Sailing Close Hauled

Tom:
Sailing close hauled is one of my favorite points of sail, because I come from 8 yrs of dinghy racing, then 10 yrs of J-35 racing, so I love to sail upwind. I will say, getting a Packet to sail upwind is NO EASY TASK! Here are the keys I have learned.
1. No cutter, it is pointless upwind unless used to steady the boat in high winds say 20-30 off the bow motoring. It will not help you sail upwind.
2. Jib car position is KEY. Basically, forward for reaching and aft for beating, then adjust as needed to power the head of the jib. If the top is liffing, then move the car forward a little.
3. Main sheet tension...TIGHT as TIGHT can be and not above centerline. No need for vang upwind as the sheet will do all the work.
4. Jib sheeted close to spreader tip, this is the limiting factor on how tight you can sheet the jib. For me, with 135% I sheet it to 1-6 inches off the spreader tip, upwind and with my jib car all the way aft.
5. Tell Tales on the aft edge of the main, 3-4 of them up the leech. This will show you if the main still has attached air flow on the BACK SIDE of the main as the air flows off the sail. If these tells are not streaming aft, then the main is over sheeted, or traveled up too high. The main sheet tension is key to sailing upwind and these tells show you if the main is flowing with the air that is being driven into the slot by the jib.
6. If you see the jib top aft, leech luffing, when sheeted in fully then your car is in the wrong position or you are too high. Keep working this car position until the jib leech breaks evenly top to bottom, this is key.

Now, set sail on the autopilot to wind vane mode and let the boat stay in the groove. We can set this to 40 degrees in normal winds, 10-20 knots true, and up to 37 degrees with winds 25-27 knots true close hauled. The boat will be tracking about 50 degrees off the wind due to the full shallow keel.

Reef the main first, keep the jib full as long as you can. We can sail close hauled up to 27 knots true wind speed with a reefed main. Once we see 30 knots close hauled true winds, we need to reef the jib down to 110%. Still close hauled we can sail this up to 35 knots true wind. Over 35 knots we reach off to 120 degrees wind angle and furl the jib downwind when the boat is doing 8 knots. Then we turn back upwind on the reefed main, roll out the staysail and with a staysail, and reefed main, we can keep sailing 35 knots upwind. It is not comfortable, and if at night, we will drop the main and motor the staysail into the wind with the wind vane set to 20-25 degrees. This is exactly what we just did offshore from Atlantic City, NJ to Block Island in 35 knot winds from 2100hrs to 0300hrs all night long!

So, sailing upwind is great, I am always amazed at how well an IP will sail upwind when set up right.

Here is one of my most proud IP moments, when IP35 Island Spirit beat a Sabre 42....and we had OLD sails....Check out this photo essay proof!

www.ipyoa.com/photos?view=album&aid=1297

Hayden, in Boothbay Harbor, Maine