Matthew, I've never been convinced it's worth the effort particularly for short downwind legs. For a long downwind distance race I'd definitely consider it. And, to clarify, it's pretty much a dead downwind (DDW) tactic. No reason to do it reaching. And, to answer your question, easing the backstay only gets you partway there.
There are several things to consider. First, moving the masthead, and thus the chute forward, moves the sail plan and thus the center of effort forward. Moving the COE forward eases the load on the rudder and makes it more effective. A more effective rudder will require less angle, and therefore less braking, when steering. So it's faster. You could also move the COE forward by easing the halyard. In light breeze and DDW, we often sail with 2-3 feet of halyard exposed. That is, with the head of the chute 2-3 feet from the masthead. However, do NOT ease the halyard in heavy breeze. That will result in the chute oscillating side to side and might create an uncontrollable situation. It also separates the chute from the main. Projecting the chute out from any turbulence from the main is a good thing. The second reason is to create a bit of upward flow on the top of the main sail. I have read this but am fairly unclear why this helps. Perhaps another lister can explain. Using a fraculator (defrapilator, whatever) is a really fine tuning tactic. At least a tertiary trim. I would not recommend using one with less than a fairly experienced crew. For the casual sailor, trims can be classified as primary (sheets), secondary (vangs, halyard tensions, outhauls) and tertiary (perhaps head sail inhauls/outhauls, leech lines, etc.). Probably more than most wanted to know about fraculators but since you asked........... Dennis C. Touche' 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA On Tue, Sep 25, 2018 at 2:13 PM Matthew L. Wolford via CnC-List < cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > Sorry about the confusing description. I’ve never heard of a > defrapilator, but I think you may be on to something. In your view, does > pulling the masthead forward with this contraption increase speed enough to > warrant all the messing around? Stated another way, isn’t just relieving > the backstay and letting the chute pull the masthead forward good enough? > > >
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