Sail Trim Made Simple (Part2)

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Sail trim adjustment must be made with a purpose in mind and in a particular sequence. Otherwise, the adjustments a sailor makes is similar to shifting a sports car transmission into second gear and flooring the accelerator while, at the same time, applying  the emergency brake!! Additionally, when adjusting draft depth, draft position, twist and angle of attack on the mainsail and jib all the controls for each element must be adjusted. In other words, I don't know how many of you remember the four-barrel carburetor but if you do, how would the engine run if you only adjusted two of the four barrels? Sail trim adjustments must compliment each other and work together or, like the carburetor, only half the sail is adjusted.

A sailor has to know which sail trim controls for the main and jib is used to adjust what I call the "4 elements of sail trim", which are draft depth, draft position, twist and angle of attack. ALL the sail trim controls for the mainsail and jib are ONLY adjusting those 4 elements. My book THE SAIL TRIM USERS GUIDE identifies all the sail trim controls for the mainsail and jib and explains in SIMPLE TERMS how to adjust the controls for every wind condition and point of sail. A sailor has to know how to obtain 100% efficiency from both the mainsail and jib and learn and understand WHAT happens and more importantly WHY it happens when he/she tightens or eases a sail trim control.

Follow my blog and I'll take the guess work out of sail trim.

Don Guillette
www.sailtrimproducts.com
www.sailboatowners.com (sail trim forum)
yankee3223@juno.com 

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