Asymetric Kite.

yeah i try to do that as it is, just wondering if there is more that I can do, at the moment I seem to be keeping it filling by trial and error. Wondering if there are any good rules to stick to. Just I can tell you exactly how to keep a sym. one filling, but not so sure on an asym.

A key thing I find, especially when not fully powered up, is that you need to be talking to the helm constantly about what's happening with the sheet loads. You can feel changes of wind far sooner than the helm can. If the sheet goes light you need to point a bit, so I tend to call "pressure", "need pressure", if its starts pulling harder and we can ease down on the gusts then I call that "down" or "ease down" or whatever. All the noise in boats I'm in downwind comes from the crew,(ie me) constantly feeding back information on pressure, probably interspersed with shouts of flat, flatter...

Originally posted by KnightMare One thing if a gust comes through and the boat speeds up, does this affect how i shoudl have the kite sheeted, if i kept it in the same place would it mean it is sheeted to far in?

Lots happens as the gust comes in. Probably you'll be bearing away on the gust, either to soak down or just to keep the boat flat, so you'll need to ease progressively as that comes in. If you don't need to go down then you may need to sheet in as the boat speeds up. Maybe it will be bit of both. Sitting here I think its quite rare for me to want my boat to stay pointing in exactly the same direction as the gusts come in and out. You're most likely to want to sheet in coming out of the gust as you need to head up and keep the pressure on.

To my way of thinking the key thing really for speed is not to oversheet. Oversheeting is death to speed, helms are very prone to oversheet the main in light conditions because the boat feels better without the lee helm, but its still slow! I reckon its far better to have the kite flap occasionally because you're erring on undersheeting than have it oversheeted. Feels safe, lots of pressure, lots of power... but no speed! IMHO its a really bad idea for the helm to shout or whatever at the crew if the kite flaps. Firstly they probably know already anyway, and secondly if you make a load of noise about it to a fairly new crew they'll tend to oversheet, and you'll wonder why you have no speed.

Edited by JimC

As far as rules for triming the kite go , I think 'If in doubt, try letting it out' probably covers it. It is much better to quickly pull in a big armfull and stop it flogging that to sail around with it oversheeted all the time!

From a Laser4000 point of view its important not to oversheet it.  As soon as you do the boat develops lee-helm - which is very difficult to handle and slow.  So keep it on the brink of collapsing by letting it out until you see the luf curl then give it a quick tug and let it right back out again.  In this way you are keeping it as near to fully eased as is possible.  Its a bit like flying a kite!

The points made about communication are extremely important.  When trying to run deep only the crew knows how much pressure is on the sheet - he/she must tell the helm or he doesn't know to soak deep or head up.  So a continual commentry should be coming from the crew.  In the 4000 there are 2 ways that the kite can collapse from a sudden header: 1. when the wind heads, remedy bear away, 2. when you sail into a lull so that the apparent wind comes from in front, same remedy but it feels different because all heeling force goes.  In both cases the crew must move inboard, more so in case 2.

Absolutely,  by the way I think this is just the sort of discussion this forum is designed for - you almost apologised for it at the beginning but no need.  Sorry to be pedantic but asymmetric is spelt with 2 "m"s, but no worries.