Conference unifix::sailing

    
    
    >> How do you trim the gen(oa) when running?
    
    I think there are two answers.  When running dead downwind then I
    believe that your pole should be as long as possible.. i.e. it 
    should reach from the mast to the forestay, because you want to
    maximize the area presented to the wind.
    
    On the other hand, I doubt that this is very fast;  generally you
    want to sail off on a reach to get maximum VMG downwind, which
    means that you don't need (or want) the pole to be the maximum 
    length.
    
       /Jim
    

    There's a trade off between max projected area and drag coefficients.
    
    If you pole out your genny so it's flat, the area goes up but the
    drag coef goes down. A slightly curved shape is faster with less
    projected area.
    
    As a general rule, the J dimension measured from the mast to the headstay
    at deck level is used for spinnakers. This works OK for a genny on a
    run. You may want to make yours a little longer

    
    re: -.1
    
    We're in agreement, but for different reasons.  The air flow when
    on a run is directly at the sail and around both leech and luff.
    I don't believe that flattening the sail reduces drag significantly,
    though drag would actually be beneficial on a run!
    
    On a reach the air flow is moving from luff to leech and so sail
    camber directly affects lift and drag.
    
       /Jim
    

We have a fixed length pole (J in length) because it is stronger than a 
telescoping pole. However, I rather wish we had a telescoping pole. The 
fixed pole is about the right length for poling out our working jib. 
Poling out the genoa isn't noticeably more effective than poling out the 
genoa. The genoa really needs a longer pole to make use of its greater 
area. Another reason for a fixed length (spinnaker) pole is that I hoped 
I could convince my sailing companion we 'need' a spinnaker. My powers 
of persuasion have failed utterly. 

    To teleskop or not to teleskop
    
    I have two similar sized genua with two forestays.(leftover when I
    changed from hank on to roller)
    With both genua's set with poles and main removed,I can sail approx.
    from 150 degrees to 210 degrees. (+- 30 degrees)
    
    I have two teleskoping poles.Up to 20 kn of wind there is no problem.
    But above it gets dangerous.I can not shorten sail without getting
    nearly killed by the pole.The solution to this problem is to have a 
    the pole fixed by 4 lines.(How do you call them in english?)
    If the pole is fixed,you can remove/reef the sail very easy and with
    the sail removed,you can remove the boom with no danger to your life.
    Its difficult to add 4 eyes to a telescoping boom...
    All the books I have discribe how to do it but none tells  how
    long the pole should be.I'm considering reply 1 to 3.
    
    thanks  Peter
    		

The bits holding the outboard end of the pole are the topping lift, the 
foreguy, and the afterguy. Do the inboard ends of your poles stay 
attached to the mast when you stow them, that is, do your poles stow 
vertically on the mast? I added a longer spinnaker pole track to our 
mast so the the inboard end of our pole can be raised high enough for the 
outboard end of the pole to go into a chock at the base of the mast. 
This makes handling the pole much easier and safer for one person. 
Handling our pole when the inboard end is off the mast is difficult at 
best and quite dangerous in any sea at all. 

    
    I have not used any lines with my poles.Very easy to set.Near
    impossible to remove when the wind is strong and another boat is
    forcing me to change my course.
    I'm storing my teleskop poles along the handrails on top of the cabin.
    Your solution of storing the pole sounds good.But its difficult
    to implement with two poles and both are going to be considerable 
    longer than "J".I'm planning to store the new fixed poles from a chainplate
    along one of the stays and hold in place by the topping lift.
    
    
    Peter