Trimningstips

[anonym-anvandare]

Kan vara att du måste dra mer i nedhal, och med det plana ut buken och få över trycket fån den främre delen. Förmodar att det är ett race segel du har, och då är det vanligt att man inte drar tillräckligt i nedhal.

[anonym-anvandare]

Stämmer.
Kör på RRD Beast, NP V8 10.4 samt NP Diablo mindre storlekar. Har alltså inga tävlingsambitioner än så länge.
Tycker att jag har maxat nedhalet enligt anvisningar i trimningsguider osv. Kanske ska försöka lite till. Å andra sidan får man ju en del problem om man har för mycket nedhal också.

[swe-1]

Nu ska du få lära dig att fiska! Du förstår vad jag menar när du läst nedanstående, saxat från Neil Pryde forumet hur man riggar deras Racesegel RX2, RS1 och RS, men fungerar även på V8 och Diablo.

One of the things to keep in mind when looking for the best settings for any given sail is that there is no one best setting. A lot of times it will depend on the wind conditions, the size of the sailor, the water conditions, the type of board, etc. Therefore, I cannot genuinely give you a set of numbers to follow and declare that as the best setting. So, going along with the philosophy of “give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, teach a man how to fish, he will eat for a lifetime”, I will try to describe what to look for in a sail so that you rig it to suit your weight and conditions as optimally as possible every time regardless of mast used or sail size. So here goes:

What we will first do is get the sail set so that it is approximating the best setting. From there we will try to find the optimal setting for a particular set of variables. Windsurfing is a game of small numbers and squeezing every ounce of speed out of your equipment will take a certain amount of diligence and investigation. That means a fair amount of trial and error. The first step, however, is approximating that setting as closely as possible.

After setting the base at the recommended amount printed on the sail, I want you to slowly put downhaul on the sail just until you get all the wrinkles off the leading edge of the sail. Then, set the boom to the recommended setting and put it on the mast. Pull the outhaul two inches (5cm) short of max and return to the mast base to pull more downhaul. Before you pull more downhaul, sit at the base of the sail and take a good look at the leech. What I want you to observe is the tips of the top four battens and how the leech sets up in this area. Without counting the Flexhead batten, the top batten is called batten #1. The next batten down is #2, and so forth. These are the battens you want to concentrate on. While pressing down on the base of the sail so as to get the tip of the mast off the ground, you should see that the leech is quite tight and straight. In other words, the tips of all the battens down to the boom are all in line.

With the sail down hauled minimally like this, there should hardly be any wrinkles in the sail. All the sail materials are taut and for the inexperienced eye, the sail actually looks good like this since there are no wrinkles. This is the most common mistake in rigging a sail (under-down hauling) and as we have learned, the sail does not work like this. The top four battens are really tight and there is very little twist in the sail like this. Due to the differences in wind velocities and wind direction between the top of the sail and the bottom of the sail, all sails are designed with twist in them. So simply notice how the tips of the top four battens are tight and notice how they are oriented towards each other.

Now slowly put some more downhaul on the sail observing how the leading edge, especially around and below the boom area, flattens out. Also notice how the tips of the top four battens start to slowly drop off. We will use this indicator to find the best setting approximation. As you put a little bit more downhaul, the tip of batten #1 should be the first to loosen up and drop. As you increase the downhaul further, the tip of batten #2 will loosen up next and then drop. This will continue until the tip of batten #4 loosens up and drops. All of this is best seen while sitting by the mast base and pushing down on the bottom of the sail so that the tip of the mast is off the ground and the sail is resting on the bottom of the sail and the boom. Stay seated while doing this and look through the boom at the tips of the battens. As you increase the downhaul, the tips of the battens should progressively disappear from your view through the booms. Now look over the booms and observe how they are standing with respect to each other. The twist of the sail should be a smooth linear progression. Therefore, what you want to see is the tips of the top four battens smoothly falling off with respect to each other. In other words, the tip of batten #1 should be lower (from your sitting down perspective at the base of the sail) than the tip of #2. Likewise, #2 should be lower than #3, and #3 lower than #4. They should fall off smoothly and in a linear fashion. Once you have down hauled the sail to this point you are 90% there. This setting by itself will work in almost any given condition. This is the best general downhaul setting. If by chance you have bottomed out on the base with the recommended settings without getting to this point, simply increase the extension by 2 cm until you see this effect on the tips of the four battens and the leech. Remember, you are looking for a smooth linear twist at the top of the sail. To see this point more clearly let go of the down haul and observe how the batten tips stop falling off and instead start standing all at the same level. This is the indicator that you are under down hauled. Now, if you pull too much downhaul, the battens tips will not fall off linearly and what you will most likely see is #2 dropping below #1 and #3 so that there is a V-shaped progression. This is typical of over-downhaul.

Once at this stage, you want to set the outhaul. Since there is (or should be) an adjustable outhaul system on the boom, what you want to make sure before going out in the water is that the boom length is set to accept the maximum outhaul. This will be written on the sail, so simply set the boom to this and have your system ready to adjust.

Well, now is when the sail needs to be fine-tuned and the only proper way to do this is out on the water and with a sailing partner. I highly recommend grabbing a sailing partner of similar level to help you squeeze all the speed out of your equipment. What you will need is for your partner to sail consistently without changing any of the settings on his/her equipment. Next, go out on the water and start sailing side by side upwind, downwind, and reaching. Make sure that when you do this that you each have clear, clean wind when you start off, otherwise you will waste a lot of time and come to erroneous conclusions. Closely observe how you are doing relative to each other on all points of sail. Now is when you want to start changing your settings one by one.

The easiest will be the outhaul since you have an adjustable system that you can change on the fly. If you feel you are lacking in power slowly start easing off the outhaul. Go in ½ inch (~1 cm) increments. Observe what happens to your speed and performance relative to your partner. You should be able to tell almost immediately what kind of effect the change had on your performance. Also try to feel what this does to the pull of the sail in your hands. Typically if you are constantly over-sheeting the sail, are lacking power, and can’t seem to keep a constant trim, then you have too much outhaul. On the other hand, if you feel too much backhand pressure and the draft is moving around too much to the point that the sail becomes difficult to control, then you don’t have enough outhaul. However, make sure you are judging your performance relative to your partner, as sometimes these feelings can be misleading. Ultimately, it is your performance that will dictate the best setting on the sail and not your feel. Hopefully the two will coincide but be aware of this pitfall. Often a nervous sail or board will “feel” fast especially when you are sailing by yourself. Make sure to verify this feeling against your tuning partner. Your best speed is often the most effortless in the exact same way that in many sports your best efforts are the ones that are seemingly smooth and without extraneous exertion, i.e., your furthest golf shot, a home run, a fast swim time, a really far throw, etc. Always verify the feeling in your hands with your performance against your partner.

Once you have these settings, repeat the procedure with the downhaul. Observe what happens when you let off a little bit of downhaul. Try to do this in approximately ½ inch increments (~1 cm). Again, note how your performance is affected by the change. Typically, if you suddenly feel like the sail is pulling you too much from the top and wants to pitch you over the handlebars, and that the board is riding lower in the water and wetting out, and that you are not accelerating as well in the gusts, then you are under down hauled. Obviously you will want to increase the downhaul. Now look for increased acceleration, the board riding higher in the water, and a lighter feel in your hands. If you go too far, however, you will notice that you are lacking power in the sail, your pointing angle has decreased, and the sail has actually started to feel stiffer. This is typical of over down hauling. Again, take care to compare your performance to your tuning partner as this will objectively show how your settings has affected your performance. Also take note to experiment with different outhaul settings when trying different downhaul settings. Often one outhaul setting will not work as well with different downhaul settings. For example, you will note that with more downhaul in a sail, you will want relatively less outhaul. If you decrease the downhaul, you will see how you will then need to increase the outhaul.

This is a very common way to tune your sail. It takes a bit of work but once you have the settings you will be able to measure them off or simply be able to look at your sail on the beach and set it according to the conditions. After a while, you will also be able to correlate what you feel with a sail in the water with its’ performance and adjust accordingly. I know this is perhaps not the answer you were looking for, but I believe it will ultimately be more useful. It is important to keep in mind that lighter sailors need different settings than heavier sailors, that flatter rocker lines in a board require different settings than rocker lines with more curve, that choppy water requires different settings than flat water, and that when using a sail in light wind, or it’s low end, requires a different setting than when using it in strong wind or it’s high end. For these reasons, and several more, there is not one magic number that I can give that will be the absolute best setting.

All the best,

Jimmy

[anonym-anvandare]

Aaahhh…
Strålande! Med det där i bagaget känns det som om man i alla fall kan få till grunderna. Sen är det bara ut på vattnet och fiska…
Tack så mycket!
/Jesper