Beam reaching is dog slow

[AKelly]

Hey there,
We do fine on windward/lewards at the weekly beer can races.
We need some advice on making the boat go on beam reaches. We have even raised the chute on some legs just to keep up with the fleet. Any advise would be appreciated!
Arlo Kallemeyn
Chili Pepper #501

[Tom Elsen]

This is a tough point of sail. You've got to constantly trim both sails as the apparent wind shifts. So have your crew busting it to keep the telltales flying.

Sounds like you're possibly backwinding the main (closing off the slot between the main and genoa). Try barber-hauling the genoa out to the toe-rail. Depending on the exact point of sail, set the snatch block a bit aft of the neutral genoa car position. In flat water, try raising the board a bit as well. Raise it until you notice yourself sliding a bit sideways, then ease about a foot or so of board line.

Anybody else have ideas here?

[LarryE-old]

S
We do Rum Races, every other week, year round. Friday nights when we have daylight savings and Sunday afternoons, the rest of the year.
The course is 6.6 miles with about 60% reaches. When we started we were getting killed on the reaches. Slowly we got better and now we really hold our own. What we learned, like was said before, barber-haul and always be trimming. We never cleat the jib or main, just always trim, trim, trim.

[Fred Chadsey]

WE USE A RIGID BARBER HAULER WHICH OPENS THE SLOT. IT EXTENDS ABOUT TWO FEET OUT SIDE THE RAIL. WITH THIS SYSTEM WE CAN REACH WITH A J-27.

[fleck]

I supect that would violate rule 50.3:

50.3 Use of Outriggers

(a) No sail shall be sheeted over or through an outrigger, except as
permitted in rule 50.3(b) or 50.3(c). An outrigger is any fitting
or other device so placed that it could exert outward pressure on
a sheet or sail at a point from which, with the boat upright, a
vertical line would fall outside the hull or deck planking. For the
purpose of this rule, bulwarks, rails and rubbing strakes are not
part of the hull or deck planking and the following are not outriggers:
a bowsprit used to secure the tack of a working sail, a
bumkin used to sheet the boom of a working sail, or a boom of a
boomed headsail that requires no adjustment when tacking.

(b) Any sail may be sheeted to or led above a boom that is regularly
used for a working sail and is permanently attached to the mast
from which the head of the working sail is set.

(c) A headsail may be sheeted or attached at its clew to a spinnaker
pole or whisker pole, provided that a spinnaker is not set.

[Tom Line]

Reaching is a different set up than beating.

First, don't be afraid to ease your vang and let the mainsail twist significantly. Even with a barber hauler the top of your genoa is going to be twisted off. If you over-vang your main you'll simply stall the top of it. Some twist in both sails is good while reaching.

Second, get your weight on the rail. Flat is fast when reaching in wind.

Next, don't be afraid of weather helm. Even more than you have upwind. Weather helm isn't necessarily slow on a reach.

Oh a reach, more than any other point of sail, you as the helmsman need to concentrate on steering a straight line, and the sails need to be trimmed to your direction, rather than the other way around.

[LarryE-old]

We have gone to sailing with the sails twisted off lately.
The thing that we have learned, is in reaching, looking good is not always the fastest.
I have a digital Knot meter, mounted on the removable plate for the daggerboard. This allows the main trimmer and jib trimmer to see what a change in our trim does to our speed. If you twist off the sail, we have found, we can pick up .3 to .4 per knot. Sometimes the sails look all wrong, but we are going fast, can't argue with results.

[Tigerlily]

Larry, What do you mean by twisted off?

Allow the boom to rise, or set the genoa car forward and this will enable the upper part of the sail to open up to leeward. "Twist" off. Tom

[Tim Bosma]

I expect he means increased twist. We have fpound that more twist and an open slot are the keys to speed while reaching. As soon as we can hold an apparent wind angle of 90 or higher, we have the spinnaker up!