Pointing

[Brian Dellett]

Opinion on the best way to make the Scot point the best it can?
If you know anything about Albacores hit me with that too.

[hot wheelz]

With your new, fast sails, Set your mast rake to your sailmakers specification and go sailing To get the boat balanced so one is not dragging the rudder around because of weather helm.
Pull your main outhaul on very hard.  Leave it there. Vang and Cunningham should be slack until over-powered. 
Adjust your jib halyard tension to have just a hint of speed wrinkles at the jib hanks when the Main is trimmed in upwind. 
Centerboard should be full down upwind. Always. 
Scots are wide hulls with squat, low aspect ratio rigs that are not designed to point well. They are footing machines. The pointing comes later using speed from footing. 
Don’t over-trim the jib and Keep the jib telltales flowing evenly unless overpowered in breeze. The leach of the jib should be visible in the upper main window and the top jib batten should be parallel with boats centerline. Crew should be able to ease/trim as puffs go/come As the batten angle will change with wind strength and need to be adjusted to stay parallel to centerline.  Tiny jib sheet adjustments (1/8 to 1/4 inch) make a surprisingly big change in upper batten angle.  This is critical to get right for upwind speed and pointing. 
Hike hard to keep the boat flat and feather in the puffs to point. In light air, footing off is fast. Don’t try to jam it up. 
In breeze, hike harder and drive it on the edge of the weather jib telltales, using as little rudder as possible. The rudder is a big barn door brake. Steer with the main sheet uncleated, easing a bit in the puffs and trimming a touch in the lulls, easing main a tad to drive off for speed, trimming it back to point up after speed is accomplished.  This replaces rudder steering/braking with speed steering. Once balanced with almost no weather helm when trimmed in upwind, a Scot can be steered mostly using the mainsheet and heel angle by hiking. 
If the main needs to be eased to keep the boat flat, pull on the vang as hard as you dare and hike harder to drive off for speed, then feather up to point.  Pointing only works after all the speed items are dialed in. 
Excellent commentary in these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCXzrlaD6wA
Skip ahead to 4:15 for how to point a Scot in flat water: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad3XeNkp_2Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6dsGvpBSCc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TswC-04pwAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkE4JO6xspY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX64MgHzu0Y

[Brian Dellett]

Thx We might have some heavy winds tomorrow and this will help.

[Author]

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