Table of Contents
What is a sail clew?
Clew. The corner where the leech and foot connect is called the clew on a fore-and-aft sail. On a jib, the sheet is connected to the clew; on a mainsail, the sheet is connected to the boom (if present) near the clew. Clews are the lower two corners of a square sail.
How do you depower a mainsail?
Depower the mainsail by bending the mast, opening the leech, easing the sheet, dumping the traveler, and reefing if necessary. These adjustment are simply changing the total power being exerted by the mainsail. Since most of the main’s power is side force, adjusting the amount of this power affects windward helm.
What does the headsail do?
Headsail and its types Besides the mainsail, there’s also the headsail. This sail earned its name because it’s ahead of the mainsail. Your headsail connects from the bowsprit or the deck by a rod, wire, or rope, keeping the sail in one position.
What is a roach in sailing?
Roach is a term also applied to square sail design—it is the arc of a circle above a straight line from clew to clew at the foot of a square sail, from which sail material is omitted. The greater the departure from the straight line, the greater the “hollow” in the roach.
How do you flatten a main sail?
When backstay or running backstays are tightened, the force is back but mostly down, pushing the top of the mast down toward the deck. This compresses the mast, and the middle of the mast pushes forward, pulling the luff away from the leech and flattening the sail.
How can you use a traveler to depower?
In medium air, play the traveler aggressively to maintain the correct amount of helm. Dump the traveler down quickly at the onset of a puff, but then be ready to pull it right back up as the initial power of the puff dissipates and turns into forward speed instead of heel.
Is a genoa a headsail?
Description of a Genoa The main characteristics of a genoa are its shape and size. Genoas go past the mast, are triangular, and tend to overlap the mainsail, to some extent. It’s also one of the many headsails that can be set on a Bermudian rig.
Do I need a genoa?
Do you need a genoa? Large overlapping genoas are difficult to handle, hard to tack, easy to damage, and impossible to see around. A smaller jib is much easier to handle. On boats with large mainsails, a genoa is an unnecessary burden.