Florida Sailing Video - Flapping Jib and tuning help

I've been getting out pretty regularly in Central Florida. Good consistent wind good for learning to trapeze. Was looking for some tuning tips and suggestions.

https://youtu.be/1I5_GFfgiII

A couple things I've been struggling with.
Flapping Jib (no matter how tight I make it). I'm in the middle hole
Traveler settings. All the way in for lighter winds?
Dropping the main sail rope when trapping. This one has gotten me a few times when I go to sheet in I accidentally drop the sheet and hold on!

Appreciate the feedback.

I can only take a quick look at the video since I'm at work, so kind of hard to see. Is your jib halyard pulled on tight so that the shrouds are not slack? Are your battens snug? With everything rigged and on shore, travel the jib all the way in, sheet in hard. Are you able to reach block to block before the sail is tight? If so, move the tack up the adjuster plate until it is. Now push along the foot and leech, do they feel equally tensioned? If not, move the shackle on the clew plate until it is. A little flapping is normal, especially when you are not sheeted in snug. It is worse with older or worn sails. I had major problems with my jib doing the same thing when I purchased another boat and swapped some parts over. I also had a terrible time pointing well. I rigged exactly as all the instructions say, but still something was off. After hours and hours of reading, I decided to checked the foot/leech tension while under way. I poked my head around the back side of the sail and noticed the leech was blown way out (and flapping pretty good), while the foot was snug. Turns out I had new side shrouds, low profile blocks for max mast rake, but old bridle wires. I was connecting the tack as low as possible, however being the old bridle wires, the entire sail was sitting way too low, and ran out of adjustment on the clew plate to provide equal tension. I ended up pinning quite a few holes up and all is good now.

** Also make sure your sail is connected to the jib luff wire and that it is tensioned properly, I was told tighten it just enough so that the wrinkles are out. my sail was missing the shackle, so it was free floating on wire.

Just taking a quick look also at the video it looks like the leach of the jib is the source of the flapping. You might try to use the top hole in the jib clew to see if you can't get that under control for some pleasure sailing. What has happened though is the sail is old and stretched out so that last bit of the sail is going to be free to pretty much do as it pleases and you may not be able to get rid of that annoyance in all conditions without springing for a new or newer jib. You may be able to find a sailmaker to tune it up, but unless that is cheap a new sail makes much more sense.

As far as the traveler, that is all wind condition and crew weight based. If you are trying to sail as high as possible to weather generally you want the traveler centered or just off. As the winds build, once you can't hold the boat down, instead of sailing around with the mainsheet out generally you want to travel out a bit and sheet the main back in. You will find in most gusty conditions keeping the main flat by sheeting in and traveling out will give you both more speed and "height" as well as more control as compared to traveling in and sheeting out. Also in really light winds there can be some benefit to dropping the traveler sailing upwind.. but again it is all very conditions based. Don't be afraid to pull some lines and figure out what you like.

Tending to the mainsheet, especially in wavy and windy conditions can sometimes feel like a full time job. I can't tell if this would work with your shoes or not, but I sail with 'foot glove" shoes (if any) so that I can trap the line between my toes. Or sometimes I will "put it in my pocket". You just have to play with that and figure what works. Often I will just flip it over my foot and let it drag the water, depending on exactly where I am traveled/sheeted to and what exactly I am doing with the boat.

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All the way in if you are traveling upwind, regardless of being lighter wind, you want the sail angle to the centerline of the boat as small as possible. Generally, you travel out the farther off-wind you travel, just look at your jib telltale and travel out or sheet out to accommodate your heading. Travel way out when going downwind. Try not to go straight downwind, it's slow, but instead zig zag just as you would beating to windward. A full sail gives the most power and speed up to a point, but as wind speed increases and you become overpowered most of the time, you have a lot of options to depower. Sheet in both sails hard to flatten the sails. Rake the mast back farther if your setup allows. Pull on the downhaul hard if you have have one with blocks, this will also make a flatter sail. a 6:1 setup allows pretty extreme downhaul. traveling out depowers, try traveling out the jib first, all the way if needed, then follow with the main. Never travel the main out further than the jib is traveled, this can choke off the mainsail due to the restrictive gap between the two sails. A good indicator is the main sail puffing out near the mast in moderate to heavy wind, this is bad. It's not apparent, or may not be visible in lighter wind, but the problem may still be there.

Depending on port or starboard tack, what I do is keep the line on the side of my front foot, farthest away from my body, and as little slack hanging as possible. If I end up with too much line that it's hitting the water, for example after I sheet in a lot, I whip the slacked line back onto the tramp, almost like gently snapping a whip, this flings the extra line back to the boat where it belongs. Some say they step on the line to hold it, but I'm not comfortable with that.

Hope this helps.

Nice video. Living the Florida life. What part of central Florida are you sailing if I may ask. Thanks, Steve C.

The fluttering leech on your jib is mostly the result of it being a “well used” sail. Not a whole lot you can really do about it. You could send to a sailmaker to have the sail recut, but that money would be better off just going towards a new sail.

The other thing you could do would be to reduce the “stackup height” of your jib blocks. Use the smallest possible shackle that will fit for attaching the jib blocks to the clew (it looks like you’re using a carabiner which eats up a lot of space). You can also look into using smaller diameter jib blocks on the clew to save some space. And last, you can switch to a more modern, lower profile, jib cleat arrangement - again to reduce stackup. All of this will allow you to sheet the jib a little tighter putting more tension on the leech to reduce flutter. It will also allow you to carry more mast rake which has additional benefits.

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I’m sailing out of Cocoa Beach, FL on the inter coastal waterway.

Thank you for all the advice. The sails are definitely well used I should’ve mentioned that. I believe they are originals so it makes sense they are stretched out and nearing the end of their life. I figured they’ll make good learning sails for now. I will look into converting over to low profile jib traveler blocks and get rid of the carabiner clip. See where that gets me and report back.

I like the idea of temporarily holding the line with my foot that seems like it will work. Most of my issue was not having enough hands for what I wanted to do. I was also thinking about getting some gloves as my hands have been getting tired since I don’t like to lock the rope in when I’m trapezed our in case of a heavy gust flipping me over.

Looks like it’s time to look for some new sails!