Hove to Speed and Direction [and Reef Considerations]

[Christian Williams]

My Dyneema core halyard looks like this, it has a braid pattern. Acts like any other line in a cam cleat.

But yeah, my raw Spectra lazyjacks are pretty slippery and that might be an issue.

 

[Pete the Cat]

That's a really old drawing. It's for a boat without internal reefing lines, and no provision for leading reef lines back to the cockpit, as is common nowadays.

A Cunningham was/is for moving the draft of the mainsail. It really would be awkward to try to use it for the reef luff. Did this boat not have a halyard winch, and need a tackle to retighten the luff? The boom shown doesn't even have the reef horns that were common even back then.

Re the angle of the reef line, I don't think there's any doubt it should be vertical. That why the cars were moveable. But the bowline-loop falls in place automatically, or can be moved there with a finger.

Those sketches were a work of art, no? Lovely to look at. I find this one really confusing.

Not sure what you mean. I use the cunningham for the reef luff control and, yes, it also allows you to modify the draft of the main as well. I use dog bones in the luff cringle and a hook on the cunningham. I actually thought most racing folks still do something like this. I do not try to do all reefing from the cockpit as I generally find it simpler to just go do it up there.

 

[Vtonian]

The rationale I heard was, pulling up to remove wrinkles or flatten the sail pulls against friction and gravity, which can be seen in the typical scallops at the lower portion of a sail needing more tension on the halyard, or the vertical wrinkles in the mid/upper areas of an over tensioned sail.

Pulling from both top and bottom is better, unless you don't get the reef cringle tensioned opposed to the outhaul, at which point (on my sail) the tension would go more onto the slug at the batten above the cringle, which has like almost no reinforcing compared to the cringle.

Lousy pic but reinforced cringle at lower arrow, slug attachment above most reinforcement at upper arrow, where any excessive outhaul is going to load when reefed if the cringle isn't held to the mast well.

 

[Christian Williams]

Maybe I'm spoiled by Tides sail track, where it's easy to tension the entire luff using a halyard winch. Pulling on the luff in two directions is just not necessary.

I reef entirely from the companionway now, with permanent luff downhaul lines that eliminate even the need for horns or hand attachment of dog bones. No Cunningham hook aboard.

 

[Solarken]

Yesterday when practicing heaving to for the first time, with double reefed main and 80% of the #1 jib, in just 15-20kn I was still averaging 2kn with what seemed like very little side slip.

I assumed it would 'park' more (and drift more) and although probably most folks wouldn't care, in the often narrow waterways of Puget Sound, 2kn seems a little quick.

Should I expect to be able to learn to tune it to slower than 2kn or is that about expected for an E38 in 15-20kn?

FWIW, I think my reef points are at 15% and 32%, more common for offshore sailing, so my double reefed main looked pretty dang tiny to me and kept my speed mostly in the 4-5kn range all day, only once hitting 7kn on the reach home.

I find it near impossible to heave-to on my E32-2
Even with s storm jib. I think the boats are too light and need more keel to do well.
I found a sea-anchor to be quite functional though.

 

[Loren Beach]

One small bit of trivia about the "Cunningham", if I may. I have read that it originated as a means to move the draft in the main. This goes back to a time when goose necks were on a short track and once the main was hoisted the front of the sail was tensioned by pulling down on the goose neck. After too many sailors were hoisting mains that were cut overly long on the hoist to gain more area, racing rules authorities mandated having Black Bands showing the limits of the main sail area -- a band at the top, a band aligned with the top of the boom, and one at the furthest 'legal' point of out-hauling the clew. This way competitors could spot an oversized "cheater" out on the race course.

Having bought the maximum main sail area for light airs, an answer was needed to further tension the luff. (Remember these were dacron sails with some inherent stretch.) So, a racer named.... Cunningham.... placed a reinforced cringle above the tack a ways and rove a line thru it to haul down the luff and move the draft back forward in stronger winds.

I recall having a cunningham on our Ranger 20, for racing OD, back in the late 70's. Also on our later Niagara 26. Modern composite mains may have less need for this device due to less stretch, strictly IMHO.

 

[Vtonian]

Nice bit of history, Loren.

Watched this earlier, a simple visual...

 

[Christian Williams]

They really, really, really don't make them like that anymore.

Raced an Aston-Martin, won the America's Cup and the Fastnet, Olympic bobsled racer, cover of Time magazine.

Briggs Cunningham - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Vtonian]

Fun to meander down that thread and learn the boat of that Fastnet race was the Dorade, namesake of our dorades. Cunningham, meet Dorade: destiny is served.

 

[Pete the Cat]

Maybe I'm spoiled by Tides sail track, where it's easy to tension the entire luff using a halyard winch. Pulling on the luff in two directions is just not necessary.

I reef entirely from the companionway now, with permanent luff downhaul lines that eliminate even the need for horns or hand attachment of dog bones. No Cunningham hook aboard.

We each have our own options and I have never sailed a boat with a Tides track. But I my cunningham is a reefing hook on a 6 purchase set of small Harken blocks that is aft led to the cockpit. I work this frequently as the windspeeds vary. I can adjust it easily with one hand even with the sail under pressure. I have used this arrangement on every boat I have owned from my old Ranger 23 racing days to present (even my Folkboat!) passage making on my Tartan 37. Not sure why I would want to get involved with adjusting the weight of the whole main to tweak the shape a bit--seems more effective to adjust the shape from the bottom--, but we all have adopted the things that have worked for us and how we use our boats. It might be a racing carry over. Unless things have recently changed, this arrangement was on every racing boat I crewed. While I have seen them on goosenecks that are on a track, my experience suggest there are other reasons for this arrangement. Small adjustment of luff tension seems to make a significant difference in speed, particularly in varying winds.

 

[Christian Williams]

I have to smile at our different style. In 20 years on cruising boats I have never given a second thought to tweaking the draft of the mainsail. My outhaul position is also unchanged in 20 years. Pure unadulterated laziness! (Also probably not easy to do with my 10-ounce offshore main.)

Carlton Mitchell I think it was who said he always cruised at 80 percent racing efficiency. I am clearly in the single digits.

 

[Frank Langer]

I have to smile at our different style. In 20 years on cruising boats I have never given a second thought to tweaking the draft of the mainsail. My outhaul position is also unchanged in 20 years. Pure unadulterated laziness! (Also probably not easy to do with my 10-ounce offshore main.)

Carlton Mitchell I think it was who said he always cruised at 80 percent racing efficiency. I am clearly in the single digits.

Oh wow, Christian, that's a surprise, given your extensive sailing!
You should try those adjustments some time, it's amazing the difference they can make in boat speed, heeling, comfort.
If I didn't make those adjustments, often several times a day, my wife/first mate would abandon ship, and maybe abandon me too!
Frank

 

[Christian Williams]

A Cunningham does all that? I have adequate experience with Cunninghams, having campaigned a Soling for three years and was once competitive in Lasers, in which it's a tool of significance. Same with outhaul. For a cruising boat, I have just found no discernable difference at all.
Especially when dragging a three-blade fixed prop through the water.

I don't mean to advocate lazy sail trim, I'm probably as compulsive about proper trim as anybody. But when the breeze comes up, I reef. Every reef dramatically flattens the mainsail, which is really all a Cunningham does. And when reefed, the outhaul is no longer in service.

When racing to windward, fine sail controls are the game. I think they matter much less than anybody thinks, and the guy pointing higher and going faster is just a better sailor with better sails and a better boat, and who knows how to change gears, steer in all conditions, and get ahead of you and stay there. On my boat nowadays, there is no lead to get or to keep.

 

[Frank Langer]

Not just the cunningham, but also the outhaul, boom vang, backstay adjuster, to achieve optimal sail trim, boat speed and crew comfort.
Frank

 

[bgary]

Carlton Mitchell I think it was who said he always cruised at 80 percent racing efficiency. I am clearly in the single digits.

Yup. As a "recovering" racer, I'd say it's common to make obsessive changes to vang, outhaul, cunningham, backstay, babystay (remember those!), traveler, headsail halyard, jib-car position, twings, tweakers, barber-haulers (*) and all the rest, during a race, on a 5-second cycle, all the time, in order to eke out that last 0.1% of boat speed. Because you know the other guy is doing it, and you are happy to ignore the fact that at least a third of the adjustments in a cycle will make you slower, and at least another third will be obsoleted by changing conditions or tactical considerations by the time you're back on the rail.

Cruising... I'd be quite happy with 80% efficiency, especially if I can maintain it without setting down (or spilling!) my coffee.

(*) invented by the Barber brothers, Lightning sailors in San Diego in the '50s...

 

[Pete the Cat]

I have to smile at our different style. In 20 years on cruising boats I have never given a second thought to tweaking the draft of the mainsail. My outhaul position is also unchanged in 20 years. Pure unadulterated laziness! (Also probably not easy to do with my 10-ounce offshore main.)

Carlton Mitchell I think it was who said he always cruised at 80 percent racing efficiency. I am clearly in the single digits.

And you eschew dodgers. I would not cruise a boat without one because I am a wimp about being cold and wet. I change my outhaul but infrequently So it is style difference.

 

[Vtonian]

“There’s nothing––absolutely nothing––half so much worth doing as messing about in boats.”

Ipso facto, messing about twice as much with trim is quadruple as much fun as anything else.

[edit: admittedly, I have a problem conflating 'fun' with 'worth doing' but in my head, they are the same thing]

 

[Christian Williams]

I was on a Zoom call this morning with Brendan Huffman of UK sails, and I asked him about my cruising world of no Cunningham. They are of no use, eh?

Well, he said, lots of cruisers use them. Maybe most serious cruisers do. He does, even when not entered in the Singlehanded Transpac. Heather, another participant and serious racer, always uses hers. Of course they're not really necessary...but (say, who is this guy who doesn't understand the importance of a Cunningham when cruising?).

He mentioned that his own father has a Cunningham cringle for every reef point, so as to move the draft even when reefed.

It was an interesting correction to my assumptions. But of course I still think you're all nuts to bother.

 

[Vtonian]

I was guesstimating that on one of your 6k mile roundtrippers to HA you might save about 3 days (~.5kn speed improvement), but then thought better as you probably didn't care about the 3 days either. Really, if messing around in (sail)boats is the pinnacle of life, why hurry to get off one?

 

[Loren Beach]

Small crew or single handing also requires that personal safety and condition of the boat must override constant tuning & futzing. At least for multiple day or week voyages.
When I look at some very real and un-sexy blogs of single handers with months/years into their journey, they all spend a lot of time at sea just trying to conserve energy, get some rest, and keep their boat together.