To achieve the flatter shape higher up the main without a permanent backstay it is necessary to ease main halyard tension until small wrinkles start to form from the luff. This, combined with pulling the traveller up the mainsheet track and easing the sheet, will flatten the section (chord depth) of the sail (Figure 13).

As with all rules there are, of course, exceptions, and in this case one is when there is more sea than wind, as in a dying breeze. This is when a little more draft is warranted, but accompanied by an easing of the mainsheet to induce more twist and by pulling the boat off to "foot" through the water for boatspeed.

Foot tension should always be eased to make the sail as full as possible when reaching, unless in a fresh breeze.

Looking next at the cunningham. First, always hoist the main to the maximum height possible on the mast (unless this over-tensions the luff) as the lower down the headboard is the stiffer the mast will become - and what is the use of more mast above the sail than necessary? The luff of the main should be stretched just tight enough to remove lateral wrinkles (otherwise as explained in very light airs). As the breeze freshens it will be necessary to apply cunningham tension (or gooseneck down) to maintain this state. As the breeze freshens further, more tension still needs to be applied to help induce mast bend yet keep the draft in the for'ard part of the sail.

Pulling the luff tight enough to induce a crease up the luff of the main before going out on a fresh day puts slack material up against the mast, leaving the mast free to move for'ard in the centre without restriction. The mast will bend only as far as the sail will allow before severely distorting the sail if the pressure is great enough and the mast soft enough.

When the boat starts to become overpowered, ease the mainsheet traveller down the track. This should be done before easing the mainsheet. At this point the mainsheet should be quite hard, bending the mast and flattening the main. If you ease mainsheet it will simply create more drive in the sail and mean easing the sheet still further till the main flogs.

Once having reached the limit of the mainsheet traveller and providing the boom is strong enough, put the vang on hard and ease the mainsheet further. This will have the effect of a longer traveller. By keeping the mast bent and sail flat, the boat will stand up longer before you have to start reefing. Tight mainsheet or vang also helps keep the forestay tighter, thus reducing heeling force.

In addition to luff tell-tales I like to put another ribbon (like on the main) about a quarter way down the leech from the head. By keeping this flowing in light airs, a clear airflow is maintained over the lee side of the main which, as mentioned earlier, keeps the upper mainsail leech telltales working. Basically this tell-tale indicates (in light airs) the amount of twist required in the head of the jib (Figure 15).

In some trailer yachts where the jib barely overlaps the mast (such as the Farr 6000), pulling on the weather sheet allows the clew of the jib to be barber-hauled to weather, decreasing the sheeting angle and putting more drive in the lower part of the jib while at the same time twisting the head off. In very light airs I prefer no barber-hauling, but in light to moderate breezes a reasonable degree of barber-hauling is a definite advantage. This needs to be coupled with some easing of the leeward jib.

As the wind freshens, the barber- hauler is released and sheet tension increased, reducing chord depth in the sail and controlling excessive twist in the upper leech of the jib.

Jib halyard tension is also critical and if you haven\'t a winch, a trucker\'s hitch (Figure 16) will do the job. Always tension the halyard enough to prevent scalloping between the jib hanks, thus giving a fair flow off the luff of the jib. If you overtension, a crease will appear up the sail on the luff edge.

Because of the nature of the rig - i.e. forestay kept reasonably straight by mainsheet tension - it is usually necessary to induce this crease when running downwind so that when coming hard on the wind with the forestay taking some sag, there is enough luff tension to prevent scalloping between the hanks. Better to overtension than undertension as it is easier to ease off than increase tension.

With an overlapping genoa, some backwinding of the main will be inevitable in moderate and fresh breezes. So long as the main is kept flat low down this must be accepted, though the rules of mainsheet trim still apply. The mainsheet traveller will still be dropped down the track to keep the boat upright even though this will increase the backwind rather than reef.

With a fractional rig, once the main is reefed the de-powering effect of the bending of the unsupported topmast is lost, the mast becomes stiffer and the mainsail fuller. However, once the boat becomes overpowered, even with the use of all trim adjustments mentioned previously, reefing becomes necessary to keep the boat on a reasonable angle of heel. If the genoa is full hoist on the forestay, a cunningham eye is necessary in the jib to further tension the luff.