NORTH SAILS BLOG

NORTH CLIENTS SHINE AT CHARLESTON RACE WEEK Fast Designs Excel In Six Divisions and Boat of the Week Travis Weisleder’s Lucky Dog dominates the Melges 24 fleet. 📸 Pricilla Parker The 2021 edition of the Charleston Race Week was a great success for North Sails clients in one design and ORC. The overall vibe from sailors was excellent, and everyone was thrilled to be back on the water sailing after a year missed. Charleston didn’t disappoint, providing exciting and challenging racing conditions on the infamous Cooper River. Solid teamwork and talent could be seen across all courses, proving that this year is off to a positive start with a solid kick-off event to welcome the Spring sailing season in North America. In the Melges 24 class, Team Lucky Dog won the event with three bullets followed by Laura Grodin’s Dark Energy in second place. Melges 24s powered by North finished 1,2,4*,5,7,8,9,10. Laura Grodin’s Dark Energy, 2nd Place in the Melges 24 Fleet. 📸 Will Keyworth Doug Clark’s Angry Baboon, VX One Winner and Boat of the Week. After the postponement of the 2020 edition, the VX One fleet was ready to leave it all on the water. Twenty-five teams from around the country arrived in Charleston for one of the most highly-anticipated events of the year. A 10 race series paired with great weather allowed for one of the tightest events the class has seen. Congratulations to Doug Clark, Rod Favela, and Emmi Triplett on the win; Chris Alexander, Madeline Gill, and James Roe in second; Michelle Warner, Reed Baldrige, and Austin Powers in third; and to all of the North Sails clients who competed. North Sails clients finished 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,and 10 in the VX One Class. Team Stampede, winners in the J70 class. The competition in the J/70 class was no different. Twenty-seven teams arrived in Charleston ready to battle for the title, the largest J70 regatta since the beginning of the pandemic. Congratulations to Bruno Pasquinelli and team Stampede for sailing a brilliant 9-race series powered by North’s F-1 mainsail, J-2+ Jib and AP-1 Asymmetric. North clients finished 1,3,4,6,7,8, 9* in the J/70 class. In the J/22 class, North clients swept the podium with Justin DaMore’s team Yem winning the series. North Clients fueled by 3Di, Teamwork, Hooligan, and FogDog also took first place respectively in ORC A, ORC B, and ORC D divisions. ORC B winners Robin Team’s Teamwork. 📸 Will Keyworth READ MORE

PODIUM SWEEP AT THE VX ONE WINTER SERIES Congratulations Chris Alexander and Team Counterproductive Twenty-two VX One teams gathered at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron for the first of three Winter Series regattas. The weekend started with practice races on Friday followed by a socially-distant onshore debrief with North experts Austin Powers and Mike Marshall. The Saturday forecast called for winds in the mid to upper 20s, but when competitors left the dock the velocity was nowhere to be found. Then, just as promised 3 minutes before the first race the wind went from a mild 7 knots to a blustery 25 knots in the span of 3 minutes. Sporty conditions made for hard work upwind, but a sleigh ride down wind with a few teams seeing 20 knots of boat speed on their instruments. The key to this race was the ability to gybe and keep the mast point towards the sky. After 1 race, the wind built even stronger prompting the race committee to postpone ashore for more favorable conditions. Unfortunately, the wind never let up ending the day with only the single race completed. Sunday blew from the 5-9 knot range with varying conditions as dark clouds passed over the course. All credit to the RC as they were able to run seven races in five hours utilizing the 3 markset bots and just one chase boat. With shifty conditions and medium length courses, every mark rounding came with emphasis on clean boat handling and the ability to separate from the peloton and find clean air. When all was said and done, Chris Alexander’s “Counterproductive” came away with the victory with North’s own Madeline Gill aboard. Second place was occupied by Doug Clark and Mike Marshall, with third place being “Tudo Bem” being sailed by Michelle Warner, Reed Baldrige, and Austin Powers. North Sails powered teams finished 1,2,3,5,6,8,9,10*. Full results SHOP VX ONE SAILS 2021 Winter Series Event #1 winners. 📸 VX One Class/Sarah Wilkinson READ MORE

LET’S TALK VX ONE Tuning the VX One for Speed Join North Sails expert Mike Marshall for the first session of the VX ONE informal web talk about sailing even if we can’t physically go and do it. READ MORE

North American Champion and North Sails Expert Mike Marshall explains how to sail this exciting sportboat well. Who sails a VX One? This is the nuts and bolts of VX One sailing. First off, VX sailors are really fun and we all have a blast sailing this boat. Even on a day when we can’t sail, we have a good time. One reason the class is gaining in popularity is that you can sail it with either two or three people, and at a wide variety of weights. Most people sail with three, and the accepted class weight is around 420 pounds. I have been in the top three at major regattas sailing with just one crew, and had great results at weights ranging anywhere from 380-450 pounds. 📸 Tim Olin What’s involved in crewing? The boat responds very well to hiking, so it’s important for the entire team to be physically fit. Pulling the spinnaker up and down is the hardest job, so put your strongest teammate in the middle. Sailing with three, jobs are divided up as follows: Upwind: the forward person adjusts the self-tacking jib and the middle crew trims main. Downwind: forward person adjusts weight (both fore and aft and side to side) to keep boat flat and fast, adjusts the jib as needed, and trims the kite during sets and douses. Middle hoists/douses the kite and trims it the rest of the time. Sailing with two, the helm handles the mainsheet and also takes the spinnaker sheet during sets and douses. Top VX speed tip? You just can’t get the boat flat enough upwind. Hiking harder will make you flatter, but if you aren’t able to do that ease the main out farther than you think, and then pull the heck out of the vang. Oh yeah, and hike HARD. What should buyers know when choosing a boat? There are two builders, McKay and Ovington. Any of the newer boats (above #150) are quite similar. Below that number, the boats are a bit heavier. You are allowed to take weight out of the keel to bring them down to minimum weight, but it’s a little extra work and there is a limit to how much you can take out. How does a VX get around on land? For just one boat, the load is light and you can pretty much tow it behind anything. It’s got an aluminum trailer, and the keel goes up and down. So you put the boat on the bunks, put the covers on, put the mast on top, and head off to the next regatta. It’s a similar load to a Lightning. If you are traveling more than an hour, it is a good idea to take your keel out. How many sails are required? Three sails, made of polyester cloth. Our goal is to keep costs down. There was a push in the class to go to Aramid, but a brand new polyester sail is going to be better than an older Aramid sail so we think it’s more important to be able to buy new sails more often. That’s also why we only offer three sail options: one main, a jib, and a spinnaker. VX One Tuning What are the keys to rig set-up? The VX has uppers and diagonals, as well as checkstays that attach to the top of the vang, and balancing the tension between them is crucial. Set your rig tension to the tuning guide’s base numbers for the conditions before leaving the dock. Once on the water, fine-tune the uppers so the leeward one just goes slack when you're sailing upwind. That gives you enough prebend, and enough headstay sag or headstay tension for the conditions. Total range is 18 turns from light air to really windy. Once I get my uppers correct, I continue to sail upwind and overtrim the main a few clicks. The overbend wrinkles should go about 50% of the way back. If they're going above the spreaders and more than 50% of the way back, I immediately put a turn or two on the diagonals. If they look okay at the spreaders, but they're going more than 50% of the way back through the window in the main, I put maybe one turn on the checks (the whole range should only be one to two turns, so if you are doing more than that, your base tuning is off). The diagonals will go through about 10 full turns of adjustment up the range. For more detail, read the Tuning Guide. And don’t just count turns; the key is to look at the main while tuning, to dial it in. Then go sailing! 📸 Jeff Westcott VX One Upwind Sailing Upwind the front person adjusts the jib sheet and car. It’s self-tacking, but sheet tension and car angle are critical to boat speed. The middle person trims the main, which also controls angle of heel. The driver adjusts vang and cunningham. Which is better, sailing high or fast? Sailing fast is much better, but the boat has to be flat. Keep the jib telltales flying 100 percent of time; don’t let the windward one dance until you are overpowered and have to ease the jib out to keep the main from backwinding. Upwind, where does the crew sit? Keep crew weight as far forward as possible. If I take three big waves over the bow in a row, everyone moves back a half body width. Otherwise stay as far forward as possible. 📸 Tim Olin How do you trim the VX mainsail upwind? Unless we’re overpowered, I trim it in until the top telltale just stalls. Once we get overpowered, mainsail trim doesn’t matter—boat heel does. Ease it out as much as you need to in order to keep the boat flat. How do you trim the VX jib upwind? The top of the upper leech should be parallel to centerline with the telltale flying 95% of the time, and the jib car should be sitting at 7-7.5 degrees out from centerline until it’s time to depower. Start depowering by moving the car halfway down the track (10-13 degrees off centerline); I like to keep the sheet on as long as possible. The standard attachment point on the clew is the fourth hole up from the bottom. In breezier conditions, move down a hole or two. Jib halyard tension is key in the VX One and should be played constantly, especially in puffy conditions. When you do have the main eased to keep the boat flat, don't overtrim the jib. If the main starts luffing, it’s backwind from the jib so it is time to ease! How do you shift gears upwind? Put the bow down and go faster! Off the starting line, it’s so hard to consistently sail the boat high and slow that you’re better off extending away than trying to pinch someone off. Shifting gears in this boat means figuring out that you’re too high and not fast enough. The faster you go, the more effective the keel and rudder are so the higher you will point. Who says what when sailing upwind? On our boat, the forward crew talks about pressure while the middle talks about boat traffic and speed. The skipper has pretty good visibility, and I don’t hike hard enough… so I can look around to decide where to go. When I sail with two, my forward crew talks about pressure and fills in my blind spots. 📸 Jeff Westcott VX One Downwind Sailing How fast is the boat downwind? It feels like you're doing a million miles an hour, but it’s also totally manageable. The boat talks to you; when it does wipe out, just let the kite out, pull the jib in, and get the bow down and the boat flat again. There are two very distinct modes sailing downwind; lower/not hiking, and higher/hiking. The higher mode is better, but harder to maintain because it requires riding the fine line of not sailing too much distance while going fast. The goal is to stay right on the edge of control. Where does your crew sit when sailing downwind? The middle crew needs to be able to see the spinnaker, so that means sitting (or hiking) on the weather rail. The forward crew gets as far forward and to leeward if necessary (in light air) to keep the correct angle of heel. It’s easy to move back too soon; wait until you’re planing and hiking or taking waves over the bow. In very light air, the forward crew can sit on the floor in front of the shrouds. Don’t drag the boat’s butt in any condition. If you ever feel like the bow is up in the air, then you're probably too far back. Under spinnaker, how much heel should be carried? Just enough to get one half of the hull out of the water, about eight degrees. It’s very similar to upwind. 📸 Chris Turner What are the keys to trimming the kite? Biggest key is to ease when a puff hits, even though the kite might curl a little. Trimming heels the boat over, which turns the boat up—the opposite of what you want in a puff. Easing frees the helm and allows the boat to pop onto a plane. In theory, the apparent wind will remain constant downwind, because as you accelerate you turn down. So don’t move the kite sheet too much. In lulls, trim a bit as the driver heads up, but be careful of overdoing it. How do you shift gears downwind? There are two modes. Displacement (under 10 knots of breeze) and planing (above 10 knots of breeze). Above 18, it’s easy to find the planing mode. From 10-18 knots, the higher mode is faster but it’s also harder to achieve. VX One Boathandling What are your top 3 tips to starting well in a VX? For the first five seconds after the gun, put the bow down and commit to getting boat speed up. If you do this, you’ll probably be going faster than the boats around you, so you’ll no longer need to sail high to keep your lane. If you don’t commit to the low fast mode, you’ll end up pinching and watching others sail away from you. While in sequence, keep a small part of jib unfurled to make it easier to tack. The jib trimmer needs to be very active. I’d love the jib to come out at 20 seconds, but realistically it’s out at around two minutes to get to the right place on line and control the boatspeed. Never slow down too much. The keel has a very short cord length, so you’ll end up sliding sideways and eating up your hole to leeward. What are the keys to tacking a VX well? Keep your crew weight forward. If you drag the stern, you’ll slow down even more. When you come out of the tack, ease both sails to keep the boat flat and powered up until you get back up to speed. What are the keys to jibing a VX well? There are two kinds of jibes: the high speed blow through, and the displacement. For the first you turn a lot faster, trying to keep the speed up. Trim the old sheet in before letting the sail blow through to the new side, and then fill it again by trimming the new sheet. It’s fast, but not conservative. For a displacement jibe, the old sheet gets eased early and you trim on the new sheet as you’re turning. You should be about halfway in on the new sheet when the main crosses. This isn’t quite as fast, but it’s a lot less likely to get you into trouble if it’s windy or your crew is not too experienced. 📸 Jeff Westcott How do you make a fast spinnaker set? Turn down 15-20 degrees lower than your sailing angle before calling for the hoist, just long enough to depower the sails and get the boat flat. Then turn back up as the kite goes up. If you hoist while the boat’s heeled, the tack will fall in the water and you will shrimp. The middle crew hoists, using legs rather than arms, and it should be fully hoisted with 2-3 pulls. The forward person trims the sheet until it’s handed over to the middle crew. If you have to stay high to maintain a lane, ease the main to get the boat flat before hoisting. What are the keys to a good spinnaker takedown on the VX? Pass the sheet to the forward crew so they can keep it filled right up to the douse. The middle crew pulls on the douse line; the first two pulls are easy, but once the bulk of the sail reaches the snuffer (usually on the third pull) it gets a lot harder. Try to adjust your first two pulls so that you’re just beginning the third when it gets hard; that way you can use your legs and have more power. On any takedown where you have to get the sheet around the headstay, I like to grab the weather sheet and pull it back until the clew is just behind the headstay on the windward side. That helps the kite land in the boat, not in the water. How do you recover from a broach or capsize? I haven’t done that yet! Fingers crossed! But the boat talks to you… so when you feel the rudder cavitate, ease the main to get it under control. If you don’t catch it in time, luff the kite while trimming the jib until the boat is back under control. Any recommended boathandling drills? Setting and dousing are the two hardest boathandling moves. Practice with an older kite, and work on the timing of the pulls as well as the direction that the bow is pointed. Also practice stopping and starting. Getting up to speed quickly can make (or break) your starts. One good check is at what speed on your Velocitek you loose flow on the foils; try to never get below that on the starting line. The coolest thing about the VXOne class? The people! The boat is an absolute riot to sail, but it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t have fun people to sail against. No matter where you are in the fleet, you’ll be crossing tacks and jibes with someone who will be sharing their war stories over a beer back on shore. Everyone is just so excited about going sailing and having fun. 📸 Jeff Westcott READ MORE

VX ONE TUNING GUIDE RELEASE Get The Most Out Of Your VX One North Sails is proud to release a complete Tuning Guide for the VX One class. The new guide was based on six months of tuning and practice, leading up to and including the 2018 North Americans in Charleston, South Carolina. North VX One experts John Bowden, Jackson Benvenutti, and sail designer Mike Marshall worked together to develop the guide. The base rig tensions and turns for each step have been adjusted as well to keep the mast bend better aligned with the sails. Language has been added to the guide to clarify the way that sails should be trimmed and the boat should be sailed in all conditions. “The new base numbers in the tuning guide were the ones that our team used to win the VX North Americans in Charleston. They help to better depower the boat in heavy air and power it up in light air.” – John Bowden. While we can’t guarantee you immediate victory on the race course by following this guide, we can assure you that you’ll be taking a big step in the right direction! Open Tuning Guide READ MORE

This guide for the VX One has been developed through extensive testing, tuning, and practical racing experience by some of the top sailors in the country. New changes in the class and developments in sailcloth and sail design technology continue to bring about improvements in the VX One’s performance, and North Sails is an important part of these innovations. While we can’t guarantee you immediate victory on the race course by following this guide, we can assure you that you’ll be taking a big step in the right direction! BOAT SETUP Step Position The mast butt should be in the pin the 3rd hole from the aft end. Make sure you are in compliance with class rule: C.9.3 Mast Centering To aid in centering the mast laterally in the boat, place a pencil mark just in front of the shrouds on one side of the shear line. Measure from that mark to the front of the boat and make a mark the same distance from the bow on the opposite side of the boat. Then hoist a tape measure on the jib halyard and measure to these pencil marks. Adjust the upper shroud lengths correspondingly on each side of the boat until the mast is centered. Be sure to adjust the intermediate shrouds as well, maintaining a straight mast (sighted up the back of the mast). Base Mast Tune Setup To set the base rig tune, use a PT-1 Loos Tension Gauge to check tensions on the cap shrouds and intermediates. First adjust the uppers to 28 on the tension gauge. (The check stay should be slack throughout the cap and intermediate shroud setup process.) Then set the intermediate shrouds to 11. (Be sure to go back and double check the uppers and then the intermediates in the process because they will both change when you tension or de-tension one of them.) Finally, once the uppers and intermediates are set, tension the check stays with the tension gauge on the intermediate shroud. You are looking to tension the check stays until they start to affect the tension gauge reading on the intermediate shroud. If you measure the check stays with the tension gauge once they are set, they should register about a 6. Check that you have developed the proper pre-bend in the mast (positive bend) by pulling the main halyard taut to the gooseneck. The distance between the back of the mast and the main halyard at the spreaders should be close to 2.25”. Adjusting the Rig For lighter winds, you need to loosen your rig tension to allow for more headstay sag, which will create a more powerful jib. The lightest wind settings should be 2 steps down on the tuning chart at the end of this tuning guide. This chart generally follows a 2:1 ratio of turns for the caps: intermediates. In heavier winds (above 19 knots), much more tension is needed to maintain proper forestay sag and mast bend. In the 19-20 knot breeze range, the upper shrouds should be tensioned to 3-4 steps up on the chart. Note that the 2:1 ratio shifts here to a 1:1 ratio. ON THE WATER Tuning References The visual method given here is our suggested way to set your shroud tension for all crew weights and in all wave and breeze conditions. We feel that it is not only a relatively simple technique to use, but also the most accurate way to achieve proper and consistent rig setup in the VX One. Set your rig tension so that the leeward upper shroud just starts to appear slack – not sloppy, but just not taut. Start out close to the upper shroud tension suggested in the chart below for your best guess of the present wind velocity. When sailing upwind under proper sail trim, watch the leeward upper shroud, and if it has a great deal of “wiggle” (more than a ½” back and forth), tighten both sides equally until the leeward upper is again just starting to go slack. If the breeze lightens, or you start out too tight (no wiggle at all), back off both uppers equally until a slight wiggle just appears. The intermediate shroud tension is checked by trimming the main and jib to the proper position upwind and looking up at the main. Sheet the main about a 3-5 clicks of the mainsheet block tighter than what your normal sailing position should be. If the intermediate shrouds and the check stays are correct, you should see overbend wrinkles in the main that start just below the spreaders and go towards the clew. If the wrinkles start above the spreaders, your intermediates are too loose. If they start well below the spreaders, your intermediates are too tight. The wrinkles should extend from the luff of the sail just above the check stays about 50% of the way back towards the clew. If they extend farther than that, your check stays and intermediates are too loose. If they extend only 30-40% of the way back, your check stays and intermediates are too tight. In full cunningham conditions, it may be hard to see the overbend wrinkles, so try letting the cunningham off a little to get an idea of where the wrinkles are. MAIN TRIM Mainsheet Trim the mainsheet hard enough to make the top batten parallel to the boom. You can check this by sighting from underneath the boom on a lateral plane. Once you’ve accelerated and you want to point higher, trim harder to cock the top batten slightly to windward. We generally recommend sailing with the top leech telltale stalling 75% of the time. In flat water, you can trim harder, but in light air and choppy water, you’ll need to ease the mainsheet ( there should be no vang) to twist off the top of the main so that the top batten is eased open about 5-7 degrees from parallel. In heavy air, the mainsheet is the gas pedal. It isn’t important to keep it in tight and stall the telltale; it is more important to use it to control the boat’s heel angle. If you are heeling more than 5 degrees, ease the main, flatten the boat, and then trim back in. At times, you might find that the main is over the leeward corner of the boat. That’s OK if the boat is flat. Downwind, you are looking to once again be using the main to keep the heel of the boat correct. In light air, you want to have the main eased enough so that with any more ease it would be luffing because of the spinnaker. When in doubt, tighter is better than looser, and you should always feel pressure in the mainsheet. Outhaul You can use the outhaul for power in the bottom of the mainsail because outhaul tension primarily adjusts the shape in the main’s intermediate third. A looser outhaul increases lower leech “hook” and adds fullness. This can aid pointing ability as well as increasing power. A tighter outhaul flattens the lower sections of the main, which helps to minimize windward helm and reduce drag. Remember that in flat water and light winds a flatter sail is fast, whereas in chop, a slightly fuller sail is needed to give the necessary punch. A good guide for tensioning the outhaul is the distance between the side of the boom and the middle of the foot of the main. In heavy winds, the outhaul should be tensioned tightly so that there are about 1-2 finger widths between the boom and the middle of the foot of the main. In choppy conditions or when power is needed, ease the outhaul so that there is about a 3-finger gap. Never have the outhaul any looser except while sailing downwind, at which time it can be eased so that there is about a 4-4.5 finger gap. Cunningham The main cunningham is used to position the draft of the sail. Aim to keep the maximum draft point close to 40-50% back in the sail (sighting from luff to leech). In up to 10 knots of breeze, you need very little cunningham. In 11-12 knots, use just enough cunningham to remove many of the wrinkles in the main. And as winds rise above 12 knots, progressively tighten the cunningham to remove all the sail’s wrinkles (a smooth luff) and maintain proper draft position in the top of the sail. Downwind, the cunningham should be off completely. Vang The boom vang is a critical control in heavy air because it helps to hold the boom down and maintain leech tension when the main needs to be eased. This helps the boat point upwind. In light air, the vang should be just snug until the boat is consistently heeling more than 5-7 degrees. As soon as you start having to ease the main, the vang should be pulled tighter and tighter the farther out the boom is off centerline. Max vang occurs when you can’t pull it any farther and the boat is heeling more than 5-7 degrees with the boom over the boat’s leeward corner. Downwind, the vang should be eased so that the top of the sail is twisted and the leech telltales are flying 100% of the time. The windier it is, the more vang you should be easing downwind. JIB TRIM Jib Sheet Proper jib trim upwind has one of the greatest effects on speed and pointing. Usually, the biggest mistake most VX One sailors make is over trimming the jib sheet. This sheet is normally trimmed so that the middle batten is straight aft parallel to the boat’s centerline. In light wind and/or sloppy conditions, ease the jib sheet so that the middle batten is angled outboard 5-7 degrees. Also, in breezy conditions, ease the sheet for more twist in the leech. Generally speaking, the jib leech telltale should be flying but just about to start stalling. In the bigger breeze, however, this telltale will be less likely to stall because the jib is eased. Note that trimming the jib harder for short periods of time (where the middle batten is slightly hooked to windward of parallel to the centerline) is only effective in “ideal” boat-speed conditions (medium winds and flat water) because it narrows your steering “groove.” In heavier air, if the main is luffing in order to keep the boat flat, the cause generally isn’t from the wind coming across the boat, it is from the wind coming off the jib. If the solution of dropping the jib car to leeward in the puff isn’t effective at stopping the main from luffing because the car is consistently more than 75% of the way down the track, the jib sheet might have to be eased slightly to twist the top of the jib open. Once the main is trimmed back in, the jib sheet can be trimmed in as well. Downwind, the jib should be furled in only the lightest of breeze. As soon as you are moving well, the jib can be out with the sheet eased. A good rule of thumb is to trim the jib sheet so that the middle telltales on the luff of the jib are trimmed correctly. This means that the bottom ones might be too tight, and the top might be luffing, but the trim is optimal. Halyard The jib halyard tension is key in the VX One and should be played constantly, especially in puffy conditions. For light and medium breeze conditions, the jib halyard should be set so that slight wrinkles emanate from the luff, extending back no farther than the first radial panel in the sail. As the breeze increases, these wrinkles will become less and less visible as the halyard tension is increased, and they should disappear at about the same time you are halfway into the vang. As the wind continues to increase, use more and more jib halyard tension. To get maximum tension for survival conditions, turn the boat downwind, and the middle crew should then pull the jib halyard as hard as possible. Clewboard The starting jib clew position (called the “standard position”) should be the 4th hole from the bottom of the clewboard. In lighter air, you might use the 5th hole from the bottom, and in heavier wind, you might use the 3rd hole. The clewboard position is not the main driver of jib shape as much as the sheet tension is. Car The jib car should be high enough on the track that in normal sailing conditions, with the jib trimmed correctly, you just start to see a little bit of backwind on the luff of the main. This is about 5-7 degrees from centerline for light-air conditions. In heavier wind conditions, you should move the car down 2-3 degrees more to stop the backwind, but you should also rely on easing the jib sheet. Sailing with the jib car all the way down for prolonged periods of time to stop backwind in the front of the main is not fast, but it can be dropped to leeward for 1-2 seconds to stop the main from luffing and recover from major puffs. SPINNAKER TRIM The general rule of spinnaker sheet trim is to allow 3-4” of curl in the luff of the spinnaker. In light air, the sheet should be being played constantly. In heavier air, you will find that the sheet is more constant, and the curl is dictated by the driver turning the boat up and down to make the heel angle correct. The most important trimming technique in light air is to concentrate on good communication between the helmsman and the spinnaker trimmer. The goal is to sail as low as possible while still maintaining good pressure on the kite and good boat speed. When the puff hits and the boat accelerates, use that speed to head further downwind. Once the puff subsides, you will have to turn back up to power the boat back up. An easy way to monitor this is to assess the tension on the sheet. It’s important not to sail too high, which translates into longer distances, but also don’t sail too low, or you’ll sacrifice boat speed. It is important to remember that the fastest way to sail downwind in a VX One is with a constant apparent wind angle. This means that when the boat is going faster, the true wind can be further behind the boat, and when the boat is going slower, the true wind must be further forward on the boat. GENERAL BOAT TRIM Upwind The fastest way to sail the VX One upwind is with 5-7 degrees of leeward heel and with the windward jib luff telltale at 45 degrees up while the leeward luff one is streaming straight back. In light air, you might have both telltales streaming, while in heavy air, you might have the windward one lifting straight up, but no more than that. Keeping the boat moving fast is critical because that makes the foils work more efficiently and translates into height. The harder you hike, the faster you go, but at some point you just can’t hike any harder. That’s the time when you will have to start easing the sails to keep the boat flat. Once again, the temptation may be to pinch to keep the boat flat, but that’s simply not fast! Even at the same point as the boats around you, you can still be slower than they are. Match their speed before you match their angle. With increased boat speed will come more lift from the foils and therefore more point. Downwind Downwind, you should sail the boat with 5-10 degrees of heel. Be very conscious of crew weight placement fore and aft. In light air, you should try to sit far enough forward that there is smooth water coming out from behind the boat, not gurgling water. In heavy air, you should sit farther back once you’re on a plane to keep the bow out of the water. You are looking for the bow to be consistently 4-6” out of the water in heavy breeze. The VX One is a blast to sail. So as always, don’t forget to have a blast out on the water! WIND SPEEDKnots CAP SHROUDS(# of turns from base) INTERMEDIATE SHROUDS(# of turns from base) CHECK STAYS(# of turns from base) 0-8 -2 -1 -0.5 8-10 (BASE) BASE (28 on PT-1) BASE (18 on PT-1) BASE (11 on PT-1) 10-12 2 1 0.5 12-14 4 2 1 14-16 6 3 1.5 16-18 8 4 2 18-20 10 5 2.5 20-22 12 6 3 22+ 14 7 3.5 Note: This tuning is for the boats with Southern Spars masts. For the boats with CST masts, the base tune for the cap shrouds is 30 on the PT-1. Everything else remains the same. CREW WEIGHT: 430 lbs ANGLE CAR POSITION SHEETING ANGLEKnots DISTANCE FRM CENTERLINE(# of turns from base) 5 degrees 193 SWEET SPOT 260 7.5 degrees 290 10 degrees 386 READ MORE