Basic Sail Twist

Most novice sailors don’t think about sail twist, they just know that pulling in the sheets makes you go faster and letting them out slows you down.

In low wind situations we need to get the most power out of our sail so we try to make it rounder, with more draft so it will generate more lift. Conversely, when it gets very windy, we need to de-power the sail or else we spend the whole day with an eased sheet and luffing sails. We can de-power the sail by making it flatter and also twisting the top of the sail to allow some air to ‘spill’ out.

Using either/and/or a Boom Vang, Traveler, Cunningham, Outhaul, or Fairlead, we can adjust the shape of the sail. If you have an adjustable Backstay, tensioning it will de-power both the jib and main sail in one motion. For the purposes of Novice level explanation, we will only discuss the basics here. The video explains the concepts of twisting the sail to reduce the power.

Notice the telltales on the leech and how they are flowing aft correctly, the windex is indicating a close-to-beam reach angle.