File - Canadian Wayfarer Association

centre of effort forward). If you need to luff up, ease the jib very slightly (to bring the centre
of effort aft).
4 The centreboard
It is vital that the centreboard have minimum play inside the box. On glass boats with wide slots,
you need to insert plastic or tufnol washers of several inches’ diameter on both sides of the
board, putting the centreboard pin through them. The leading edge should be as close as possible
to the maximum 83º angle allowed to get the biggest possible presented area.
When sailing off the wind, have as little board down as you can without skidding sideways. If
there is too little board down, the helm will feel heavy and the wash will be turbulent on the
windward side. So if in doubt, look aft!
The leading edge needs to be nicely rounded. An arc of about 1 cm (3/8 ”) inch is about right. It
should merge gently into the centre flat sections. The transition between the flat centre and
the aft bevel should be equally smooth with no abrupt change in profile. The very back edge
needs to have 3 mm (1/8”) flat or so, to give it strength.
5 Hiking straps
The toe straps should be just long enough to enable the sailors to sit out comfortably. There
should also be shock cord tensioning to keep them taut so that the sailor can find them easily
after a tack or gybe. There must also be enough room left between the helm’s toe straps to
enable him to step between them as he tacks.
6 Tacking.
The Wayfarer will roll tack beautifully without stopping. The secret of a good tack is for both
sailors to remain on the old windward side until the boom has gone over. Then both sailors should
move to the new windward side. It is also important to ease the mainsheet a little as the helm
goes across. This lets the sailors sit down without the boat heeling too much. The crew should be
marginally behind the helm so that he can, in windy conditions, sit down on the weather side, or
in light conditions, move back to the leeward side as needed. Especially in light winds, the helm is
usually unbalanced at this time, and must be careful how he sits down. If he is too clumsy, the air
will be shaken off the sails.
For this reason, aft mainsheeting is generally better for sailing inland in light weather because
the helm faces aft during the tack and is crouched lower in the boat. The helm should always
swap hands on the tiller before he leaves the old windward side. Then the extension is already in
the correct hand when he gets onto the new tack.
Centre mainsheet roll tacking is rather more complicated as the helm has to face forward. He
shouldn’t swap hands until he has sat down on the new windward side, even though this means
steering with his hand behind his back for a second or two 38 .
7 Gybing.
The Wayfarer is incredibly stable and can be gybed even in the very strongest breezes. The
gybing technique obviously varies according to wind strength and whether or not the spinnaker is
being used. In light winds the boat will roll gybe using techniques basically similar to those used
in roll tacking, in that the helm and crew wait until the boom goes across before moving across
the boat. This has. the particular advantage of heeling the boat slightly on the new gybe to keep
the mainsail quiet. The gentler the sailors’ movements in these conditions, the better. The crew
38 Al Schönborn’s note: We have available to borrow, a video of Mike demonstrating roll tacking
and gybing as well as using sail trim to help steer. My editing is amateur but Mike’s demo is
professional!
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