Reaching trim

Originally posted by JimC

Originally posted by JimC

I suspect the answer is very complicated, and may even vary according to the course. I'm sure that on a shy reach with the apparent wind coming from ahead you want the sails unstalled and low drag high lift. I'm not so clear about deep reaches, especially in slower boats. If we consider a slow boat on a dead run then the mainsail is stalled out all over, but its not that big an issue because drag is pushing the boat in the direction we want it to go anyway. 

It seems to me possible that on deep reaches it may also be beneficial for the sail to be partially stalled if it increases lift and the drag is still in the right diraction. I may be wrong of course. Then there's running by the lee and the odd sail profile amd shape you have there. I find it hard to believe the sail isn't partially stalled in that condition too. Like a lot of sailing I reckon its damn complicated, but if you have sufficient boat feel you can probably get to the optimum without knowing what's going on aerodynamically, which would be why the hot guys are so much faster than me...

this is where all the running by the lee  and crazy heel angles that happens to be popular on and off came from in the una rigged  classes