Upwind Mainsail Trim: Shaping your Sail, Part 2 - Camber

Welcome to our video series on upwind mainsail trim, presented by SailZing.com. Today's topic is Camber, which is part 2 of the unit on shaping your sails. In this series we're distilling lots of technical material into clear explanations using a visual approach.
Here are some links to our website related to camber:
Lift and Drag - Prevent Common Sail Trim Errors sailzing.com/p...
Velocity Made Good sailzing.com/v...
Here's a link to a free download of sail measurement software from SailPack
www.bsgdev.com/...
Thanks to Will Hendershot for photos and his help in preparing this video. Material was gathered from A Manual of Sail Trim, by Stuart Walker and Illustrated Sail and Rig Tuning, by Ivar Dedham.
Visit SAILZING.com for much more content to help you to sail faster and smarter.
Stimulating Learning for Sailors. SailZing.com
Our mission is to provide the quickest and easiest path for racing sailors to improve their knowledge and skills.
Sailing Education
Follow us:
/ boards

[@davidncw4613]

"Treasure-like content，thank you so much for sharing!" Agreed!

[@SailZing]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@dieselzheng8641]

Treasure-like content，thank you so much for sharing！

[@SailZing]

Thanks for visiting

[@alehuneeus]

Great material, appreciate the depths you reach in these topics!

[@SailZing]

Glad you like them!

[@bugstream]

Great video, thank you !

[@jfly609]

Thank you
Very educational and understandable

[@SailZing]

Thanks for watching!

[@chsemaphor]

Very good, thank you!

[@SailZing]

Glad you liked it!

[@FastForwardSailing]

Great video chaps

[@SailZing]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@wilfdarr]

Thanks for making this!

[@leviharper6797]

In the very light air condition, which control or controls would you use to reduce the camber to maintain leeward flow over the sail? I'm assuming you would use outhaul first and maybe a little vang instead of mainsheet to maintain some twist in the sail. Also, considering often there is greater wind above the surface, would you aim to have more camber in the top of the sail relative to the bottom? Thanks really enjoying your videos.

[@TheDesertSailor]

The summary on the last slide contradicts the slide at minute 7:06... I am confused. LIGHT air. Increase or reduce camber??

[@RomainLagrange1]

Landing is light wind (low speed) with high camber to prevent stalling (higher lift), and you also intentionaly create more drag to slow the plane during descend, when gravity would speed you up. Pilot would reduce flap if his flight is too short for landing, cause it nearly work as a air break.
Also remember, it's the sail camber in this vid, not the mast camber. Increasing the mast camber reduce the sail camber which can confuse your crew :)

[@TheOlandex]

Great content - thanks for sharing!
You mentioned "aggressively" reducing camber when overpowered. Would you consider reefing as part of that strategy? And if so, I assume you'd recommend reefing early? Of course, this is in the context of cruising not racing.
Thanks!

[@SailZing]

I don't have experience with reefing, but yes - anything you can do to reduce power is good. I have had racing sailors tell me that they tried a smaller racing sail (cut smaller than the class limits) in big breeze and were able to hang in with the heavier crews that kept their bifg sails up.

[@RomainLagrange1]

reduce the camber for a puff (try to be proactive before the puff), but take a reef if the constant wind already overpower your boat.
For cruising, you would want to be always a little underpowered, so the puff or gall are not too scary for your crew. This will also save power for the autopilot.

[@matthewmontanari6824]

why call it camber when sooo many people call it draft?