Ian Short’s Sail Trim Guide

[Ozzie]

https://ianshortsails.com.au/sail-trim/
The above link may be on here somewhere, but not sure. Anyway as we have some newer sailers this Australian site is concise and very readable guide to understand your boat. The guide pic below could be printed and laminated if you wish even stuck on your bulkhead as a quick reference to sail trim.

As a suggestion make a copy yourself directly from site as this may be of a lower resolution.

A word here from a personal perspective, reading a guide is a great resource but it’s probably important to get an understanding of why your doing the things the guide says. So think of the guide as explaining where you are moving the forces acting on your boat. Some sailing books show the centre of effort as a big oval shaped shadow on the sail which is how I try to think about it. The reason being if you think like this the guide is quickly unnecessary as you are sailing by the seat of your pants. I’m really not much of a sailer from a technical perspective BUT I sailed a windsurfer in my early 20s. During that time I knew SFA about points of sail and and centre of effort etc. it wasn’t till after I got Spritzig II at the tender age of 49 that something I read mentioned relating adjustment of sheets relevant to moving a sail forward and back on a sailboard. Suddenly it made a shipload more sense. Because I don’t often bother with the finer points of trim I don’t understand them as well but my favourite trick is to bungee the tiller straight ahead trim the sails, then sit on the cabin top or front deck and steer the boat using the occasional grabbing of the sheets . Just like having a windsurfer with a bed, stove and head below

I’m sure more experienced sailors will have a better take on this but I’m always a student so chime in and I’ll learn too.

[Geoff]

You're a champ Ozzie, that's gold for a newbie like me. I don't doubt that there are variables, but when you know almost nothing a cheat sheet to base off is terrific. Thanks mate.

I reckon your laminating idea is beaut, I'm doing that.

[Ozzie]

Happy to be of service Geoff. It’s not the experience that matters it’s just enjoying the experience. I find a lot of parallels between music and sailing. I have played with some fairly top notch musicians, some people would know, but I’ve also seen a lot of joy and commitment from three chord balladeers. Some have made a career out of it. That’s the perspective I teach music from and approach sailing . Most things we do can be enjoyed at many levels. Fun is not the enemy of perfect not by a long shot.

Bloody raining here and I was working on a new mast light >£%#~*

Somewhere over on TSP I posted “Ozzie’s four
Levels of Human Activity “ if you’re bored look it up