Getting to windward

[Dennis Williams]

First a quick intro...Dennis and Heather the new owners of "Tiptoe" sailing out of Whangarei NZ.
We bought Ian Alan's beautiful Cape Cutter "Tiptoe" No.??? (someone please give me a sail number) just about a month ago and have been enjoying getting to grips with her. Of course today is our first day of summer downunder in New Zealand which helps.
Jumped straight in at the deep end and joined in the trailer sailer racing most weekends..good way to get into the Cape Cutter we thought.
Ok, now to the nitty gritty. No trouble with speed compared to other more racey yachts until a long beat. Seem to get in the groove and can foot quite well but 10 degrees lower. Everything I read says gaffers don't point but no real explanation is given, it's just historical statements, no science. Boom angle, gaff angle etc etc?
Anybody suggest how to improve windward performance. Perhaps sail selection is wrong
I know the Cape Cutter isn't really a racing yacht but its quite satisfying learning to sail a gaff cutter this way. Now where does that string go?

Dennis and Heather

[erbster]

Gaffers don't go well to wind, but the cape cutter is quite high peaked, so is pretty good.
I find in lighter winds that it is easy to over sheet. If it's light, you can roll tack pretty nicely too
The boat will go well with some heel; it's just a case of getting the sail nice and smooth, though we don't have the controls (or the sail materials) to get Mylar smoothness.
In a tack, I let the staysail back itself, which helps bring the nose round quickly, and then release the sheet and quickly snap it on the new side. This also provides a nice "slide" for the Genoa/Yankee to slide across (less likely to snag); I find I lose a lot of ground with a slow/clumsy tack.

Hope I'm not telling you how to suck eggs....

It would be lovely to see some pics of your boat in action.

[Dennis Williams]

Thank you erbster,
I have been studying the gaff rig hoping to improve my performance especially to windward. It's all new to me so I have lots to learn and every little helps with so many tweaks and adjustments to be made. Christmas holidays coming up so will hopefully have time to try various sail combinations and angles in different wind speeds.
Lots of questions coming from this end but will try to put them in the appropriate forum.