Triple-headed sail ­inventories are becoming more popular these days, but the question is, does this setup actually make your boat go faster or simply add more complexity? I remember not too many years ago during a race when someone suggested we hoist the staysail and see if we picked up half a knot of boatspeed. We did, and then after a while everyone was convinced we should take the staysail down. We did, and what do you know? We picked up half a knot. At the time, I guess we really didn’t have the right answer, but we sure had a lot of opinions. Fortunately, with today’s technology we have data to back up what sail ­selection is fastest.

Last year, the team on Andrew Clark’s J/122 Zig Zag wanted to develop a sail inventory specifically for the Newport Bermuda Race. Clark reached out to me, looking for a sail package that would give Zig Zag the best solution to win. Throwing a bunch of sails at the problem wasn’t the solution because there are many factors that can influence the decision on the ideal sail inventory—rating rules, anticipated wind conditions, number of sails and weight.

The first thing we did was look at the historical conditions of the Bermuda Race and determine the percentages we would spend sailing at each wind angle and wind strength. Typically, the Bermuda Race is slightly lighter, with a lot of conditions changing as you enter the Gulf Stream. This told us we had to make sure we had all our bases covered.

The second element we looked at was the number of sails and the total weight of the inventory. If we can reduce the number of sail changes during a race, the less time we can spend sailing below target speeds. Sail changes are costly, and if there is a chance to reduce the number of changes without giving up performance, that needs to be factored into the equation.

The third element is the rating rule. Every rule is different, and special attention needs to be taken to evaluate sail size and the type of sail entered for the certificate. Some rating rules allow you to submit a test certificate to see how the changes affect the rating.

The last element is the quiver of sails that will make up the inventory and be applied to the rating certificate. This step is where the project team looks at everything, weighs the pros and cons, and comes up with a solid inventory of sails that it can then use to build a polar chart specific to the J/122 and the selected set of sails.

After a sail-configuration analysis, the team at Evolution Sails recommended a triple-headed reaching setup that would increase reaching speeds based on the current sail configuration Zig Zag was already using. The triple-headed setup includes a J Zero, jib and gennaker staysail. The J Zero is designed to be a smaller and flatter sail than the traditional larger Code Zero. It’s flown off the bowsprit with a furler and is also referred to as a flying jib. The gennaker staysail is a flat and smaller sail that fits in between the jib and the mast. With the J Zero deployed on the bow pole, the jib can be flown off the forestay as it always is, and then the gennaker staysail is set up between the forestay and mast trimmed inside the jib.

This setup improves the performance better than the traditional inventory options. What we found in previous sail inventories is that tight-­reaching configurations consisted of a jib and a gennaker staysail. An additional sail that was historically designed for reaching was the Jib Top, which is a high-clew jib that can be trimmed easier on a reach than a standard jib.

Once the sails were designed, built and delivered, the hard work of sail testing began. The goal here was to build a polar table and sail chart that would guide us through which sail we should have up in specific ­conditions. Polars are calculated speed versus wind angles that take sail inventory into consideration and can be found from the manufacturer for most boats. What the manufactured polars don’t consider, however, is the sail inventory itself.

The best way to create polars, of course, is by sailing the boat with the sail configurations. Zig Zag uses Expedition software to log actual performance versus the calculated polars the design team compiled. We were able to correct the performance of each sail and configuration, and edit the tables in Expedition to help guide us through the race. We then updated the polars and created a sail chart that showed which sail should be used based on specific wind angles and windspeeds. This process takes time and practice. You need to sail the boat in many sail configurations at each wind angle to find the ideal setup. Zig Zag did several practice days with the triple-headed arrangement in order to log the speed performance versus other configurations.

Expedition software is one of the best sailing software tools on the market. It does an unbelievable job with navigating, but it also helps develop the polars and sail configurations. To have good data from Expedition, however, the electronics on the boat must be calibrated properly. This is the most difficult part of the equation because it is very complex to get accurate. If the data that feeds Expedition is not accurate, the sail and polar analysis will not be accurate. Having a dedicated person who knows the instruments and can calibrate them on an ongoing basis is a key element to have a successful program. With accurate data and a lot of sail testing, Expedition creates data files called strip files. These files contain the data to analyze and also can be sent to a third-party analyst to do the comparison.

Once we were ready to race with an Expedition update and the forecast in hand, we could see which sails we were projected to use throughout the race. This gave us an overall idea of when sail changes needed to happen and which sails we would be looking at using next based on the forecasted wind models.

How do we configure the foredeck to handle all these sails? The pole length is fixed and the forestay is fixed, so those two points are easy. The location for the gennaker staysail forestay is what we needed to figure out. When we looked at the J/122, we needed a mast attachment point and a deck point. We wanted to set the gennaker staysail forestay about two-thirds forward between the forestay and mast, which would allow it to fit between the jib and mainsail, with the leech of the sail just touching the lower shroud.

Once we found that point, we added a soft-shackle attachment point into the deck and an attachment point on the mast near the top set of spreaders.

With all three flying, the jib could be trimmed off a barber-hauler sheet and the primary jib sheet depending on the wind angle. The J Zero is trimmed to an outboard sheet, and the gennaker staysail is trimmed to a cabin-top attachment point that we installed on top of the turning blocks, which gave it the right trimming angle. For different types of boats, you will need to sit down with the sail design team and look at all these issues to be able to design the gennaker staysail and J Zero to fit and be trimmed properly.

Going to the triple-headed sail configuration helped the Zig Zag team improve the overall performance of the boat based on the data analysis. For future races and practices, we will continue to evaluate and tune the numbers to help improve the overall base-line polars. This is an iterative process, and it’s what makes sailboat racing so dynamic and a huge passion for many people. And as for the Bermuda Race results? Team Zig Zag finished first in its division and second overall.

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There is something about the silence of sailing. It’s the movement through water—be it slow and stately, or fast and frenetic—powered solely by the wind. The absence of a noisy engine hammering away is one of the attractions of the sport, or at least in theory it is. The farther we stray from the coast and the bigger the boat, the more reality diverges from the picture; power is essential to any long-distance cruising or racing boat.

These days the source might be solar panels, but the diesel generator or alternator is still a critical piece of equipment for many bluewater sailors. If the boat relies on desalination, there will be no fresh water without power. There will be no instrument or satnav systems, no autopilot, no satellite ­communications for weather forecasts, no radar or even navigation lights. The loss of these things isn’t necessarily a big deal—particularly in daylight, fair weather, and with the security of a harbor or marina just a short sail away—but there are times when it can be very, very serious.

“It was the last day of 2000, and when I started the engine the previous day, I had heard a bad noise, but I didn’t care. The day after, I wanted to start it again to charge the battery, and nothing happened when I switched on the contact and pushed on the start button…. So, my first job was to remove the starter to understand why it didn’t switch on. I removed it from the engine, and then I opened it, and I found out all the brushes are more or less dust, nothing repairable.”

The speaker was Michel Desjoyeaux. And on New Year’s Eve 2000, he was leading the Vendée Globe—the nonstop solo circumnavigation, arguably the planet’s toughest and biggest ocean race. If that weren’t bad enough, Desjoyeaux was deep in the Southern Ocean on his way to Cape Horn. “My press officer told me, ‘But you should have a spare for this, no?’ And I told him: ‘No. If I carry a spare part for this, then I carry two boats, which is not efficient,’” he continued.

The engine had been built by Yanmar, and Desjoyeaux had good contacts there, so his first act was to talk to them. “They told me: ‘Oh, we are very sorry. Something [like this] happens one time in a million maybe, and it’s a very low occurrence issue you have now, and we are very sorry, and we can’t help you because there is no solution.’”

The response must have seemed like the end. The rules are strict for the Vendée Globe race. Once started, there is absolutely no ­physical assistance allowed—so for Desjoyeaux, a stop anywhere to pick up spare parts would mean that he was out of the race. How could he possibly fix the starter without the parts? It would have been a harsh ending to what had been a brilliant performance to that point. However, Desjoyeaux was no ordinary sailor; there’s a reason he’s known as “Le Professeur.”

Desjoyeaux grew up in his parent’s shipyard in Concarneau in Brittany, and sailing was his life from the very beginning. “My home was attached to the yard, and the yard was our recreation when we were young. We didn’t need to go on holidays anywhere because…I mean, we didn’t want to go on holidays anywhere because we had everything we needed. I also did all my school lessons until I was 10 with my mother, who did the teaching at home.” It’s hard to imagine a better background for becoming familiar with boats and marine engineering.

He was just 20 when he competed in his first round-the-world race as crew for the legendary Eric Tabarly, and he’s followed that French icon into sailing history with a series of remarkable achievements. Few would argue against the assertion that Desjoyeaux is the most successful solo racer of all time, having won the Vendée Globe not once but twice. On the second occasion, he overcame a 40-hour deficit to win. (He restarted, after having to return to repair the boat.) He’s also won the less well-known (outside France anyway) but probably more competitive Solitaire du Figaro three times, along with two major trans-Atlantic races.

The man has had a great career, and one of the most extraordinary moments came after his discovery that he couldn’t start his engine in the Southern Ocean. “I switched off all the electronics that were not useful, only the [auto]pilot with the compass left—no displays, no computer, no satellite connection, no weather forecast, nothing. The minimum possible, no navigation lights, I was fully in the Southern Ocean, and I didn’t need lights because there is nobody. And I spent a lot of time at the helm to save energy, preferring to sleep during the day with the solar panel to help me. During those days, I tried to understand what I could do to try to find a good solution.

“I was a bit farther [east] than New Zealand, so it was too late to make a U-turn. This was very lucky for me because I think that if I would have been able to get to Australia or New Zealand, then certainly I would. I think that maybe I would postpone, stop the race…put the traffic indicator light on left and turn.” However, pulling out wasn’t an option, so Desjoyeaux had to find a way to repair the starter motor—or find a way to start the engine without it. It was a very long way to Chile without power, particularly without the desalinator (and no way to reconstitute freeze-dried food), the pilot or communications.

The state of the starter motor and lack of spares forced Desjoyeaux to look at the problem another way. Could he start the engine without it? The boat did have a second alternator. “There was a big additional pulley at the front of the engine, and the two alternators were horizontal, one each side. So my first idea was to remove one belt of one alternator, and drill a hole to be able to put a screw in and attach a padeye to the pulley.” The padeye would allow Desjoyeaux to attach a rope to the pulley. “Then maybe four or five turns [of a rope] around the pulley, then find a second block on the front of the boat, and go out from there to the cockpit and onto a winch.”

The rope (it was red) that Desjoyeaux had attached to the pulley would allow him to turn the engine over—just as a rope starts a lawn-mower engine or an outboard. Once it was led out from the interior of the boat onto the deck, he could try using the mechanical advantage of the boat’s winches to help him pull. “I turned the winch, and I understood directly that the load was not necessarily very big. I had the capacity to pull this load, but for sure, with just a winch, I would not be able to pull long enough and hard enough to make it start. It was cold, the temperature was more or less between zero and 5 degrees Celsius, so it’s not very easy for a diesel engine to start. And I didn’t have enough battery to preheat the engine.”

Still, Desjoyeaux could feel his excitement rising; back at the Yanmar offices, they had been able to start an identical engine manually.

“One of the things we asked them was to understand how much you can unscrew the injector.” Desjoyeaux’s engine didn’t have a decompression lever, fitted to older engines to allow them to be manually started using a hand-crank. They reduce the pressure in the engine so it’s easier to turn it over. Then once the rotation of the engine has begun and it has momentum, the pressure is reapplied, and the diesel explodes.

“I unscrewed each injector. I remembered it’s a three-­quarter turn on each screw to have the minimum pressure to make turning it over easy, but also the minimum pressure to make the explosion possible when the engine compresses the diesel. In the Yanmar factory, they were able to start the engine with three people pulling on the rope. I was confident,” he explained, “because I realized that the load to turn the engine and try to start it was not very big. We didn’t need tons, we just needed maybe 200 or 300 kilograms, but no more.” And Desjoyeaux, a master problem solver, knew exactly where he could find a force that would pull a rope with 200 or 300 kilograms of load.

“I tried to make a system to pull with the jib. It connected directly to the jib sheets.” The idea was that if he released control of the sail, the wind would pull the starter rope. “The problem is that when you ease a sheet, you get a very big load at the beginning, but when you start to ease the sheet, the sail collapses completely and you are not able to maintain power long enough to start the engine.”

Desjoyeaux realized that the jib wasn’t powerful enough. “I didn’t want to use a bigger sail or a sail that could break because I would need to do this operation every day. So my idea was to go to the mainsail.” Desjoyeaux pulled in the main as hard as he could onto the centerline and cleated the sheet. The red rope was then wrapped around the engine pulley at one end, with the other run out to the end of the boom, along it to the mast step and then cleated off on the deck. Once everything was in place, Desjoyeaux released the mainsheet. The load on the oversheeted sail pushed it out, transferring this force to the red rope all the way back to where it was wrapped around the ­pulley and, in his own words:

“So, my red line [attached with the turns around the engine pulley] went to a pulley at the back of the boat, up to the boom, back to the mast foot, the mast base, back to the cockpit. When I needed to start the engine, I prepared my rope in the boat and on the engine with the five turns. Then I trimmed in the mainsail more than needed for the performance, pulled on the red line, pulled on the winch very strong, removed the mainsail sheet from the winch, put the contact on the engine, and burned the diesel arriving at the injector with a small spark to heat it just before the injectors. And then I came to the cockpit, opened the clutch of the mainsail, and then it pushed the main out. The first time I tried this, the engine started. It was incredible because it meant that I was able to continue the race.”

The solution was quite breathtaking for its ingenuity. Desjoyeaux was able to finish the race without stopping for spares or help, and subsequently won his first Vendée Globe. It was an exemplary piece of problem-solving that has joined the canon of MacGyver solutions, being used again by Sébastien Destremau in 2016—and quite probably by others. When I heard the story the first time, I could not help but wonder how I might have fared in the same situation. Desjoyeaux mostly got to his answer via a series of logical steps, but there were two pieces of truly inspired thinking. First, taking the step to look for a way to start the engine without the starter motor, and second, realizing that he could use the sails to provide the force required on the starter rope.

It’s easy to think that only an exceptionally creative mind could have come up with a solution like this, but writers such as Edward de Bono, author of Lateral Thinking, or Michael Michalko, who penned the much more recent Thinkertoys, want us to understand that there are practical methods to improve creative thinking, and they can be learned. An example from Thinkertoys covers exactly the ground that Desjoyeaux traveled to get to the first part of his solution. Imagine, Michalko suggests, that you are in a room with two pieces of rope hanging from the roof. The challenge is to tie the loose ends of the ropes together. Unfortunately, they are sufficiently far apart that when you hold onto one, you cannot reach the dangling end of the other.

“Initially, you might state the problem as: ‘How can I get to the second string?’” Michalko writes. “However, you would then waste your energy trying to get to the second string, which is not possible. If, instead, you state the problem in a different way: ‘In what ways might the string and I get together?’ you will likely come up with a solution.” This is because a different range of solutions opens up with the reframing, like tying a weighty object to the loose end of one rope and setting it off in a pendulum motion that will swing it toward you while still holding the other rope.

What led Desjoyeaux to a solution initially was the way he framed the problem. He was focused on the real goal—­starting the engine—rather than getting distracted by the apparent problem, a broken starter motor. They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and it may well be that Desjoyeaux was able to figure out a way to start his engine simply because he had no other options. The fact that the starter motor was completely beyond repair may have been what saved Desjoyeaux’s race; he had no choice but to look for other ways to start the engine.

A great deal of de Bono’s Lateral Thinking process is about reframing things, or at least escaping the obvious framing, because that’s often the route to an answer. When the problem is structured in the right way, the answer will come. After talking it through with him, I don’t think Desjoyeaux knows how he arrived at his solution. It’s trite to say that it just came to him, but that is the way it works sometimes. What de Bono, Michalko and other thinkers in this area want us to understand is that this moment of it “just coming to us” can be made more likely with the right techniques.

“The aim of lateral thinking is to look at things in different ways, to restructure patterns, to generate alternatives. The mere intention of generating alternatives is sometimes ­sufficient,” as de Bono puts it. For those of us not blessed with Desjoyeaux’s problem-solving superpower, there are well-established techniques to do this. Many are straightforward, for instance what Michalko calls slice and dice. “To stimulate new ideas, identify and list the various attributes of a problem and work on one attribute at a time,” he explains in Thinkertoys.

These are just the components of the problem, things such as materials, structure, the function and processes, cost and value, and so on. If we were to break down the diesel engine in this way, we might get a list something like this:

• Metal
• Precision engineering
• Burns diesel fuel to create mechanical energy
• Efficient method of converting fuel to energy
• Ignites through diesel mixing with highly compressed hot air
• Delivers power when an exploding gas expands and moves a piston to rotate an axle
• Starts when required pressure and temperature are achieved in a pre-combustion chamber so that the diesel will burn
• One of many ways of creating mechanical energy by burning carbon fuel

Everyone’s list will be different, but there’s a good chance that something in there will spark the right line of thought. In this case, it’s probably the notion that the starter motor isn’t doing anything that clever. All that’s required is sufficient force to compress the air and some warmth applied to the fuel. The problem then becomes one of applying the necessary force and warmth. And there’s sufficient force on a sailboat to move it through the ocean, so why can’t that be applied to starting the engine?

Understanding techniques like this—and there are many others—can be a boat saver, or even a lifesaver, when faced with a challenge a long way from help. If we’re going to put ourselves in situations where that’s possible or even likely, then doing the groundwork now and tuning up our problem-­solving skills will, at some point, pay a high rate of return on the investment.

The post How to Use Your Sails to Start Your Engine appeared first on Sailing World.

Whether you’re for or against the new America’s Cup-class yachts, we can all agree that the massive lifting foils and wings have everyone’s attention. But another thing we can agree upon is that the AC75 is still a sailboat powered by the wind. If the sails aren’t fast, then a team will need to find a substantial advantage somewhere else to have any chance of hoisting the Cup aloft next March. So, in the spirit of the belief that “everything changes and everything stays the same,” the new technology we should be talking about this time around is the sails, what the inside techies refer to as the “aero package.”

The core of the AC75′s sail plan is the rotating ­soft-wing sail, comprised of two sails—or “skins”—of a double-sided mainsail that must be attached to each of the two aft edges of a D-section spar. The AC75 class rules that control all the components of the sail plan have the same mixed approach as the rest of the boat. There are supplied one-design parts, and then there’s wide latitude for innovation.

“The idea of the class rules is to have all the teams sailing with a similar mast but to let them be free to work on sails and control systems,” says Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli’s mainsail ­trimmer, Pietro Sibello. “The spar is dictated by a minimum scantling rule. Starting from the same laminate provided by the rule, we are allowed to reinforce it within known tolerances. By doing so, every team is responsible for the structure of their own mast.”

Standing rigging is supplied equipment as well and is the same for everybody, with that portion constituting a single set of spreaders and running backstays. Beyond supplied elements of spar and rigging, development is rampant and closely guarded—especially the shape-forcing components hidden between the skins. “For the sails, there are tolerances to make sure the boats on the starting line look like they are competing in the same class,” Sibello says, “but there is room to play with area, structure, geometry, shape and batten layout. And this is where the control systems are more open—in the lower zone and the upper zone we are allowed to have active control systems.”

This is where it gets interesting. There are no limitations in these two zones—­identified by the class rule as the top 4 meters and the bottom 1.5 meters of the sail plan—where the only boundaries are set by the laws of physics and the cost.

The playing field is not short of either challenges or opportunities, but the first problem was to figure out what was the real nature of the problem. “This concept has been around for a really long time,” says Andrew Gaynor, a five-time Cup veteran, and now part of American Magic’s spar design team.

“I believe a patent was actually filed by L. Francis Herreshoff in 1920-something describing a twin-skin setup, [but] somewhere along the line, this idea always disappeared. Like, you don’t see this thing every day now. So at some point, all of these concepts have failed. Was this because of a material-science thing or is there some other fundamental flaw?

“So that’s an easy place to start trying to understand this thing. And then you’re like, well, what’s the goal? Is this thing a more refined, soft sail that everyone’s familiar with? Or is it another way of achieving the rigid wing that we’ve seen in the past couple of Cup cycles?”

Is it a rabbit or is it a hare? Time was the one thing that everyone needed to figure it out, particularly time on the water. Unfortunately, even before COVID-19 turned everyone’s world upside down, there was never going to be enough of it. The good news was that the onward march of technology had enabled an alternative: computer simulation.

“The struggle is to identify and properly model the physics of these twin skins,” Gaynor says. “There’s the way the two sails interact with each other and the way the air interacts around them. It’s not a rigid wing like we’ve been used to, and in the same respect, it’s not a single sail for which many mainsail design tools have been built over many years now. So it’s about developing a whole new set of tools to properly analyze this new setup. What we’re seeing more and more in this Cup is that modeling is king. If you can nail your model and nail it early, then it’s a huge advantage because of the time it requires to build and test something in real life,” Gaynor adds.

North Sails is building sails for Emirates Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and INEOS Team UK. JB Braun, North’s ­director of design and engineering, has been the man in the hottest seat. “We didn’t really have any good tools for double-surface sails at that time,” Braun says. “Our North Design Suite wasn’t oriented to develop or analyze a double-surface main. So when the rule was being created, we committed our resources to developing our fluid structure interaction codes to allow us to analyze these sails, creating the powerful suite of tools we enjoy today. We incorporated the ability to add the two control arms, and have a D-section mast and two sails coming off that,” as specified in the AC75 rule.

The design tools are intended to simulate a sail’s performance by ­calculating how the initial shape changes under pressure applied by the wind, creating the flying shape. This process uses Fluid Structure Interaction software, and it pretty much does what it says on the tin: calculating how the sail structure is ­modified by its interaction with the fluid. Once the flying shape is calculated by the FSI code, the next stage is to use computational fluid dynamics programs to calculate the amount of force generated by the sail plan. Sometimes it’s easier to visualize this force by describing it as a point (the center of effort) through which the force acts.

“That [force vector] is generated from changes in sail shape, and using the fluid structure interaction [software], you’d generate a data set,” Braun says. This is the first step in an iterative process. “I like talking about it as spinning the design wheel—you spin it once to get your ­baseline, and that’s one cycle.”

The results of that one cycle, Braun says, can lead designers in a specific direction. “It’s a balance. It’s not just about the aerodynamic efficiency; it’s about the balanced efficiency of the system, because as you lower and raise your center of effort in the sail and your sail plan, it changes the side force the foils are seeing. So changing the side force changes your leeway or the lift distribution on the foil, which changes the drag of the foil, which then changes how much drive force you need. Then the aerodynamic part of it needs to change to account for that change in drive. It’s a coupled solution. You can look at these things independently, but to come up with an answer or an optimal shape, it’s a coupled solution for aero- and hydrodynamic.”

Once the modeling produces a solution —a sail design that will generate the optimal force vector for the foils and hull—then the problem quickly becomes a matter of practical engineering. How do the teams control the two skins to achieve that shape, and trim it with the necessary speed to meet the dynamic demands of the boat?

RELATED: The Flying Technology of the AC75

“It comes down to the teams’ individual choices; when they rotate the wing mast, how they’re able to manage turning the two individual mainsails into what is fundamentally a high-pressure and low-pressure side of an asymmetric wing,” says Mike Sanderson, Doyle Sails CEO, a three-time Cup veteran, Volvo Ocean Race-winning skipper and former mainsail trimmer.

Like Braun, Sanderson is not personally involved with a team, but Doyle is supporting the American Magic challenge. It is a continuation of the collaboration with Quantum that was started back with American Magic team principal Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente, Sanderson says. It’s a joint collaboration and design, with the sails manufactured and built in Doyle’s New Zealand loft. “There are lots of problems in how you control getting the inside surface flat enough and the outside surface deep enough for it to be an efficient enough wing to justify the weight of ­having basically two mainsails up.”

The second skin is a lot of extra weight, and that’s an issue of which Gaynor is particularly conscious. “The weight allowances in the rule are pretty tight,” he says. “And keeping within your weight budget is made more difficult when you consider two mainsail skins, two sets of battens and all the associated hardware.”

If you are going to have two skins, they’d better be more efficient than a single one, and that means finding a way to make the windward surface flatter than the leeward surface. One of the principal tools for adjusting mainsail depth—mast bend—is denied to the sail trimmer because it affects both skins equally. Only tools that work on a single skin—like cunningham or outhaul —are useful.

“We’re not talking about two millimeters of luff curve here,” Sanderson adds. “We’re talking about pretty drastic depth changes between the inside and the outside to get the most efficient setup, and that’s what you see people battling with.”

It’s not the only problem, either—not by a long way. “How you deal with the whole area of connectivity of the wing, down to the deck, and the sealing of the endplate of the wing onto the deck [is another],” Sanderson says. An endplate uses a perpendicular surface at the end of an aero- or hydrofoil to prevent fluid flowing between the two sides of the foil and reducing the pressure difference. It also hinders the formation of a tip vortex, and both things improve efficiency. This is where the design of the lower mast zone will be important, creating an efficient endplate between the soft-wing sail and the deck, while still enabling effective ­control of the lower mainsail.

And then there is the upper mast zone. How they can control the twist will be a big driver of performance, Sanderson says. “It was quite well-documented how the Kiwis sailed in Bermuda [AC35] by using twist probably more than wing sheet, and that that was a more efficient and lower drag way of sailing those boats with the hard wing.

“Being able to react with the twist quickly enough [will be important]. And to be able to react with the depth, so it’s [inside] skin versus outside skin adjustment, versus traveler up and down, versus sheet on and off. The guys have got plenty going on as a wing trimmer. We’re seeing pretty much everyone using a PlayStation-style box, like Glenn Ashby was famously doing in Bermuda.”

Wing trimmer Pietro Sibello is well-aware of the complexities. “The fact that you can work on so many details, and you need more controls to model the shape of a soft sail in the different stages of the race, makes the game more challenging,” he says. “We have all been used to trimming the windward sail, but now we have a second sail to leeward, which is difficult to see and analyze, and that’s the most important of the two. On top of that, we have to think about what happens when we start to rotate the mast.”

It seems that even the simple things ­cannot be taken for granted. Telltales on the leeward skin cannot be seen by a wing trimmer to windward. Nothing about this is easy. “All the teams have been experimenting a lot,” Sibello says. “We have seen big and invasive control systems slowly getting simpler and lighter. It’s a matter of finding the best balance between control, aerodynamics, structure and weight.”

Both Gaynor and Sibello agree that ­diversity is the best way to find that balance. “We luckily have designers with different backgrounds and ages so that they can approach the challenge from a distinct point of view,” Sibello says.

“On our squad,” Gaynor says, “we have a bunch of people with lots of wing-trimming experience. And we have people with a lot of conventional sail-trimming experience. I think it’s good that we have this balance internally because I don’t think anybody’s figured out the right answer yet.”

The post The Sails of the America’s Cup appeared first on Sailing World.

The advent of Code Zero sails more than 20 years ago set off a revolution in offshore raceboat performance. Paul Cayard’s team on EF Language in the 1997-98 Whitbread Round the World Race, with North Sails, is often credited with the first high-profile development and use of these sails, helping them take the overall victory in the race.

Meanwhile there were parallel and more-modest efforts being made elsewhere in the racing world, including Denmark, at the hands of Elvstrøm Sails CEO Jesper Bank.

“We were having a good time sailing locally in a 34-foot boat of mine that we kept trying to supercharge with more and more sail area to get through the typical light air of these races,” says Bank, an Olympic gold medalist and America’s Cup skipper. “We had this idea of building a Code Zero, which was just the talk of the very elite of sailing in those days. Not many knew what such a sail would even look like, and for sure no real sailcloth existed for it.”

He and colleague Ken Madsen happened upon a few rolls of a bright-yellow, light laminate. From this, he says, they built what they believe was the first Code Zero in Denmark and used it in a 137‑mile distance race around the island of Fyn.

“We were lucky we could fly that sail for 40 percent of the race, and that gave us a first in class, and if I recall right, third to finish after some of the much bigger boats in Denmark,” Bank says. “It was fun to be at the leading edge.”

From the start, it became clear that when the conditions matched the range where these sails could be used, the boat became turbocharged and ­disappeared over the horizon.

The reason for their effectiveness is simple: These masthead-reaching sails fit perfectly into an important niche in the sail-selection matrix—where fractional, nonoverlapping jibs can’t provide enough power and asymmetric spinnakers are too powerful.

As these sails have evolved in design and use, it’s become surprising how large an area they can occupy in the selection chart: from a relatively narrow range of tight-reaching angles in light air to expand rapidly as the breeze strengthens.

An important aspect in their development was how to design them so that they fit within existing class or handicap-rule frameworks. Because they have a free-flying luff, Code Zeros do not fit the definition of a headsail whose luff is attached to the headstay, so they therefore had to somehow fit within the definition of a spinnaker.

In the Whitbread 60 Class, the definition required the sails to have a midgirth dimension of no smaller than 70 percent of the foot length, in Denmark; in the DH rule, it is 65 percent; so these became the lower limits in size and flying shape available to sail designers.

Many rating-rule authorities set their minimum girth definitions at 75 percent to impose some limits on the new sail’s development path and range of effectiveness. At this relatively large size, only boats with stout rigs to handle the loads and a robust righting moment could push the sail toward tight headsail angles, and when used at broader angles; then the A3 as the conventional reaching spinnaker would be considered.

However, such limitations did not stop development at the grand-prix level, where an increase of speed at any cost is fair game for exploitation. In classes such as the Maxi 72s that race in venues where there is plenty of non-VMG ­sailing around islands and the like, a properly developed masthead Code Zero could easily become a race winner.

The challenge, however, has been to meet the minimum-girth requirements and still have an effective flying shape and stability in the angles between the headsail and the A3. With a tight luff, the shaping geometry becomes difficult without ­having extra sail on the leech.

At tight sailing angles, this extra sail area could not be flattened enough because of the minimum amount of girth needed to meet the rule.

Various tricks were devised to try to reduce the annoying flapping leech that was stealing laminar flow off the back of the sail. Some teams resorted to building fractional Code Zeros (“Fr0s”) to fill this niche at tight angles where the masthead sails were too deep and too powerful.

So, two Code Zero sails were becoming part of what was already a highly complex choice of reaching sails available to the offshore racing yacht: a masthead Zero or A3 spinnaker for broad angles; a Fr0 for tighter angles; a jib top; a blast reacher; or a genoa staysail for even tighter angles. Some teams are even experimenting with a high-clewed flying headsail flown off a tack pennant on the bowsprit to make it three sails forward of the mast: the reaching headsail, the upwind headsail and a small reaching staysail.

Imagine the groans over the cost and complication, not to mention the bulk and weight of all these sails. Not many racing programs can handle this load.

Then came a flash of inspiration: Why assume a tight luff is needed for an efficient Code Zero flying shape?

In the past year or so, sail designers have shifted their thinking to explore flying shapes that allow the luff to sag more than a sail whose luff is supported by a tight cable.

This change in geometry is accompanied by reconsidering the structural elements of the sail to better accommodate the loads within the sail itself. With fiber-reinforced cloth, this becomes a matter of laying in enough carbon and aramid to match the loads calculated through an analysis of the stress vectors in the sail.

The loads are determined by the size of the boat and its stability, as well as the size of the sail itself, and the max loads it sees varies with wind speed and angle.

“By placing high-strength fibers along the catenary load lines,” says Glenn Cook, of Doyle Sailmakers, “we can achieve great strength and stability for the desired mold shapes. This has also allowed us to better flatten the exit shapes for more efficiency” and reduce that annoying flapping of the first‑generation sails.

JB Braun of North Sails points out that custom-designed sails built with tapes or fibers are not necessary for building good Code Zeros, thereby offering a solution for those more budget-conscious owners interested in this performance upgrade.

By using conventional laminate materials cut and assembled in panels, the cost is lower without significant compromise in weight, strength, longevity or mold-shape performance.

“We’re actually developing a new program to help with creating more-efficient panel layouts of these sails,” Braun says, “because they are neither spinnakers nor headsails, and therefore have unique loading characteristics. We use a specific range of what we call Code sail material that is engineered with the right denier and film appropriate for various boat types and load requirements in the sail. We’re very excited about this because it will make Code sails more accessible to a broad range of users, racers and cruisers, who will benefit from the added performance these sails provide.”

Whether built with ­panels or strings or tapes along load paths, going without anti-­torsion cables also vastly reduces the attachment loads on the luff of the sail, making expensive and complex reinforcement of the bowsprit or pole less necessary, as well as reinforcement at the top of the spar at the masthead halyard exit. Large furling J0 sails on the new generation of luxury performance multihulls shows this, particularly on catamarans, where a great amount of headstay tension would require lots of structure in the forward crossbeam to handle this load.

“On a TP52, we calculated the difference to be almost 400 percent on a masthead genoa,” says Quantum sail designer Chris Williams. “Without a cable, the load is calculated to be about 1.1 tons, and in a cabled sail, this load is about 5 tons.”

He also says luff tension then becomes a shaping tool for achieving the right flying shape in varying conditions.

“At tight angles in light air, the luff can be loosened 30 to 50 millimeters [Ed’s note: an error in the print version of this story has been corrected with a change from centimeters to millimeters] to allow the luff to rotate, flatten and present a fine entry angle at the luff,” he says. “Then, as the breeze comes on, the luff can be straightened to allow more twist off the leech for depowering. At broad angles, when the wind is strong—and you’re still not ready for the A3—the sheet and luff can be eased to rotate the sail to windward for the best projected area.”

On the practical side, ­flying a zero without a cable is not complicated: Hoisting the sail is easy when rolled up on a furler system, and the tack will be attached somewhere strong forward of the forestay.

The sheet block will locate on the shear at a position determined by the clew height or through the spinnaker fairlead with a tweaker. A pad-eye or looped attachment at the tack can have a shackle and block for a 2-to-1 tensioner system for the luff with the line led aft to a winch and clutch to adjust the luff tension under load without having to move the halyard from its full-hoist position. With a bottom-up furler and the sail unloaded while furling, it should rotate as quickly as a staysail or headsail furler, then either doused into a bag like a flaked spinnaker or kept up if sailing shorthanded or conditions are variable and it might need to be redeployed quickly.

It’s worth noting that ­measurement-based rating rules such as ORC and ORR now allow these sails to have between 55 and 75 percent midgirths, and therefore have a more efficient shape. They’re known as “Headsails Set Flying” in ORC parlance and “Tweeners” in ORR lingo. They are appearing more and more among the high-performance offshore boats, often as a masthead genoa to be used in light air that approaches VMG upwind angles.

All sailmakers seem to agree that these sails are an enormous step forward in near-reaching performance; in light air for some boats, the sails are already being considered suitable for upwind performance. Williams raced with Bob Hughes’ Heartbreaker in both the Bayview Mac and Chicago-Mac races, and reckoned they used this sail for two-thirds of the Chicago YC’s and one-third of Bayview race’s because of the light air.

Cook makes an even bolder prediction: The future is headsails without cables at all. “The headstay will be needed only to support the mast,” he says. “These sails on furlers can efficiently deliver power, performance and ease of use not seen before.”

Jonathan Bartlett, of North Sails, points out that the trickle-down effect of these sails from the grand-prix to the local fleets is already happening.

“There are a lot of Code Zeros being used in the Wednesday Night races [in Annapolis],” he says, with these races getting the strongest turnouts.

“We are also transitioning back to point-to-point racing on the weekends and away from windward-leewards in the handicap classes,” Bartlett adds. “Some have been shy about committing to them due to the six-second hit in PHRF, but if you have the conditions, this is worth it. And our use of ORC in these races has allowed a fair treatment of these sails in rating.”

In all, he says, the new ­generation of Code Zero sails have opened up a whole new range of fun for any boat—not just pure raceboats—which is energizing those owners who want to race but don’t have the ideal sails to make it a ­worthwhile pursuit.

The post Furling Headsails Are the Future appeared first on Sailing World.

By rule, on a Farr 40, our new sails have to last an entire year. At one Farr 40 event, for example, we won the Mediterranean Circuit using a mainsail that had been used for 132 race legs, a light jib that had been used for 20 upwind race legs and a 1.5-ounce spinnaker that had done 34 downwind race legs. With a full racing calendar, this means we need to do everything we can to keep our sails in the best condition possible. Sails are slower as they age, so it’s critical to keep them young as long as possible. Here’s how we — and you — can get the most out of your sails by simply maintaining them correctly.

First Setup

Be careful removing your new sail from its box, especially if you are using a blade to cut open the box. Nicking any sail is a bad start to its life with you. A little nick in a big white spinnaker could have a disastrous result on the water if it goes undetected until the sail is loaded. If you are opening on a rough surface, lay a tarp first. Even if you don’t mind your sail getting a little dirty (and you should mind!), you will be surprised at how many stitching threads can be damaged by pulling a sail across a parking lot. You don’t want to chafe through stitching that is holding panels together.

If your jib or mainsail battens haven’t been fitted already, be gentle when you fit them. Stuffing battens too tightly into sails (rather than cutting them a little shorter) can put a lot of stress on the soft front ends that are often in the body of the sail, where there is not a lot of structure.

First Sail Check

Allot time to break in your new sail before you race with it. This is not only an opportunity to assess the shape and characteristics of the new sail, but it’s also an opportunity for you to set the standard of care for how you would like your team to treat new sails. In a race situation, we may not have the ability to take as good care of a sail as we can on its first sailing day, so every little bit counts.

Team culture is built around the knowledge that the better we care for our sails, the better our performance will be. When we receive a new jib on a TP52, Maxi 72, or Farr 40, we make it a point not to let anyone stand or sit on any part of the sail. To further reinforce the standard, if we need to check a jib on both tacks, we jibe instead of tack. Of course, the sail will be tacked a lot in its lifetime, but why start now? Every little bit of care counts.

We take extra care when dropping the sails. We’re not in a race situation, so if we can drop a kite or jib gently, we do so. Maybe you sail on a boat that bricks its jibs for racing? Or on the Farr 40, after flaking our jib and zipping up the bag, we fold the sail into thirds. This creates a much smaller package, which can help us centralize weight down below and makes it easier to pull the sail out of the main hatch. However, on a sail-check day with a new jib, we leave the sail long, without folding it into thirds until race day.

Once finished with the day, if at all possible, leave your sails flaked and flat, not bricked or bent or folded more than they need to be, and make sure there is a minimum of weight added on top of them from other sails. Also, avoid leaving them in direct sunlight or in extreme heat.

Race-Day Prep

Minimizing damage to our sails on race day starts with loading sails onto the boat. Don’t drag sails on the ground, over lifelines and stanchions or over deck hardware. If you don’t feel like you have enough people to transfer your sails safely, get more people involved. Get the sails down below as soon as possible, especially if the sun is shining, to protect them from unnecessarily baking in their bags.

We learned a lot about storing sails below deck on the Farr 40. For 18 years I have kept a log of how many legs every sail does every day. This spreadsheet was very helpful, but in the early days, there was an anomaly that we didn’t understand. How was it that the J4 (heavy-weather jib) could look so worn out when it only had three race legs on it?

This prompted us to have a look at what was happening to this sail when it was down below. The J4 was a mandatory sail to have on board for the rules, so it was always down there, even if it was used infrequently. This was when we learned how much damage we were doing to sails in the way we stored them, transferred them to the boat and how we treated them when they were out of sight. As a result, about 12 years ago, I added a new stat on our sail-usage spreadsheet. We now record how many events for which the sail was aboard. A sail that was only used for seven legs might need replacement before a sail that was used for 22 legs if it has been aboard for many more events.

The lesson here is to stack sails in a way that minimizes wear and tear while they are down below. Leave a pathway for the sewer person to get to the front hatch to drop the kite. Make room for someone to get to the back of the boat to clear a traveler line or look through a rudder window. Avoid stepping on the sails when they are not being used, period.

Race Day

When we hoist the mainsail on Bella Mente we always use the engine to back down. This reduces apparent windspeed and therefore results in less angry flapping as the sail goes up. If you have a bolt rope in your mainsail, make sure to guide it efficiently into the groove. If you are pulling the sail up, make sure you can see the sail going into the groove. If the sail gets caught on anything and starts to tear, your quick actions might save the day. This could be the difference between a small repair and a day-ending disaster. The same applies to the first hoist of the jib. Have someone help guide the sail up. The person pulling the sail up should always be looking forward at the pre-feeder.

On the Farr 40, we never tension the jib halyard all the way until we are ready to race upwind. Even inside the starting sequence, we have our jib halyard down a few inches — enough to see big wrinkles — until the final maneuver before the start. The final maneuver could be a tack or a jibe, but the key is that the jib must be tensioned and then allowed to flap or “unload” once before the race starts. If it doesn’t flap or unload after tensioning, it will jump up too much in the first tack off the line, and you will chase your tail trying to get the halyard tension right.

On Plenty, we often tension the jib halyard inside the final 90 seconds of a starting sequence. This might seem laborious, but I have a firm belief that the biggest aging we see in race jibs is the luff being tortured when sailing. Luff tension causes a breakdown in the fiber and film in the front of the sail, so as the sail ages, the draft drifts back. When the sail gets “thin on the entry and deep in the back,” the driver has a harder time driving to the sail, and aerodynamic performance is vastly reduced.

Avoid stuffing the jib down a hatch just because you believe you don’t have enough time for a real flake into a bag. Stuffing a jib with battens is a terrible way to care for the sail. My rule is, make sure that any call to change the jib during the run comes early enough that there will always be enough time to get the old sail into a bag. Another rule is if there is a doubt about how much time there is, go for the bag anyway. You will be surprised how quickly the team can flake and bag the jib under pressure. Stuffing a jib down a hatch should be reserved for true emergencies — not self-imposed time constraints.

Between races, we bag the jib. It keeps the crew from walking over it, and it reduces sun damage. If you have a long delay and have done all of your prestart preparation, drop and bag the jib to give it (and the trimmers) a break, rather than sailing around with it up.

Event Pack-Up

In 1999, in preparation for the 2000 America’s Cup, our team, AmericaOne, had purchased the old OneAustralia boat and its sails for use as a practice boat. The boat and sails had been packed up in 1995 in San Diego and then left in storage. When we opened the sail container, it smelled like the sails had been sitting in water for four years — because they had! At the entrance to the container was a whiteboard sitting on a chair. On it was written, “To the poor bastards who open this sail container, good luck!” The funniest part of all was that our sail loft manager at AmericaOne had coincidentally performed the same role at OneAustralia. He saw the whiteboard and said, “S—t, I wrote that!”

We spent the next several months exploding the old sails one by one, and our sail loft manager tried to put them back together. We all learned a valuable lesson: How you put your sails away at the end of an event can have a huge impact on how quickly the sails age.

When we are putting sails away after an event, we roll the upwind sails, which is the best way to store a laminated sail, provided that, once the sail is rolled, you never bend or fold it. Make sure your technique for rolling, unrolling and flaking does not do more damage than simply leaving them flaked. We also de-tension the battens, but note in our records where the tension was so that we don’t waste time getting back to fast settings.

Putting sails away dry is also very ­important. Salt water can damage sails and equipment, but fresh water can also be bad for sails in storage. After winning an event in England on Bella Mente, the entire team helped us pack up our sails because we had to finish pack-up that day. It was raining hard — it was England after all — and try as we might, sails were put away in our container, wet with fresh water. When we pulled the sails out of the container for the next event, we were shocked at the level of mold growth. The lesson: If it’s raining hard, try to pull the sails out again as soon as possible to let them dry. This season, on the TP52, we have already made plans to wash and dry our new race sails regularly, making sure that they are salt-free and dry. This will keep our sails on the front line for as long as possible. These new sails are our engines for the season.

The post How To Keep Your Sails In The Racing Shape appeared first on Sailing World.

Larger overlapping genoas are always folded so the luff is stacked together making the bowman’s life easier. The person at the tack must first take a “cheater” fold. To do this, the person at the clew holds tight or steps on the clew while the person at the tack takes a standard fold, resulting in a triangle shape as the first fold rather then the normal rectangle.

After this first “cheater fold,” flake normally, with both ends folded at the same sizes. The person at the tack must keep the entire luff stacked together while the person at the clew works their way to the tack.

If the luff starts working aft, make the folds at the tack end a little larger or the folds at the clew end a little smaller. If the luff starts working forward off the stack, make the folds at the tack end a little smaller and the folds at the clew end a little larger.

For high-clewed genoas or jibs, such as jib tops or cruising sails, the person at the tack can take two “cheater folds” to keep the luff stacked.

Whether the sail is in a long zip bag or a short fold bag, I like to roll the folded sail from tack to the clew. This can make the bowman’s life a little harder, but I believe it is better for the sail, as the leech will roll out flat as you roll, rather then getting crushed together.

There are two ways to fold non-overlapping headsails-luff folded and leech folded. If the sail will always be kept in a longer bag, laid out down below or in a trailer box, fold the sail down the luff to help the bowman. For this, simply follow the same steps as with an overlapping genoa. You may have to make some folds slightly larger or slightly smaller to accommodate battens.

It is common to “brick” non-overlapping jibs in half or thirds after folding. Thus the most common fold is the leech fold. For this, both ends fold at the same size, starting at the same time. The person at the clew keeps the entire leech stacked on top of itself while the person at the tack works their way to the clew.

The post How to Flake Your Headsails appeared first on Sailing World.

We all know computer design capabilities have changed all aspects of yacht and sail design, but the process of designing a sail inventory for a new one-design is hardly plug-and-play. North Sails designer (and J/22 world champion) Mike Marshall was tasked with delivering the three-sail 3Di inventory for the New Melges IC37 class, and recently shared the process, providing a fascinating look into the overlapping steps required to get from concept to cloth. —ed.

When notified that North Sails would be the official sailmaker for the Melges IC37 class, the design team realized we had a challenging task before us. An inventory of only three sails – one main, one jib, and one spinnaker – and only one standing rigging tuning adjustment allowed during class regattas (the mast ram). Given these requirements, how could we design a set of sails to cover the entire wind range when racing this 37-foot one-design boat? Fortunately, we had all the tools we needed with North’s 3Di technology and the North Design Suite of modeling software.

It was clear from the outset that 3Di was the only option for sails that could take the loads of a 37-foot boat yet perform well in winds anywhere from 5 to 25 knots. With 3Di, tapes are oriented in the direction of the loadings, giving outstanding stretch resistance, and Aramid and Dyneema fibers provide exceptional durability. The 3Di decision was an easy one.

We got to work perfecting sail shape through aero-elastic modeling. In a seven-step process passed down from years of America’s Cup development, the Melges IC37 sails were modeled in a variety of wind conditions. Thanks to a close relationship with Southern Spars we had access to very detailed mast information, such as mechanical properties and rigging attachment points, which allowed us to design sails that would perfectly fit the mast of the Melges IC37.

Here are the seven steps in the sail development process:

**Step 1: **Build a model of the rig. Using North’s Desman program, we created a complete three-dimensional model of the spars and rigging.

Step 2: Determine the base rig tune of the mast. Through our partnership with Southern Spars, we obtained the maximum loaded tuning and rigging specifications for the Melges IC37 and ran it through the program Membrain, to determine the maximum and minimum mast bend from tuning. This, in turn, provided the minimum and maximum mast ram positions and the range of mast bends and headstay sags the sails would see up the wind range.

**Step 3: **Design the sails and place them on the rig. Using the program Spiral, we specified a shape for each sail. This software defines a sail’s three-dimensional shape as a “molded” surface without any wind pressure or load applied.

Step 4: Define the structure of the sails. Using the software module Warps, we selected 3Di construction and created the taping layout of the sails. The structure of a sail is as important as its designed shape, because these two factors must work together to achieve the sail’s “flying shape.”

Step 5: Apply wind pressure to the sails and rig. We used the program Flow to introduce wind pressure over each sail’s three-dimensional mold and produce a pressure map on the sail’s surface. This pressure field was then linked to the program Membrain, to see what effects wind pressure would have on the molded sail shape.

Step 6: Apply a pressure map to the molded sail shape. Using Membrain , we took the rig and sail model developed in the first four steps and applied the pressure field from Step 5. Membrain considers the specific properties of the sail’s construction, adds in wind pressure, and shows how the sails will deform (stretch) when they are loaded.

Step 7: Carry out aero-elastic coupling. Once a sail’s flying shape is tuned and trimmed in Membrain, the deformed (pressurized) shape is sent back to Flow. This shape is different than the molded shape created in Spiral (without any wind pressure), so Flow recalculates a pressure map, which is then sent back to Membrain and applied to the sail to get a new deformed shape. This process is called aero-elastic coupling. Within the North Design Suite, the computer keeps going back and forth between Flow and Membrain until there is little or no additional change in Membrain’s deformed sail shape. At this point, we know that the sail shape is in balance with the wind loads on the sail.

After carefully considering multiple design options and running many load cases, we developed a set of sails for the Melges IC37 that would optimally fit the range of mast bends and perform well from 5 knots of breeze all the way up to 25 knots. We also determined the tuning for the mast, all before the first boat even left the mold.

North’s 3Di technology and North Design Suite go hand-in-hand and we are excited to see our work come to life when Hull No. 1 hits the water in a few weeks. What goes on behind the curtain tends to go unnoticed, but with the new launch on the horizon, our designers are proud to introduce to you the new North-powered Melges IC37 Class, the newest addition to Corinthian one design competition, with industry-leading technology that sailboat owners and crew will love.

Mike Marshall is with North Sails, and his full bio can be found here.

The post Sail Design: From Scratch to Shape appeared first on Sailing World.

Part of managing a sailing program of any kind–be it cruising or racing–is balancing the budget. From deck hardware to bottom paint and sails, something always needs replacing or fixing. Luckily when it comes to sails, there are a few inexpensive things you can do to help you extend that budget a little further.

1. Get Your Sails Inspected

Sail inspections can bring to light not only torn stitches or tired webbing, but also use issues that may be causing damage to your sail. For example, broken stitching on the luff of the sail could indicate too much halyard tension or dimples in your spinnaker could be the result of crew pulling it down by grasping the middle of the sail instead of using the tapes.

Annual inspections should be part of every program with the goal of maximizing the life of the sail. Catching and fixing a few small problems (especially if the sail is older) can also prevent catastrophic failure on the water.

2. Recut Your Sails Every Few Years

All sails stretch and lose shape over time and through use. If you’re experiencing the tell-tale signs of stretched sails–an inability to point, difficulty steering, or lack of power under sail–it doesn’t necessarily mean you need new sails. Many sailors don’t realize sails can be recut to bring back up to 90 percent of their original shape and extend their life at a fraction of the cost of new ones. Typically, one or two recuts can be done over the life of a sail. Recutting sails has been a common practice for pro programs for years, sometimes adjusting and recutting sails between race days.

You’ll want a handful of good sail shape photos to take to the loft along with your sail. And bonus points if you take photos of your sails on an annual basis! Click here to learn how to get the best shots and start your recordkeeping. If you’re curious about the recut process and benefits, click here for an article to shed some light on what you need to know about recuts.

3. Have Your Sails Professionally Repaired

You might have saved the day with your quick fix when the spinnaker caught on a turnbuckle and started to rip, but did you remember to take it to the loft for a proper repair afterward? Onboard sail repairs are great when you need to finish the sail and get back to the dock safely, but they’re not meant to be a permanent fix. You’d be surprised how easy it is to forget you have a few strips of duct tape holding part of your sail together when it’s packed out of sight and out of mind. As you can guess, ignoring damage will not end well for the sail or your budget.

4. Check Your Rig Tune

If your rig tune is out of whack, it can significantly affect sail performance. Before you throw in the towel with your current sails, check to make sure the issue isn’t your rig. Have an expert sail with you to see what adjustments might remedy the problem. This is especially important for cruisers who don’t regularly tune their rigs for conditions the way a race program might. We have more information on that here.

5. Consider Sail Add-Ons

There are a number of sail add-ons and updates that can help improve functionality and extend their lifespan. Reefing points, UV covers, and spreader patches are all on the list. Talk to your sailmaker about what modifications can be made to help the sail work better and make it usable for a few more years.

6. Look Beyond The Sail

It is important to look at the health and setup of your boat’s entire system in order to get the most out of your sails. Not all systems are created equally, and having the right sail handling system for your needs will help reduce stress on the sails. Roller furlers are great for easily and smoothly using your headsail, especially if you have a novice crew or sail shorthanded. Mainsail handling systems, such as the Dutchman and an in-mast or boom furling system, can also come in handy and help to reduce wear-and-tear on your sail.

Of course, the right system needs to be in good shape. If the sail handling system is failing, you’re at risk of damaging your sail. Similarly, sun-rotted lines or finicky winches pose threats to sails under load, as do sticky tracks and tired blocks. Invite your sailmaker or local rep to your boat for help identifying problem areas or to discuss options for improving your sail handling systems.

You shouldn’t give up on your trusty sails just because you’re starting to experience performance issues or they’re getting older. Call your sailmaker and explore a few of these ideas before you open your checkbook to pay for a new set. If you decide a new set is the right solution, use this information and the expertise of your sailmaker to ensure your sails are setup properly and you’re using best practices and sail care services to maximize their lifespan and protect your investment.

This sail care tip brought to you by Quantum Sails.

The post Getting the Most out of Your Sails appeared first on Sailing World.

North Sails has been the exclusive official supplier to the Volvo Ocean Race since the debut of the VO65 one design fleet in the 2014-15 edition. Now, after analyzing extensive race data,further modeling and listening to feedback from Volvo Ocean Race sailors, North has created a new 171m² sail to fill an apparent gap between the masthead code 0 (MH0) and the J1 jib, boosting the performance of the VO65s in the process.

In the most recent edition of the historic race, sailors reported having to constantly switch between the MH0 and the J1, two of the biggest sails carried onboard, in search of the configuration that gave them the best speed.

Crucially the introduction of the J0 will eradicate the need to change headsails so frequently – welcome news for the sailors, who expend thousands of calories a day manually hoisting the massive sails.

“The most important feedback we got from the last race was that there was a gap between the J1 and the masthead zero,” said North Sails designer Gautier Sergent, a Volvo Ocean Race expert.

“Between ten and 15 knots of wind the crews were forever changing sails as they looked for the best configuration. We wanted to provide a solution for this gap, so we introduced a new J0 that fits perfectly between the J1 and the masthead 0. “The teams will still have to stack the J0 but they don’t need to tack or gybe every day when they are sailing offshore, so overall it is a net gain with fewer sail changes. “

North Sails has spent a lot of time comparing recent race data with historic weather routings, using software developed with Great Circle, to guarantee the J0 strikes the perfect balance among the VO65 fleet’s sail inventory.

Leg Zero, Departure delivery Sanxenxo to Gosport. Photo by Ugo Fonolla/Volvo Ocean Race. 26July, 2017

Targeted for conditions between eight and 15 knots upwind and up range reaching, the bowsprit-set J0 is already proving a useful tool in a much wide range of conditions.

Not only will the Volvo Ocean Race crews now have a new sail to play with but they will also get better use of their existing arsenal.

The masthead code 0 will be much more effective while the fractional code 0, which had a very narrow range in upwind conditions in the 2014-15 race, becomes a dedicated downwind sail.

“The addition of the J0 is better suited to the new race course, which has more of a Southern Ocean routing,” Sergent added. “It also allows the fractional and masthead code zeros to become more efficient and the fractional zero to become more downwind-oriented.”

The current crop of Volvo Ocean Race sailors got their chance to put the new sail through its paces during Leg Zero, the four-stage qualifying series that included the iconic Fastnet offshore race.

Early feedback from the teams has been overwhelmingly positive.

AkzoNobel

The current crop of Volvo Ocean Race sailors got their chance to put the new sail through its paces during Leg Zero, the four-stage qualifying series that included the iconic Fastnet offshore race.

Early feedback from the teams has been overwhelmingly positive.

“North Sails have done a really good job — they listened to the feedback and developed the J0 for this edition, which is what we need,” said Dongfeng Race Team crewman Daryl Wislang. “Upwind it’s a very versatile sail but it can be used at the wider angles as well. It’s going to get a lot of use.”

Dee Caffari, skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic, added: “It’s the first time we’ve even seen a J0, and I think it’s my new favorite sail. It’s a really interesting space that it fits into so we’ll have a look at that in more detail. It’s a big change for the sail wardrobe for this edition of the race.”

Pablo Arrarte, watch captain on MAPFRE, said each team must decide how best to use the J0. “It is a critical sail, new for everyone, and we have to test it intensely,” he said. “Each team will make their own conclusions while training about how to use it to their best advantage.”

Just like the rest of North Sails’ Volvo Ocean Race inventory, the cutting-edge J0 is made from its unique 3Di technology that pushes the boundaries of sail design.

The patented technology, developed for the Volvo Ocean Race, uses tiny pre-impregnated filament tapes to mirror the load-bearing and shape-holding qualities of a rigid aerofoil wing while remaining lightweight and durable.

The Volvo Ocean Race begins in Alicante, Spain, on October 14, with the opening round of the In-Port Race Series before the fleet departs for Lisbon, Portugal, on the first of 11 offshore legs on October 22.

Learn how North Sails 3Di can transform your on-the-water experience, no matter what type of sailing you do: https://northsails.com/sailing/en/sails/materials

Leg Zero, two boat training with Dongfeng Race Team and MAPFRE in Sanxenxo, Spain. Photo by Jeremie Lecaudey/Volvo Ocean Race. 31 August, 2017

AkzoNobel training

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1. Keep your sails out of the sun

If you have furling systems, this may be just a matter of furling sails when not in use. For non-furling sails, this means covering or stowing sails. There are cover options for both mainsails and headsails, allowing the sail to stay rigged and protected between uses. When no cover is available, sails should be removed, flaked, bagged and stowed below deck or off the boat.

2. Protect your furled sails

Most owners use sewn-on sun covers to protect furled sails. Sunbrella and WeatherMax are the fabrics commonly used for sun covers. For racer-cruisers and some racing sails like furling code zeros, there are lighter weight options such as UV-treated Dacron. While there is a gain in weight savings, these materials are not inherently UV resistant. Over time the UV treatment can wear off, with the lifespan of the treatment affected by boat location and amount of time in the sun. In high exposure areas, treated covers may have a lifespan of only a couple of seasons.

All sun covers should be inspected regularly and repaired if damaged. Generally speaking, covers should be re-stitched every three years or so to prevent more extensive damage to the fabric that can occur from flogging due to compromised stitching.

To provide maximum protection for your sails, sun covers require care and maintenance. Remember, if you can see the sailcloth below the cover…so can the sun!

3. Keep your sails clean

After sun, the second-worst enemy of any sail is salt; but other types of dirt and debris can be just as damaging. Periodic sail washing is key to maintaining your sails. A couple common-sense rules apply to frequency: 1) a sail that has been exposed to saltwater should be washed sooner rather than later, and 2) all other varying degrees of grime should be removed when possible. A genoa or staysail probably needs washing, or at least a rinse, more frequently than a mainsail that is stowed under a cover on the boom or furled when not in use. Not sure if your sails are salty? Run a finger along the foot and have a taste…you’ll know right away!

4. Protect them from the elements

Sailmakers generally refer to the life of a sail in hours or seasons, rather than years. The lifespan is affected by the amount of time sailing and the level of care given to the sails. In the mid-Atlantic region, the main sailing season can begin in early spring and extend late into the fall. A sailing season in the upper Midwest, for example, is much shorter, thus extending the life of a sail. The lifespan of sails that spend the sailing season furled on your headstay, in your mast or boom, or left on the boat to endure the frigid months of winter, will be much shorter than the life of sails that are properly protected or stowed.

If you know your sails are going to be sitting idle on the boat in a marina for at least a month or more during a sailing season, you can extend sail life by taking the sails off of your boat and stowing them. If your schedule prevents you from doing this personally, contact your local Quantum loft for sail removal and storage – part of our full array of sail care services.

5. Inspect sails regularly

At least once-a-year sails should get a check-up. To do this yourself, find a dry place in good light where you can lay them flat, then work your way over every inch of the sail, looking for trouble spots such as abrasion or loose stitching. Small problems can turn into bigger problems later, so be sure to note even the smallest details. Alternatively, you can drop off your sails at a nearby sail loft for a multi-point inspection. Even simpler, with one call we can handle sail removal, transportation and inspection for one sail or your whole inventory.

6. Tape the turnbuckle

If you’ve ever scraped your finger on a piece of hardware, then you know it’s sharp enough to damage your sail. Even seemingly blunt objects (like a spreader) can damage sails on a tack, so take a look around (and up) to see what can or should be covered to protect your sails. If you have an extra piece of spinnaker cloth, wipe it across every surface of your boat and rigging. If it snags, put some tape on it. Rigging tape, self-fusing silicone tape, leather and other protective coverings are relatively inexpensive ways to protect your sails.

7. Check the leech

Even a well-protected spreader-tip or navigation light can wear a sail tack-after-tack. For these areas, a spreader-patch (or navigation light-patch, etc.) might be the answer.

8. Don’t wait for repairs

A lot of catastrophic sail failures can be traced back to a small repair that was never made. When you notice a small hole or a chafed spot that’s getting increasingly worse, save yourself serious head- and wallet-ache by addressing the problem while it is still small. Our service experts have heard more than a few people come into the loft with a shredded sail saying, “I’ve been meaning to get that spot patched”.

9. Bag It

Pretty simple here. There’s a good reason new sails come with a sturdy bag and it’s not just another place for a logo. That bag is a much cheaper sacrificial covering than the sail inside of it. Take a look at an old sailbag that’s scuffed and torn-up, now imagine if that were your sail. Not good. It can be a pain to keep track of bags, but used regularly, they can really earn their keep.

10. If you don’t know, ask

Curious about some sail-care method you’ve heard somebody touting on the dock or trying to figure out if your sail could use a new piece of webbing on the tack? Feel free to call the service team at your local Quantum loft. We’re happy to field your questions and provide helpful pointers. Consider us a member of your team.

This tip was brought to you by Quantum Sails.

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