Unstayed mast tuning & sail trim

[JimConlin]

Hey, Mickey and Gareth-

Is anything written on the finer points of sail trim on unstayed masts like the Finn or Laser or Wyliecat?
I'm flying blind in learning to sail this thing.

[Lance F. Gunderson]

I think of Bolger's book "100 Small Boat Rigs", and "Sailboat Design-Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" by Meade Gougeon. Both discuss unstayed masts. I sail a Bolger Black Skimmer sharpie with unstayed masts not all that different from the rig shown in your photo. It's pretty simple and foolproof. My biggest problem has been breaking masts.

[JimConlin]

I've read them both.
My masts are carbon and the engineer says that the boat will blow over long before the spars break.
My issue is in using mast bend to get good sail shape under a variety of conditions.

[rbgarr]

Jim,

The North Sails Tuning Guide links have helped me sail my Shields better and help others set up their J22s.

Here's their guide for the Finn. Maybe it will give you some approaches to take: http://northsailsod.com/class/finn/finn_tuning.html

[Klaus]

I sail a Norwalk island sharpie 26. A sail tuning lesson learned early on was to reef as soon as the tell tales show that the top of the sail is not doing anything useful, just spilling wind.
First reef gets taken in once white caps get frequent (~15kn), second reef in consistent over 20 knots. Have not yet used the 3rd reef as I like to stay in the shelter in those conditions that warrant taking in the 3rd reef.

Main and mizzen get reefed at the same time. There is no loss in boat speed but a big gain in comfort when reefed in the fresher winds.

Another early lesson was that pulling the sheet in hard just bends the masts more! I use the sheet for setting the boom angle only, a powerful vang is used to keep it horizontal.
Klaus

[Hwyl]

Well the only controls you have are outhaul and vang. They are connected through the clew tied down, and in the past I've upbraided people on ere for not having one. That would be impossible in your case. I would imagine a powerful and easily adjustable vang is essential, and you'd want to be powering it on in anything from a reach up.

The jury is out on your mizzen, I'd imagine you'll want to keep it pretty flat, did Dick specify a mizzen staysail?

[JimConlin]

In this case, the main is boomless and there's a robust traveler across the aft crossbeam. So, the controls on the main are the traveler, the sheet, reefing and haulers. The main reefs (and furls) by mast rotation and i've experimented with Barber haulers to tweak twist. I haven't yet understood what mast bend does to sail shape. Maybe the Wyliecats are relevant here.

There's a 4' gap between the main and the mizzen, so it's OK that the mizzen is not especially flat. It trims well and is useful in several ways. The wishbone boom works fine. Dick drew a mizzen staysail, but I decided that i'd learn to sail the upwind rig before i got fancy.

The downwind (Ljungstrom) configuration is another story for another time. I don't expect to get much experience-based help there. The good news is that the boat's fast enough that we don't see deep wind angles very much.