without too much work. 8.3 knots of forward of the beam apparent breeze and we are doing over 5 knots boat speed. I am happy with that.
One big improvement has been the tweaker we put on for the self tacking jib. What it means is that we can move the jib traveller exactly where we want it. I was inspired to do this by Jim (RIP) off Chilli Cat , the first photo below, after the instrument shot, is Jim’s system, the next three was our original system. It was very simple, about 12 metres of 6mm double braid tied onto the traveller car, brought back to the cockpit via a fairlead and into the spinnaker blocks and clutches. As promised though we have updated that system and have a 2:1 Control system fitted.
So what happened was that the original blocks on the main traveller were replaced with doubles and the old blocks recycled to the headsail traveller to provide 2:1. The headsail lines are then lead back down the saloon side and to cam cleats. Photos below are jib tweaker car assembly, jib tweaker end of track, jib tweaker cam cleat and main traveller car assembly and outboard end.
The boat is consistently a pleasing performer. I am about 2 minutes an hour slower than a 40 foot Crowther cat with daggerboards skippered by a Brisbane to Gladstone winner. That boat and I race regularly and its a pretty good benchmark. I don’t get much chance to pit myself against other production multis of a similar size, but have been able to sail past a couple of Fountaine Pajot Mahes over the last couple of years and a Lagoon 400. Of course I have no idea if the other skippers were trying, but I suspect they may have been.
The key thing about sailing the boat is that it is rewarding to sail, it is a sailor’s boat and responds well to be sailed well.
HEAVING TO
A key part of safety at see strategy is the ability to heave to. The best explanation for how to do this on a Seawind is from my good friend Joe Siudzinski aboard KATIE KAT.
Here is how I initially get this heaving-to setup, with the mainsail reefed for the prevailing conditions, although not reefed too much as the center of effort is then too far forward to exert the weathercocking effect that you’re looking for:
Say the wind is coming in off the starboard bow. Head to wind, still keeping the wind off your starboard bow. Furl the jib, fully. Release the mainsheet.
The boat slows down and stops, wind still off the starboard bow. After the boat stops, turn the steering wheel fully clockwise (to starboard), and lock it there. The boat will now start backing up.
Pull the boom ALL THE WAY out to Port and lock it down, held in place with your portside preventer and the mainsheet. For your intial experiments, the further out the boom the better. The only thing limiting how far out you pull the boom is the shroud and how much chafe you’re willing to put up with when the main touches it.
The boat will gradually gather sternway. The rudders which are turned hard to starboard will cause the aft end of the boat to go to starboard as the boat goes backwards. This will result in the bow falling off the wind (to port). The wind coming off the starboard bow will gradually move aft; i.e., the starboard apparent wind angle increases. This increasing wind angle will now cause the main to start developing some forward drive and the boat stops and starts going forward. As the boat goes forward the rudders (which are locked hard over to starboard) cause the boat to head up into the wind. As the boat heads into the wind it slows down and stops. And so it goes on.
Another way of looking at this is that as the mainsail points into the wind and is fully luffing, the boat is still at some angle to the wind with that wind coming in off the starboard bow. Unless the boat has really picked up a lot of forward speed, she simply will not go through the eye and plop onto the other tack. If the mainsail goes past the eye of the wind then the wind will now push it on the “wrong” side causing the boat to try to weathercock … another reason not to have her reefed too much because we want the center of effort to be far aft. With no forward drive now from the mainsail, the boat stops and starts going backwards and the whole process repeats. You can try it even in fairly light winds… 10 knots and above should suffice.
Experiment with are rudder angle and boom position to keep the boat from gaining too much forward or reverse speed. I usually don’t bother and simply have the boom all the way out and the helm locked hard over although if your rudders can turn at a sharp angle you may not want to do that as the loads on the rudders when the boat is going backwards are quite significant (HUGE?) … I seem to recall a discussion of this… I think in one of Dashew’s books. I don’t recall what the angle on our SW1000 is (20-30deg?), but both of KatieKat’s rudder quadrants have a locking strap which prevents turning too far.
Now, if you want the boat to fore-reach slowly, the windage on your bows may be sufficient to keep them off the wind and maybe simply reducing the rudder angle will be sufficient to accomplish this slow forward motion. If not, then maybe partially unfurling the jib and pulling it out to windward (pull on the starboard jibsheet in the above example) will be enough to keep the boat steady and slowly fore-reaching. I experimented and did get KatieKat to fore-reach but it was a balancing act that seemed more trouble than it was worth and when the chips were down and I just wanted to relax then I was content with simply letting the boat stop and see-saw back and forth. In retrospect, I should have experimented more with this. Here are a couple of photos of KatieKat’s backwinded jib (scroll down): http://www.katiekat.net/Cruise/KatieKat2003J.html#091503
Definitely something to have in your bag of tricks. We always employed this when racing beach cats when stopping for lunch or waiting for races to start… it worked especially well with our wing-sailed C-cats. I vividly recall sitting out a very violent 60-knot squall with full sail up on a lightweight Tornado using this technique.
