chb@vaxine.UUCP (Music Mafiosi) (01/05/84)
Subject: Re: Telltales on the Main
Groups: net.rec.boat
<If this line weren't here, it wouldn't be here....>
On our frac' rigged J-36 we use at the fore edge of the top two battens,
as well as telltales at the leech end of the top three battens. I don't
think that you can really get a good idea of attack angle of the main from
luff-placed telltales (due to air disturbance from the mast), but we do use
the mid-sail telltales to help position the draft of the main and to help
determine the slot from the heads'l. The leech telltales we use mostly
to determine our sheeting angle on the main, i.e. whether you have sheeted
in the main too much or not.
When it blows stink, frac' rig boats also de-power by dropping the
traveller, and dumping the main when overpowered. You never dump the headsail
cause that would change your pointing angle.
Apropos of nothing, what are the thoughts from you salts out there as
to whether you think keel fins a la the Aussies will start appearing on
the IOR machines in the next couple of years, and whether those fins are
at all reflected in the IOR Mk. III(?) measurement. If not, will there have
to be a change to the rating rules?
Charlie Berg
Naviguesser
High Zoot (J-36)
Marblehead, MA.