Stop Guessing, Start Winning: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Fast Rig Settings

by Cyclops Marine 8 May 17:18 BST

You know the boats that kept finishing ahead of you last season? They're not faster. They're just better at repeating what works.

Repeatability is the secret sauce of sailing - when the conditions change, or when you go round the leeward mark and hit that first tack, how quickly can you return to the setting that gave you an edge last time around?

The popularisation of load sensors has changed the game in this regard - live numbers on screen allowing sailors to hit their fast settings on demand. Well, Cyclops has made it even easier, not just to hit your fastest settings, but to replicate the settings of fleet leaders. We've created our very own range of dynamic tuning guides for some of the most popular racing classes - giving you exact settings to match up to on your onboard displays or via our smartphone app.

The pitfalls of static tuning alone

• Accuracy
  Tuning guides have been around for a long time—mostly based on static measurements like mast rake and rig tension, perhaps with guidance on sail shape (by sight). The problem? To start with, unless you have wireless load sensors installed you're relying on basic tools like mechanical tension gauges, where accuracy varies wildly. Some people employ even more rudimentary methods like visual estimation, feel, or even the sound produced by plucking a wire.

• Adaptability
  Secondly, you're no-doubt setting up for specific conditions i.e. lower forestay load for light winds, balanced load for medium breeze, higher forestay load for medium breeze. But what happens when the conditions change? You're adapting on the fly, blind, and by feel. Some days you might nail this, others you might be flailing around and losing valuable ground.

• Repeatability
  Finally, even if conditions don't change, things change—perhaps you nailed your dock set up and started in the right place, but once you've completed a few tacks, you're bound to lose your reference point. If there's suddenly something amiss, it's not easy to identify what to do to go quicker and get back to your best.

• Using data by trial and error
  With a smarttune installed, live forestay load data is displayed on your onboard instruments—making it the most powerful tool for dock tuning.

If you're looking to make dock tuning an exact science, top teams also use smartbatten sensors, allowing them to set batten compression settings with extreme precision pre-race, maximising the benefits when they repeatedly hit top gear at race time.

You might also have a smartlink on your backstay, or on other key soft lines like the mainsheet, and perhaps a smarttoggle sensor to understand sail-to-cable load share ratio. This gives you a complete picture of loading throughout the rig at the dock, but also constantly while sailing, as things change and get interesting.

Using the sensors by trial and error is all about repetition—go out for a solid day of training, then check the data log in the app post-sail. If the boat felt great or hit a new gear, note the numbers. Win a race? Look back at what you were running—record it. Over time, you start building your own performance bank: what loads worked in what wind, on what angle, with which setup. Many teams create their own load-based polars, or even mark their sheets and stays with target values, so any crew member can get you back in the groove instantly.

"We have some numbers that we rely on, so, in the middle of the night for a given wind strength just hitting the number and knowing... ok this is fast... we're there now. But as with all data the cool thing is that when you think you've figured it out there's always another layer of new findings and more speed and more modes, and if you match up wind angles, target speeds and forestay tension then you find more and more performance in the boat."
- Peter Gustafsson - Skipper & Owner J/111 & J/99 Blur,
Rolex Middle Sea Race ORC 5 Winner, AEGEAN 600 ORC 2 Winner.

Using Dynamic Tuning Guides

With dynamic tuning guides available for J/111, J/109, J/99, J/70, Sun Fast 3300, and Beneteau First 40/40.7, you can start from known-fast numbers—created from the data and feedback of some of the top performers in each class. These sailors have logged hundreds of hours using Cyclops sensors, and their settings are now your benchmark.

Some people might call it a "cheat sheet." We call it smart sailing.

Sailing is about thinking fast, adapting on the fly, and learning from the best to come before you. Fleet leaders know and use these numbers to their advantage. Not doing the same is leaving speed on the table.

Explore the range of dynamic tuning guides.

Optimising sail trim with data: Upwind vs Downwind.

Explore Cyclops sensors.