52: Advice on Sail Trim For our Lagoon 52F

[LagunaRed]

We moved onto our 2016 Lagoon 52 last June and are currently sailing in the Bahamas. We've sailed the boat from FLL to Newport and then back again to the Bahamas but we still have trouble keeping our jib in trim in the upper third of the sail while keeping the lower 2/3 in trim. If the lower parts are in trim, the upper portion luffs and shakes the whole rig and if I take the jib sheet in to stop the luffing, we get completely stalled.

We usually keep the jib cars all the way to the rails of the self-tacking jib traveler.

When the wind is abeam in moderate wind (up to 18-20 knots), I'll attach a barber-hauler to the clew of the jib and that helps the leech tension which helps the flutter but there needs to be a better way.

If anyone has any thoughts, I'd appreciate it.

Best,

Christian.
www.sailsummerkai.com

[44'cruisingcat]

This is a pretty universal issue. Most boats have their sheet leads set well inboard to suit upwind sailing.

For reaching you want the sheet leads further out.

Using a barber hauler or tackle from a midships cleat is the usual solution.

Using a combination of normal sheet and the tackle, you can usually get the sail working well on deeper angles, to the point that deep reaching or running the sail is basically sheeted off the cleat.

[Bean Counter]

Couple of things to try (may not work on a self tacker though)

1. Off the wind, connect spinnaker sheet to Jib clew, put a snatch block on the sheet at the mid way cleat and adjust this up or down.

2. Up wind, if you can not move the sheeting angle enough to get even tension, tighten the leech line, this will get rid of the top flapping, might not be perfect sail shape though. Best to keep mid to lower telltales flowing in preference to upper tell tales. Play with Luff tension too, will have some impact on jib shape.

[fxykty]

For upwind, it sounds like you need to move your jib lead forward or move your sheet attachment at the clew up - either will tighten the leach and loosen the foot, so you won’t need to over trim your sail to stop the top from luffing. As you have a self-tacking track then you can’t easily move the jib lead forward. Do you have a plate with multiple attachment points on your clew, or just a single clew ring? If you have a plate, move the sheet attachment as high up as possible. If not, and if you have room at the top of your forestay, hoist your jib higher by adding a shackle or two at the tack. That will lift the clew. Alternatively, recut the sail to move the clew higher - you don’t have to move the clew much, so getting the sail recut doesn’t have to be too expensive.

Also try moving the jib lead inboard. The athwartships position of your jib lead should form an angle from the centreline that is about half of your usual upwind apparent wind angle (if you can sail upwind at 45 degrees AWA then jib lead angle should be 25 degrees). I’m not familiar with your Lagoon, but I’m surprised that you have the jib lead all the way to the end of the track upwind. Just moving the jib lead inboard will effectively move it forward. On our boat, similar in size to yours, the jib lead upwind is about 50cm from the centreline.

For reaching, your jib lead should be as far outboard as possible. If your track doesn’t go to the edge of your deck, using a barber hauler is normal practice to get the jib lead outboard and forward. Lead the barber hauler from your rail substantially further forward than your jib track, so that when you transfer the sheet load to your barber haul the leech has enough tension to properly trim the sail. The easiest way is to use a spare sheet led through a snatch block and back to a spare winch. Use a soft shackle to attach the block to a conveniently placed cleat, toe rail, or pad eye.