Cats Can't Sail to Windward....

[thinwater]

I love sailing to windward. I love feeling the leeward hull start to dig.

Next, the fine points of going deep. How to get the chute to rotate to windward without a pole? Wing-and-wing? Preventers for cats? Bowsprit or traveler across the bow?

Definitely an exercise in understanding apparent wind and VMG.

[Oliver L.]

Just to clarify - when I refer to tacking angle it's what you see on the chart plotter once you have arrived. Obviously during tacking I first go through about 110 degrees before sheeting in the genoa and then slowly getting on the new course...

Oliver

[monte]

Originally Posted by thinwater

[*]TWA. What is sounds like. True angle to the boat. Can get this from the compass.

I'm not so sure about that. TWA,TWD and TWS is calculated from the vectors of SOG or STW and AWA and AWS. Saying you can get it from the compass as you described is more like AWA (heading - AWD)

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by thinwater

^^ Can't guess what some of these posts mean. Geometry is geometry. Vectors are vectors.

What's hard about it? If you tack through 110 degrees on the compass, you tack through 110 degrees on the compass.

You'd see leeway as being the difference between your compass heading and your course over the ground.

Anyway, the faster the boat, the bigger the difference between AWA and TWA, when going upwind.

The only way to tack through 110 degrees then sail at 45' AWA is to be going slow. About 25% of TWS.

[thinwater]

Oliver, Monte', 44': The terminology is killing us. We understand the vector math perfectly well and are going circles questioning each other. Silly.

Heck, I've seen books that describe a beam reach as AW on the beam and others as TW on the beam, and each makes a case for why they are right. I've seen TWA on speed polars calculated both OG and from boat-relative (compass) figures. I think AW and OG are the only 2 things we can't confuse!

[Factor]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

Anyway, the faster the boat, the bigger the difference between AWA and TWA, when going upwind. .

So true, Team Australia started a Gladstone a while back hard on the wind while every mono was broad reaching and the quick multis were beam reaching

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Reefer.

Our Crowther Spindrift 40', just this morning, averaged 8.5, touched 10.2 knots SOG heading around 25°-30° off a 15-20kt SE.

I have a new Genoa. Does that disqualify me?

yes.