MacGregorSailors.com

OK, I know what they are, but my question is can you overdo it? Is it silly to have too many of them?
They can be positioned at the leech, or the luff. The foot or the head. On whatever sail, you'd like!

Seeing your s'posed to adjust the lift center of the sail, fore and aft, with a healthy dose of outhaul, cunningham, uphaul or boom traveler - what's the point of limiting yourself to just a few?

Any experienced voices out there?

Google Translate can't translate from AUS to ENG... what do we in the northern hemisphere call a Wing Ding?

You know ... the little ribbon thingy attached to the sail side.
(Edit: (To monitor the air fleau))

Oh... telltales...

Like I said!

Can't have enough tell tales. Google Arvel Gentry and read any of his papers about using telltales and "gentry tufts". I put a window in the jib and 3 pairs of telltales in the window. Sailing upwind means keeping all of those telltales streaming.

I also have telltales along the luff of the jib. The top telltale is a good indicator of whether you have the sheet fairlead correctly set, The idea is to move the lead block until the topmost windward telltale is streaming along with the lower telltales. If you move on and off the wind all of the windward telltales should break at the same time.

The leech telltales on the mainsail help you set twist. Start with the top tell tale streaming and then adjust outhaul, vang, mainsheet so that all the others are streaming too.

That is a simplistic description on how to use them. The more you read about them, the more you'll see how useful they are. Even the big racers trim their sails by them.

I have added a few along from front front to back to compensate for the disappearing act of the luff telltales when the sails are furled. Vertically I think 3 is enough. I will ad some ribbons to my stays however as it's hare to see the vane when the bimini is up.

When I shopped for, and applied six to my previous boat's mainsail (three on each side of the luff) I remember coming across quite a lot of variation in fabrics, lengths and attachment methods. Is there a preferred length for the sail sizes a MacGregor uses? Wouldn't a very light fabric give a better flow reading, or am I splitting hairs on something very basic?
Someone at our last marina had his main luff festooned with a TELLTALE (!) just about every foot up the mast. It looked like a Christmas tree and left a piece of adhesive behind every time one detached - which looked to be pretty often! I'm very reluctant to punch holes in my gear to use the other type found on the market.

I just got the stick-on ones. I don't think 10 would be any more useful than 3. Just makes it look ridiculous

I like the thinnest ribbons. I also keep Static Gard on board to keep them flying.

<crazytalk>
So how about drilling some tiny holes in the mast at 1' intervals along both sides of the mast slot, seal the mast head and foot, and then use a smoke machine with a hose connected to the base to pressurize the mast with smoke vapor any time you push a button on the helm.

Then you get perfect streamlines all along your mainsail any time you want. You'll see exactly what's going on with the wind, and nothing will be visible when you're not using it.

www.smokemachines.net
</crazytalk>

Would one of those smoke shop vaporizers do?

mastreb wrote:<crazytalk>
So how about drilling some tiny holes in the mast at 1' intervals along both sides of the mast slot, seal the mast head and foot, and then use a smoke machine with a hose connected to the base to pressurize the mast with smoke vapor any time you push a button on the helm.

Then you get perfect streamlines all along your mainsail any time you want. You'll see exactly what's going on with the wind, and nothing will be visible when you're not using it.

http://www.smokemachines.net
</crazytalk>

I'm calling Larry Eliason now.

1 inch intervals all the way around to make sure you study the entire flow field

Better yet, buy a laser to do it