Trimming your sails

Since the principle means of locomotion on a sailboat is the sails, it is important that you take full advantage of the “trim” of the sail.  A poorly trimmed sail or sails, means that you are not moving as well through the water and wind as you might, and  it also means that you are probably not having a peaceful sail.  A sail out of trim is noisy, almost as if it were screaming, “Please use me to your full advantage.”   

luffing noisy sails

Sailors have a number of tools at their advantage to assist with trimming sails, electronics, mechanical and probably the most advantageous – yarn.  Yes, a piece of well placed yarn becomes a “tell-tail.”  These placed on the rigging or a sail help the person at the helm check their sail trim.  Tell tails should stream directly back.  

The captain of the boat that I sail on is the master of sail trim.  He isn’t happy until every sail that’s up is trimmed as perfectly as it can be.  He will squeeze every ounce of speed out of the sails, by making certain that they are perfectly trimmed.   At first he tries to engage us in his flurry of activities, but eventually he simply amuses himself because we have grown bored.  Once he has achieved perfection, a shift in the wind will require an adjustment in the sails, and I refer to this as “crank it in and let it out.”  You have to crank in the sail with a winch, and if you crank it in too much, you have to let it out.  Letting out is difficult.  So you crank in delicately, attempting to stop at just the right point. 

beautiful sailing

Sail trim is similar to how we navigate through life.  When we are out of whack with our guidance system, we tend to be noisy, whiny creatures.  We may seek the comfort of others who are equally out of trim, because all those requiring attention can feed off one another.  We really don’t go anywhere, sort of just drift about.  When we are trimmed out, our bows cut through the water, silent and speedy, following the course that has been laid out for us.  Here’s the catch, you don’t stay in trim.  What was a perfect sail configuration yesterday won’t be the same for today.  We have to constantly adjust our sails, paying attention to both the wind and the water. 

 

Katie boat at the dock at sunset