File - Canadian Wayfarer Association

Mainsheet
• thickness: needs to be only about 7 mm (¼”) which will run very nicely through Harken 082
(bullet) blocks
• length: should only be about one foot longer than length needed to allow boom to touch
shroud on a run while bridle is at its flattest setting - anything more is waste and creates
tangles with other ropes (e.g. spi halyard).
Vang
Should be a powerful system that can easily be adjusted by the helm while sitting out on either
side of the boat. Ours is about 40:1; 12:1 is the minimum needed for efficient adjustment while
racing!
Outhaul
Should be reasonably easy to adjust while racing - ours is 4:1 and controls run to both sides.
Basic setting is for maximum foot depth - progressively less foot depth as boat becomes
overpowered or backwinding is a problem. Flattest setting is used on a run and in drifters or
survival.
Halyard
2mm (3/32”) wire looped over a halyard rack, Holt-Allen HA345.
Genua
On Shades:
• jib halyard is 3mm (1/8”) wire looped over the hook of a magic box
• the jib is (almost always) sheeted to a point
o 52 cm (20.5”) from the middle of the centreboard slot
o 8,9 cm (3.5”) from the forward edge of the centre thwart
• rig tension, which comes from the jib halyard, should usually be just enough to remove visible
slack from lee shroud while sailing close-hauled
Note: An even more functional approach to rig tension, i.e. jib halyard tension 99% of the time,
is to crank on excessive tension and then do the one really important test:
Sail close-hauled and see if your sailing groove is wide enough. If there is not enough (fore/aft!)
curve in your jib entry, your sailing groove becomes too narrow, i.e. the number of steering
degrees between luff and stall becomes so minute that your tickers will indicate luff one second
and stall the next with very little change of course. What is happening in this case, is that
instead of flowing along both sides of the curved surface of your sail, the wind is alternating
between bouncing off the windward and leeward sides of your sail entry (which is disastrous to
your performance!). A jib luff entry becomes too flat because the halyard is too tight. What we
therefore do is overtension the jib halyard for the conditions, test our upwind ticker
performance and then decrease halyard tension until the tickers settle down - i.e. we are in the
right groove (enough curve in the luff entry) for the conditions.
If at any time during the race, I find that it is getting uncomfortably hard to steer by the
tickers, I immediately ask my crew to decrease halyard tension a bit. Another case of: When in
doubt, let it out! Of course it is also true that the more rounded your entry, the lower you will
be able to point. Thus you only want the entry as rounded as necessary to feel comfortable with
your tickers!
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