Trim


Traveller:
It is highly recommended to have a long traveller installed, which allows good control of the main. This applies for racing as well as for cruising and it will immediately pay off with more comfortable sailing and speed, heel angle and of course weather helm can be controlled much better when the traveller is used effectively. This is in particular true as control of the main by the vang is somewhat limited as the boom sits rather low above deck. There are three positions used for the traveller as far as we know, but none of them is ideal:

in 1970 the traveler set initially aft of the cockpit was moved forward, as provided in the link

Installation about 12“ aft of the companionway. This allows for a long traveller to be installed. As most boats were constructed without bridge-deck it will require a support beneath the traveller track and the traveller restricts movement in the cockpit for and aft. To align the sheet perpendicular to the boom additional fittings for the main sheet can be easily attached into the grove of the under side of the boom. Control is excellent but loads on the main sheet are increased. See below for sheet arrangements

A short traveller, often in front of the pedestal on wheel-steered boats. This is a nice position as the traveller is out of the way, however this setting leaves control of the main less effective.














Main sheet: Given that none of the arrangements for the traveller is perfect the load of the main sheet can be significant. This may be eased by sheeting the main sheet 6-fold as above, however this then will result in a long and heavy sheet for the main which may not work well in light airs. A 4-fold arrangement may be too hard to work for small crews. A simple 4-fold sheet arrangement may be used however by adding a 4-fold fine adjustment into the middle. See the picture attached. This arrangement allows perfect control of the sheets under virtually any wind speed and still leaves the main sheet light.

Vang (no picture): The effectiveness of the vang can be improved somewhat by rivetting the fitting on the mast as low as possible above deck back to the mast. This way the initial arrangement can be improved by about 4“.

Genoa tracks:
Given the two options for the positions of the shrouds which were available when boats were ordered, those boats with shrouds fitted close to the hull, these boats often have their genoa tracks fitted to the toe-rail. Note that there are more than one detailed arrangement of shrouds and chain plates, check the drawings. However on some boats short tracks have been fitted on the deck as on TYNAJE (see below). The minimum angle for the track should not be below 11°.

In addition there is a nice but long elaboration on trimming the boats written by Arthur F Chace under the title Precision Cruising (w W Norton Comp, 1987.

All photos courtesy of LvM