What is the best way to find the perfect spot for harness lines, and to mark it on the sail for future reference. I noticed that the north sail brand of sails have a sweet spot marked on their sails. I reckon it a great feature. wish it was on all my sails. How do you work out were that sweet spot is?
Rig it, sail it, and feel it in. Start with the back buckle 1/3 back from the mast and the front one a hand width closer to the mast.
when you can sail no hands with the sail sitting perfect,or until there is even pressure on both hands but not alot pressure.
They should put that on all the sails.. North are a ideas company allways one ahead just wish they made there sails stronger and i might buy one.. the rest of the north gear on the market is unreal like there i-clamp booms, 3 piece masts and xt-r shox
don't have the harness lines done up too tight on the boom, so when your out sailing they tend to find the sweet spot themselves
A good rule of thumb for sails sizes between 5 and 7.5 m is to count back the sail size number with the width of your palm on the boom from where the boom meets the mast. e.g for a 6 m sail you would set the front harness line about 6 palm widths back. You can then do the rest of the fine tuning on the water but a lot of sailors use this as a good rough guide to set the lines. Then space the back harness line about another palm width back from the front line. The only limitation with this method is its only really accurate for between about 5 - 7.5m sails
Use a piece of elastic rope, 2m in length put a loop on end and a knot 1/3 along it. Attach the loop to the outhaul, stretch it to the front on the mast. Where the knot lies is 1/3 along the boom, and that a good starting place for the back strap of the harness line.
In subplanning conditions it will probably feel to far back, but once powered up it seems to be perfect.
