Typhoon new main and pointing ability

[Bob Young]

It's that time of the year to order a new sail for this season and I've been thinking about a new main. I have new headsails but the main is a relatively heavy, full cut cruising sail with three sets of reef points .

I have a pretty tough time getting 45 degrees into the wind, watching the compass it seems that working upwind as close as I can is usually closer to 50 degrees on each tack (with a 110 jib sheeting to the cabin top). Although the boat lives in the water all year the bottom is nice and clean.

Just for daysailing (three to five hours away from the dock) and mixing it up a little with the local sailors I was going to order a plain loose footed sail with no reef points (fair weather to @15 kts).

Do you think the boat should be able to point 5 to 7 degrees higher?, 40 and 45 dregees instead of 50?

I have a good boom vang but no traveler. I'm careful about correct hoist height and adjust the outhaul and downhaul for a good set in the main. Plan would be the new sail and install the traveler this summer when it is warm enough to do the fiberglass work.

I'll be 60 this summer and have been sailing since I was 16, raced alot in college. In a singlehanded race with the local racers a couple of years ago I was at least 45 minutes off my handicap of 318 after about five hours, working upwind in the narrow channel really set me back.

With good sails and best possible set-up what should I expect for pointing ability?

[Stan W.]

I'm not a Ty sailor, but I don't think it is unreasonable to expect your boat to point within 45 degrees of the true wind.

However, the problem probably lies with the trim of your new jib rather than the age of your mainsail. How tight is your forestay? Unless you're already using a Loos guage, I'll bet it could stand to be tighter. How tight is your jib halyard? For most conditions, you don't want it any tighter than the minimum necessary to remove all the wrinkles from the luff. Can you move the jibsheet lead fore and aft to adjust sail twist? If you just bought new headsails, your sailmaker should be willing to come for a sail to check things out and give you some tips.

As far as a new main, three sets of reef points on a Ty is overkill, but you definitely want at least one and probably should have two. Reef points have little if any impact on pointing. I also think loose-footed mains are over-rated, but that's just me. Talk to your sailmaker about your goals and report back with his or her recommendations.

A traveler would be nice but a vang can do most of the work of a traveler so I would focus on my jib trim situation before I worried about that.

[Dick Villamil]

I agree - the main should be the minor part of pointing ability. With my Typhoon (1976) I believe that the forestay/backstay tension, boom vang, outhaul and halyard tension are important but nothing is as important as jib/genoa track lead position and shape of the sail vs wind strength. I would certainly go with at least a single reef point.]. On my C&C 34 I have a shelf foot in the main and with the 150 can tack on 80-85 degrees in 10 kts of wind- much higher than the rest of the racing fleet. With my Ty I am happy to tack on 95-100 degrees in 8 knots. The cabin top sheeting angle for the jib gives 5 degrees higher tacking angle than the ouitboard sheet leads for my 130 genny. I live with it knowing that it is the boat design, halyard tension, rigging tension and track lead. I long ago vowed that I would enjoy any point of sail with the Typhon whereas with the C&C I expect a higher tacking angle......

[Paul D.]

I agree with the sail trim comments above. But I do think the main has an affect. When I sewed up new sails for my 1976 Ty they made a huge difference on the pointing ability and heel as well as speed. It was like new tires on a bicycle if you follow, or perhaps new sandpaper disc on a sander eh?

I put two reef points in the main and recommend it for nice trim in anything above 25knots or as was common here, gusty winds.

I enjoyed making the sailrite kit main and thought it was a good value.

Paul