Coaching & Tuning -The Pickard Way

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RS200 Sail Controls -by Ian Pickard

RS200 Sail Controls – how hard should you pull?!

In the last RS Newsletter we looked at “static” rig set-up, in terms of spreader length/deflection, mast rake, rig tension, etc. Now it’s the turn of the “dynamic” rig set-up, in other words, the bits you can change on the water while sailing or between races. I apologise if this is a bit of a dry subject, but I’m sure there’s some good gossip and funny photos elsewhere in the newsletter!

As with the static set-up, there’s no “one size fits all” approach to adjusting the rig while sailing. Different people sail in different ways, largely depending on the all-up crew weight. The way I’ll try to get around this is to look at three sample wind-strengths:

- LIGHT: crew down to leeward, helm not hiking
- MEDIUM: helm and crew hiking, but no need to spill wind
- STRONG: helm and crew hiking hard, spilling upwind and planing downwind

The actual wind strength for each will vary with your weight, but the settings should be similar. The controls I will cover are mainsheet and jibsheet tension, jib fairlead position, jib luff tension, centreboard position, mainsheet bridle length, and obviously kicker, outhaul and cunningham.

We’ll start with sheet tension. The mainsheet is relatively straight forward, in that it should always be sheeted in far enough that the sail is full, but never over-sheeted. One way of checking this is to add extra telltales halfway across the main at quarter, half and three-quarter height. Trying to keep all of these streaming on both sides at all times is a good guide to mainsheet tension, and also helps with kicker tension off-wind (more on that later). The exception to this is when you’re overpowered upwind, when the main should be eased as far as is necessary to keep the boat flat. It may sound and feel illogical, but in a real blow it’s quicker to have the boat flat and only the back 50cm of the main filling than having more of the main filling but the boat heeled over.

Correct adjustment of the jibsheet is critical and makes a huge difference to performance, especially upwind. It is very easy to over sheet the RS200 jib, which closes the slot between the jib and main and destroys the flow of the wind over the entire rig. The photo shows good jibsheet tension, where the jib leech profile parallels the shape of the mainsail. It’s fairly easy for the crew to check this in light/medium wind so they understand how hard to pull the sheet in different conditions. Tape or whipping twine on the jibsheets just above the fairleads provides a reference point for the crew to judge sheet tension. Downwind the jib is more important than on other asymmetric boats, as the RS200 kite is relatively small - sheet so the middle telltales stream.

The position of the jib fairleads is less critical than the jib sheet tension. A couple of holes from the back is a good average setting, but they can be moved all the way back if it’s really blowing to reduce power. Jib luff tension is another useful adjustment to make – almost slack in light wind on flat water, increasing tension as wind strength increases or in waves. It is adjusted using the thin string at the tack of the jib – less tension means a finer entry for better pointing, but more tension increases power and drive.

I tend to leave the centreboard down at all times, except upwind if it’s howling when it can be raised about a third to balance the helm and reduce heel. However, I have recently sailed with crews who have raised the centreboard up to halfway downwind in lighter conditions. If done correctly this seems to enable the boat to sail a lower course. The downside is that the boat is twitchier and less stable, and a crash gybe can go horribly wrong!!! Most people seem to favour a long mainsheet bridle, so that the boom is totally on the centreline upwind when the sheet is tight. This is obviously the fast way to sail for most teams. However, in common with a few other “tellytubbies”, I sail with my bridle set a little shorter than average. This means that I can use the mainsheet (rather than the kicker) to apply tension to the mainsail leech in light/medium conditions – the kicker bends the mast, flattens the sail and reduces power, which we “tellytubbies” don’t want to happen until it’s really windy :o)

The remaining controls are best presented as follows:

An alternative means of judging kicker tension is by letting the front edge of the main begin to lift or flap. It should all lift at the same time but, if the top by the RS200 logo lifts first, you need more kicker tension. Three sail reaches are an exception to the above settings when, if you’re overpowered, you should pull the outhaul on tight, ease the kicker (to prevent broaches due to the boom catching the water) and pull the cunningham on tight. If you’re still overpowered consider flapping the jib and most of the main, but make sure the kite never flaps.

I am often asked “what is maximum kicker tension?” but haven’t got a good answer as my settings are the result of many years of trial and error. Someone recently suggested that this could be worked out by rigging the boat ashore on a light wind day and, with the main sheeted in, pulling on the kicker until the bottom batten begins to invert. Repeatable settings are important, so some form of calibration is useful. This is easy on the outhaul and cunningham with a mark on the rope and marks on the mast/boom. The kicker can be calibrated with tape or whipping twine at 2-3cm intervals on the fixed part of the cascade, measured by the position of the control line block on the end of the cascade.

To finish, I’ll explain some of the logic to the above settings.

In light/medium conditions the kicker must be used carefully. On deck-stepped masts like the RS200 (i.e. without deck-level bend control of keel stepped masts like the RS400, Lark, etc.) without lower shrouds, kicker tension bends the mast … a lot! This flattens the sail and reduces power, as well as tensioning the leech. Unless you’re a really light team, you don’t want to lose too much power in light/medium conditions. Hence it’s better to use the mainsheet than the kicker to tension the leech in lighter conditions.

In medium conditions a tight kicker can be used for short periods to increase pointing, but this will affect speed. Less kicker should be used in waves than on flat water, to maintain drive over the waves. The outhaul controls the power in the bottom third of the main, but has little effect higher up – the effect and settings are fairly obvious. The cunningham has the effect of pulling the maximum depth of the mainsail forward, and it reduces tension the upper leech around the top batten. Some helms use cunningham tension in medium conditions and above, but I feel it closes the slot too much. Hence I only use the cunningham when I’m overpowered (upwind and on tight reaches) when it is very useful to in opening the upper leech of the main, spilling wind and reducing power from the top of the sail and hence reducing heeling.

I hope this is reasonably clear and helpful. If not, grab me at an event or attend an RS Association coaching day and I’ll try to show what I mean using a rigged boat.

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