For all of you who are launching and sailing your new Swifts for the first
couple of times: Let me start by telling you that sail management on the
Swift is different from many other sailboats. If you are having problems,
please give me a call or send me an email. Taking advice from non skiff
sailors is
often counterproductive. Sailors of skiffs without cap shrouds are also
likely to give you information that may be less than helpful.
The hardest thing for me to overcome was the mantra âset the boat up for the
lullsâ. This is very good advice for double handers but really poor advice
for the Swift. You will find that it is much easier to power the boat up
once a race starts than it is to de-power. If you are underpowered, you will
be
bending your knees from time to time and can easily pull on more vang and cap
shroud tension. Additionally, you can step on the board and push it all
the way down during a tack and you can find time to move the jib pins in on a
tack or the downwind leg without giving up much. On the other hand, when you
are overpowered, it is difficult to bend in and adjust things without giving
up a lot of speed. The centerboard (daggerboard) is a lot harder to pull up
than to push down and tacking when overpowered requires getting right out on
the new trapezeâleaving little time to do anything else without giving away
a lot of distance and risking getting caught in irons.
A couple of concepts that will help:
The Cunningham on the Swift induces mast bend without adding much leech
tension. The outcome is a flat mainsail with a soft leechâvery good for
heavy
air. Increasing Cunningham will increasingly flatten and soften the leech.
The vang on the Swift will tighten the leech while only marginally
flattening the sailâvery good for light-medium air when you are looking for
power. If
your main is twisting off too much and providing too little power, pull on
some more vang
The lower shrouds adjust mainsail fullness as well. Loosening the lower
shrouds will flatten the main and make it easier to sail in gusty conditions.
Tightening the lowers will increase power for those conditions when you can't
quite stay out on the wire.
The cap shrouds can cause much confusion. They work essentially the same
way as the lowers. The problem stems from the false conclusions you reach
while adjusting them without the sail loaded (on your cradle for instance).
With
no load on the main, it is easy to conclude that tighter caps lead to a
flatter sail. Wrong. The reality is that only the windward cap shroud is
tight
when actually sailing. A tighter windward cap will pull the must tip to
weather making the main fuller-not flatter. Tighten the caps when you need
more
power.
The primary shrouds are used to keep the forestay tension under control and
to induce compression bending on the mast. Compression bending on the Swift
Solo is much less important than on skiffs with lower spreaders so
essentially we are talking about forestay sag. In conditions when you are
looking for
more power, reduce primary tension a bit. For less power, increase primary
tension. This is fairly important for racing but probably the least
significant of the adjustments on a Swift
The jib halyard/downhaul is used to move the jib up and down on the forestay
(tightening and loosening the leech) and to tension the luff. Tensioning
either control will tighten the luff. If you pull on more halyard, you will
tension both the luff and the leech. If you pull on more downhaul, you will
tension the luff while loosening the leechâgood when the wind increases.
The jib track adjustment controls the width of the slot between the main and
the jib. In wind conditions between 5 and 14 knots the pin should be in the
second hole (from the center). If you have made the other de-powering
adjustments and are still overpowered, move the pins out to the third holes.
In conclusion if the wind is above 8 knots, leave for the race course with:
1. a little more Cunningham than instinct calls for
2. looser caps than you might need
3. looser lowers than you might need
4. more jib downhaul than time going to weather may show is appropriate
If the wind is above 12 Knots, leave for the race course with:
1. The jib pins in the third hole
2. a bit more primary shroud tension (maybe 25)
3. the centerboard pulled up 4 inches
4. a lot of Cunningham
Sail to weather before the race starts and add power in this order until you
feel fast:
1. move the jib pins in to the second hole
2. push the board down all the way
3. let the Cunningham off a bit
4. pull the caps on a bit
5. adjust the jib halyard/downhaul so that the telltales break top and
bottom at the same time
It may seem like I've forgotten the vang. With the Swift's mainsail, you
will likely find that, once the vang is set, the Cunningham loosens and
tightens
the leech automatically as you adjust it for more or less breeze (if you
think about it, pulling on more Cunningham bends the tip of the mast aft,
flattening the sail and loosening the leech and visa versa).
If you have any questions, please ask them since this is a bit more
complicated than many other boats. Do remember that without these adjustments
and the
auto-sheeting system on the main/jib, the Swift would be very difficult to
sail. If you have the boat set up with too little power, you will be bending
your knees more than necessary and going a bit slower than you should be. If
you have it set up with too much power, you will be working very hard and
going really slow. When in doubt, error on the side of too little power.
Best regards,
Bram
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