Dart 15 Forums

I found it quite tricky at the weekend - how should the boat be set up?
I suspect my rig tension is slightly too tight with too much rake for the real light stuff. Does it make that much difference?

Sent you a useful reply but twitter lost it. Sorry.

I can't understand why nobody is rushing to give a former national champion sailing advice.

I did momentarily think of responding...

Hmmm - come on people, this is not how the forum or our Association works....... I can't give a huge amount of advice because 1917 was finding the light conditions as tricky as 1918 was But yes, making sure the rig tension is loose enough so the mast can rotate sufficiently in light airs will make a big difference offwind. I loosened my rig slightly for the weekend and slightly tightened batten tension too. I also have found it very easy to over tension the main and stall it out up wind - but, as a Moth sailor, you would have been able to feel that better than I can!

Based on my own experience, going the wrong way up the beat didn't help either.........

Anyway - given you are going to Bermuda sailing for a fortnight - I would suggest you have the last laugh on those of us who were a little less reluctant to share some helpful advice........

thanks Jenny. I'll make an effort to get out in the light suff and maybe copy Graham Dare's set up from the weekend.

To the guys that don't wish to share - you better hope for light winds at the TBYC winter TT

The problem with light wind sailing is it is very easy to hook the mainsail by over sheeting. My preference was to move the traveller to the centre of the beam (rather than the more usual 100mm from centre) and then have the mainsheet a little slacker so that there I a small amount of twist in the mainsail. I would also have less downhaul tension to get a slightly fuller mainsail. I would also sail a little free-er to maintain momentum - this is especially important if not sailing on flat water. Move your body leeward to prevent the mast leaning towards the wind.
Having said all that, the best light wind sailor in the fleet is probably Stuart Snell and I notice that he sails with a flatter mainsail and points higher than me in light winds. He seems to be able to maintain momentum when pointing high and makes gains in the lifts by being on the very edge of the wind, where the lifts are more apparent. I put this down to concentration.
Cheers
Bob
PS May be Stuart will make a post and share the secret.

I make no changes but maybe I am just lazy. I have in the past tried more batten tension and less rake. Less rake was really bad. John Shenton makes his boat REALLY fast sometimes with lots of batten tension in light winds.

Probably not much help...