Benson Sails for Flying Scots
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Tuning Guide
Comments on Benson Flying Scot Sails
(Please contact us for the current 2002 prices.)
Main - $590
Jib - $270
Spinnaker - Contact us for latest prices
Because every adjustment affects several others, it will take several
rounds of changes to reach optimum performance.
Rig tension: quite tight. Shackle the jib halyard to the bow
handle, tighten firmly, and then put the pin in the tightest possible
hole in the adjuster.
Mast rake: start vertical, but recognize that this will most
likely be changed after other adjustments.
Mainsail:
The Benson main is designed with the shape all built into the sail,
and the luff cut to fit the mast. It should assume its optimum shape
in medium wind with very little tension on any of the control lines.
Usually when the sail is quite smooth, it is near to optimum tune.
The exception is in strong wind when heavy sheeting and/or vang
tension induce mast bend; then there will be diagonal wrinkles from
the center of the mast towards the clew. Sails from other makers are
typically too full in the lower half and need a lot of outhaul tension
and perhaps some vang (for mast bend) to pull them flatter. Often
their tuning methods are keyed to counting wrinkles, which won't work
with the Benson sails. The guide below is for the Benson main in
medium wind.
Halyard: raise sail to full height, but do not stretch the
luff. If you see any hint of a crease parallel to the mast, then ease
the halyard immediately or you may damage the sail. On the other
hand, the wire halyard tends snug up around the winch while you are
sailing, easing the halyard. Thus you may need to retighten the
halyard after sailing awhile (when you notice the head has come down
from the top of the mast). Sometimes it may be quicker to tension the
cunningham to take out the slack at the bottom rather than the
top.
Cunningham: You will not normally need the cunningham to shape
the sail while it is new. After some aging and stretch, the draft may
move aft. Then the cunningham may be used to bring the draft back
forward.
Outhaul: upwind the shelf foot should be just fully open.
Tension the outhaul until the center of the foot just starts to be
pulled towards the boom, and then ease it slightly.
Vang: should not be tight in medium air.
Mainsheet: pull in the mainsheet until the upper leech telltale
stalls occasionally. Any lower leech telltale(s) should always
stream.
Jib: Tension the halyard quite tightly. It helps to guide the
wire into even coils on the winch drum while raising the jib. Still,
the halyard always slips while sailing (the inner coils tighten up
around the drum) and must be retensioned. You may notice the need
first when the leeward shroud is slack going upwind.
The cloth tension is preset in the loft using the lashing to the wire
thimble at the head. After a season's hard use, it may need to be
readjusted.
Usually the fairlead must be fully forward on the track. Adjust the
sheet so that the area near the clew is parallel to the boat
centerline while the windward sheet is tensioned such that the clew is
pulled to about the center of the seat. This means that the air will
be exiting the bottom of the sail straight aft. Now look up at the
slot. The rest of the sail should twist off to leave a fairly open
slot between the leech and the mainsail. You should be able to
visualize the air leaving the jib and flowing smoothly over the main.
If the slot is too small, move the fairlead aft, readjust the sheet as
above (clew area parallel to centerline) and look again at the slot.
If the slot is too open, move the fairlead forward. Repeat several
times. Now note the jib telltales as the boat is slowly turned to
windward. It is acceptable either that all of the windward telltales
start to flutter at the same time, or that the top one flutters
slightly before the others. If the top one flutters after any of the
others, move the fairlead aft and/or ease the sheet.
Next sail to windward with minimum heel. Check the position of the
tiller; it should be 2 to 4 degrees to windward (forward end about 3
inches above the centerline). If this is not correct, you must change
the mast rake and start over. Neutral or lee helm is corrected by
raking the mast aft; excess weather helm is corrected by removing
rake. The adjustment most affected by changing the rake is the jib
fairlead position. More rake will require that the lead be moved
forward and vice versa. Still you must go through the rest of the
tuning procedure to determine the amount. Once the boat is in balance
with the small weather helm, it will be a pleasure to sail. Note that
weather helm is strongly increased by heel, so try to sail quite
flat.
Once everything is in balance, mark (magic marker) your jib sheets so
that proper initial settings can be reproduced. Note that for the
same proper jib shape, the sheet will need to be tighter in heavy air,
looser in light air.
Very light wind: Ease the mainsheet so the end of the boom is
over the rail. Sit to leeward and heel the boat until the rail is
quite near the water. Hold the jib clew in hand and try and keep the
slot open. Flatten the main with the outhaul.
Heavy wind: Try to keep the boat flat by hiking hard. As this
becomes impossible, try these in the following order: Tighten the
outhaul to flatten the main (you may need to use the cunningham to
move the draft forward, but do this very carefully). Ease the
mainsheet early in puffs before heel gets excessive (anticipate). The
vang may be used to try and bend the mast to flatten the sail, but
then the top will not twist off (reducing heeling) when the sheet is
eased. This "vang sheeting" method may work well in moderate puffs,
but in really big puffs it is better to let the top of the sail twist
off. With any technique, it is very important to not overload the
rudder with excess weather helm. The flat plate rudder stalls very
easily when pulled more than a few degrees off the centerline, and
then produces a lot of drag.
Reaching without spinnaker:
Trim the jib to keep all telltales streaming. For a very broad reach
the leeward telltales should be at the edge of stalling.
Trim the main to keep the leech telltales streaming. Use the vang to
minimize twist. Check for correct twist by pulling in the sheet (or
bearing off) and checking whether the upper telltale stalls at the
same time as the middle one. If it stalls later, tighten the vang,
and vice versa. The outhaul can be eased to increase camber, but
remember to retension it for the next upwind leg. You will lose much
more distance by forgetting to tighten it for the beat than you will
lose by failing to ease it for the reach. For a broad reach, trim the
sheet so that the leech telltales are at the edge of stalling but
still streaming consistently.
It is often effective to raise the centerboard a bit when close
reaching, and a lot when broad reaching. If you do this, adjust the
board height such that the tiller is centered when the boat is going
in the desired direction. You can practice this technique by firmly
holding the tiller centered, and steering the boat by raising and
lowering the centerboard.
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Benson Sails/bensonsails@bensonsails.com
/revised June 2002