MACGREGOR 26 M, Owner'S Instructions Manual

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When sailing across the wind or into the wind, try to sail a con-
stant leaning (heeling) angle. If it leans too much, sail into the
direction from which the wind is blowing (called “heading up”),
relieving some pressure on the sails. If the boat starts to stand up
straighter, steer away from the wind direction (called “heading
down”). The wind will hit the sails at more of an angle and cause
the boat to lean more, and you will get more power. This helps to
keep the sails at the proper angle to the wind. A leaning (heeling)
angle should look about like this when going into the wind in an
8 mph wind.
Proper leaning angle in 8 mph wind
APPARENT WIND. This is tricky, but important. The wind that
the boat feels is actually two winds. The first is the wind that
moves across the water, that creates the waves and makes flags
stream downwind. (This is called the true wind). The second
wind is the wind produced by the speed of the boat. If there is no
true wind, and your outboard pushes the boat at 5 mph, you and
the boat will feel a 5 mph wind coming right at the front of the
boat. (This is called the apparent wind).
If there is a 10 mph true wind, and the boat is going straight into
it at 5 mph, you and the boat will feel a 15 mph apparent wind
from straight ahead.
If there is a 10 mph true wind, and the boat is going with the wind
(downwind) 5 mph through the water, you and the boat will feel a
5 mph wind at your back.
If there is a 10 mph true wind, and you are powering at right
angles to the wind at 5 mph, the situation is more complicated.
The wind the boat feels will be a combination of the two winds;
the true wind from the side and the wind created by the motor
from straight ahead. The apparent wind will appear to come from
about 60 degrees from the side of the boat. It takes trigonometry
to calculate the exact apparent wind speed and direction. Looking
at the wind vane is easier.
The sailboat has only a small brain, and only feels the apparent
wind, and this is what it must sail in. The apparent wind will
determine how the sails are to be trimmed, and how the masthead
wind indicator will point. It is the wind you must use to sail. But
the complexity gets worse. As the speed of the boat changes, and
as the true wind speed gusts and eases, the apparent wind strength
and direction will change, and you have to keep trimming the sails
or altering course as the changes occur. You don’t have to, of
course. You can just get it close enough to enjoy the ride. But if
you want to sail like a superstar, you will have to keep tweaking
and adjusting for perfect trim all the time. This wins races. (You
can learn to sail quite well in a matter of hours. But it will take a
lifetime to master all of the subtle little intricacies.)
Another complexity. As you pick up speed, the wind from the
front of the boat increases, and the apparent wind will come more
from the front of the boat. Actually, the apparent wind will now
be stronger than the true wind, so you have more usable wind to
sail in. With each new change in wind speed or boat speed, you
will need a new sail trim.
When you watch the telltales on the jib and the streamers at the
rear of the mainsail, you will notice that the top ones don’t always
flow in the same manner as the lower ones. This means that the
sail is not at the same angle to the wind at various heights. Wind
blows harder as you go higher, and there will be a different appar-
ent wind (and wind angle) up there. (This is because the friction
of the earth and water slows wind down at low levels.) You may
see the upper mainsail streamers trying to hide behind the main-
sail, and the lower ones flowing nicely to the rear. This means that
the top of the sail is in too tight. The boom vang controls this.
Loosen the vang, and watch the upper part of the sail sag outward
away from the wind. Tighten the vang, and it pulls down on the
boom and pulls in on the upper part of the sail. When the vang is
set right, all the streamers will behave the same. Fortunately, sail-
cloth is a bit stretchy, and the top will usually sag off just about
enough to match the angle change caused by stronger winds high-
er up.
The jib has no boom, therefore there is no vang. But you can use
the position of the jib sheet pulley on the deck track to control
twist. If you move the sliding pulley forward on the track, the top
part of the sail will be pulled in tighter. Move it to the rear, and
the top part sags off downwind. Move the jib pulley on the track
so that all of the telltales flow the same. If the top one on the
upwind side flutters before the bottom one, move the pulley for-
ward. If the bottom one is the first to flutter, move the pulley to
the rear.
When sailing upwind you can also tell how you are doing by
watching the forward edge of the jib. As you point the boat up
into the wind, the leading edges of the jib will start to flutter and
collapse inward. Turn away from the wind until the fluttering at
the front part of the sail stops and the sail appears full. Try to steer
the boat so that the front of the jib is just on the edge of starting to
flutter and collapse. You will notice that the telltales start flopping
around just as the sail starts to flutter in front of the telltales. The
telltales and the fluttering are both giving you the same message.
The jib halyard must be very tight, or the sail will sag between the
snaps on the forestay. This is a most common problem for begin-
ners. The mainsail halyard should be tight, but not so tight as to
create vertical wrinkles at the leading edge of the sail, parallel the
mast.
The outhaul, mainsail halyard and jib halyard should be tighter in
heavy air to flatten the sails, an loosened in lighter wind. In gen-
eral, you want a very flat sail in heavy wind, to kill off some of its
power, and very full and baggy sail in light wind, when you need
all the power you can get. The fuller the sail (baggier) the more
the power.
There are light lines sewn into the rear edge of each sail. Adjust
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