Mainsail Archives

Tag Archive for: Mainsail

How to Trim the Mainsail – Traveler or Mainsheet?

October 5, 2024/by Grant Headifen

The traveler and the mainsheet work dynamically together. Sail like a pro by properly trimming the mainsail using the mainsheet and traveler.

The Chicken Gybe (Jibe)

November 18, 2022/by Grant Headifen

Sometimes in sailing it’s smart to stay safe and not take the dare. The safe maneuver is called the chicken gybe (jibe).

A Stopper Knot in Time Saves…

October 5, 2022/by Grant Headifen

For a beginner or advanced sailor, a properly tied stopper knot will always keep your line accessible and in its proper place.

Names of things on the mainsail

September 21, 2015/by Grant Headifen

Included below is a fun and interactive image that includes the names of things on the mainsail of a sailboat. Take a look at the image and test yourself and your knowledge of the mainsail. Do you belive you can get 100% of the names correct? Click on a letter to expose the proper name […]

Essential Reefing a Sailboat Tips

August 29, 2012/by Grant Headifen

A good sailing tip would be to reef your boat early before the wind hits but even more essential reefing tips are embedded in this recent sailing event in Sydney Harbour, Australia. You can’t visit Sydney with out a sailing trip out on the harbour and Matt Hayes, owner of Sydney by Sail charter company […]

Reefing a Sailboat – HTML5 Animations

August 28, 2012/by Grant Headifen

Just posting here some fun and helpful animations of reefing the sails. The animation below represents where sails must be lowered. In the case of the headsail, it needs to be replaced with a smaller sail. Remember, the higher the number, the smaller the sail. This specific one represents where the boat is fitted with […]

When to reef a sailboat

December 7, 2011/by Grant Headifen

While all sailboat designs are different and will sail optimally at different heel angles and reef points, there are a few generalities that we’ll cover in this sailing blog. General reefing point number 1 through infinity: Don’t scare the beegeebees out of those on board by heeling the boat over too much. While you may […]

Twist in the mainsail

September 14, 2011/by Grant Headifen

Here is a question from a student regarding letting out the main traveller in a gust. I referred them to this post https://www.nauticed.org/blog/sailtrim/stopping-rounding-up-dead-in-its-tracks/ which talks about moving the traveller upwind and letting out onthe mainsheet to increase twist at the top of the sail and thus reducing the forces aloft. >>>>>>>> Greetings from Northern Michigan […]

Reefing a Catamaran

September 10, 2011/by Grant Headifen

Here’s a question from a student. >>>>>>> Grant, I would like some clarification on the steps taken to reef a main sail on a cat. I’m going out on a 48ft cat and prob want to reef the sail before i go out…. Do i reef it while at the dock or in the water […]

Trim the main sail

September 8, 2009/by Grant Headifen

When learning to sail the main thing we’re excited about doing is getting the boat moving, but as we become more advanced, we really want to understand the different forces on the boat and maximize the efficiency. Proper understanding of sail trim can help us achieve that. This post is a good example of exactly […]