Cruising Cat Sail Trim

[monte]

Maybe David. Did you take a look at twisters settings in the first post? They also have a lot of traveller to windward. Drop us a mail if you have any questions regarding La Rochelle etc.
Monte

[StarryHorizons]

When I first started sailing big cats, I used a lot of traveller to windward as well, but after talking to others and letting the traveller out to leeward, I noticed that I was able to get the leech telltales to fly correctly much more consistently.

I'll send you a PM with some questions about La Rochelle.

[pbr]

It's pretty simple when it comes to sail trim. Sheets are for adjusting angle of attack, travelers, vangs, barber haulers, and jib tracks, are for controlling twist.
For the mainsail, personally I prefer vangs and no traveler for simplicity and automatic twist control at any angle. Most travelers on production cats are not long (wide) enough to offer good twist control for much more than a close reach.

For jibs, it would be a self tacker with a curved track going rail to rail, a Camber Spar, or a Hoyt boom, again for automatic twist control at any angle ( including dead downwind with the Camber spar and Hoyt boom) . Most jib tracks are only effective for upwind or maybe a close reach, you can cheat a bit by bumping leads forward, but you pretty much need a barber hauler as soon as you crack off from upwind.

Another possibility would be to have an athwart ships tracks on the cabin top for the jib, to let the lead outboard just like a main traveler, though it would be limited by the width of the cabin top it would still offer a lot more twist control than normal fore and aft tracks.