Jib Tell Tales at Night

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by swordds

I have become dependent on my jib tell tales for trimming and steering my boat (an Alberg 30). I always sail singlehanded and because of the heat I am sailing more often at night. I am not sailing a compass course, just sailing around on a large lake with rarely any other boats around. Shinning a light on the jib doesn’t help so how do others trim their sails in the dark?

Well on my boat a spotlight works just fine

Also sends up the “bat signal” for others to see me

[Cheechako]

Bright flashlight always worked for me.

[Foolish]

I use the wind vane at the top of the mast with a very small LED light, also at the top of the mast, shining upwards at it.

[KiwiKen]

I find the masthead Windex is an excellent guide, mine has day glo orange on the underside, and on a clear night can be seen ok without artificial light.


But it is just one reference, the feel of the boat gives most of the indicators one needs as Steadman Uhlich wrote in his post



If one uses dayglow yellow or orange tell tales on the head sail, then a small UV spot would do the trick without generating any light that could interfere with night vision or that could be mistaken for a nav light.
I don't know whether small UV bulbs are available.

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by KiwiKen

I find the masthead Windex is an excellent guide, mine has day glo orange on the underside, and on a clear night can be seen ok without artificial light.


But it is just one reference, the feel of the boat gives most of the indicators one needs as Steadman Uhlich wrote in his post



If one uses dayglow yellow or orange tell tales on the head sail, then a small UV spot would do the trick without generating any light that could interfere with night vision or that could be mistaken for a nav light.
I don't know whether small UV bulbs are available.

You beat me to it as this makes sense and doesn’t interfere with night vision

[Lihuedooley77]

You can also feel the wind on your face or cheek, the heel of the boat, the of the helm, and the speed.

The sails trimmed properly and if on the wind, to watch or listen for the sail to just begin to luff. or the boat come more level, or getting much slower, due to falling off away from the wind, and winding up on a beam reach.

At night, on long ocean passages, we would trim the sails, feel the boat, and refer to the compass sporadically , as well as the placement of a star or stars on the shrouds.
That worked great, and we did not have to wind up mezmerize by steadily looking at the ships compass. Totally relaxing.

Add in keeping a wide awake watch, and looking for land masses, and plotting the vessels position every hour, or major change in course.

Agree with bimini's and dodgers obscuring sails, telltales on shrouds, and mast head flys. I like that others have found ways to illuminate the tell tales on the jib.

One tell tale on the back stay can help with broad reaching .

We have not used a light for night sailing, Which is generally out in the ocean on longer tacks or courses than lake sailing may present.

We know and can feel the wind direction, and trim the sails accordingly, but the winds at sea remain pretty steady. With lake sailing, I have no experience, but would imagine there are wind shifts and even back winding of winds that come down thru the canyons and valleys.

Good scoops from the other posters, and the answer is, do what feels good to you and for the boat.

One thing, if using a night light, we would rig it so it would not effect our night vision. Even tho we sail in darkness, we may have a helpful moon, and even starlight . We keep any on board light emission to minimum, with running lights, and steaming light if under power.

Also, they have wind direction instruments that you can install on your binacle, or the coach roof bulk head.

Just some old ideas by a fairly old sailing geezer, who also likes the posted ideas on types of night lights.

[swordds]

Originally Posted by jmce1587

Used to sail night races on lake pontchartrain and used clamp on low flashlight on stanchions aimed at tell tale window. Had one on each side for tacking. Worked great. I now use bike handlebar mounts with small LED lights for sailing in Galv bay and offshore

I used the small red battery operated tail light off my road bike last night and it worked well. Designed to fit a round seat tube it was easy to secure on the rounded front edge of the mast. Pointed at a set of telltales on the front of the jib it was not too bright and worked on either tack. I had to change the port side red telltale to a green telltale for visibility. I have also ordered some glow in the dark tape to see if placing a strip of tape behind a telltale works. Will report back when the tape arrives.

[Cpt Pat]

I moved my masthead (aka "steaming") light down my mast to 1/3 of the height up my mast from deck level, which is more than the minimum 2.5 meter height required for a < 20M long boat. I then turn that light on to temporarily illuminate my jib. I've also used the light a few times to light up my jib to make my boat more visible to traffic. The horizontal beam width of the light is 225 degrees, so it lights the leech on all my sails.


The white light does degrade my night vision, but the light reflected off the jib isn't so bright that the effect lasts for very long. In a perfect world, I'd use a red light instead.