Notes from Peter Alarie Tuning Clinic, Seattle.

Alarie's tuning matrix is based on the design of Danger/Ullman sails, which presupposes a mast step to transom distance of 10 feet, 1 ½ inches (measure from hull skin at transom to the back of the mast track). By contrast, the North Sails tuning matrix presupposes that this distance is 10 feet even. Don't waste your time with the North numbers, move your mast step to 10 feet, 1 ½ inches (if necessary), and use the Ullman matrix. (Nobody is currently sailing at the top of the fleet with North sails and numbers).

Spreaders are measured in terms of "poke" and "deflection". Measure from the centre of the mast track out to the shroud wire to get "poke". Place a straight edge across from spreader tip to tip, and measure from mast track to this straight edge to get "deflection". Base numbers should be 16 to 17 inches of poke, and about 7 inches of deflection. As a (VERY) rough guide, pull the trapeze wire to the chainplate, and sight to the spreader. The shroud should be about 1 inch forward of the trapeze wire, and extend 1 inch beyond the trapeze wire.

Poke of spreaders is adjusted in ½ inch increments, and it's better to have the poke too short than too long. Poke controls the middle of the mast "popping" laterally as you ease the main sheet on a beat. Sheeted in tight, the mid-mast (around the spreader) should be bowed to leeward, meaning that the tip of the mast will be bent slightly to windward (thus powering up the tip). As you ease the main sheet, the mid-mast should centre. Ease it more, putting the boom out toward the lee quarter, and the mid-mast should "pop" to windward. This means the tip will fall off to leeward (thus depowering the tip). The skipper can check all this by passing the helm to the crew on the wire upwind, and sighting up the mast as he eases the sheet. The vang must be tightened for this "popping" to occur - the vang induces the pop.

It's more important to get the mid-mast to pop to windward as you ease the sheet (depowering the tip), than it is for it to pop to leeward when close hauled (powering up the tip), so set the spreaders accordingly.

The mast must be straight when sighting up the sail track in the parking lot. Use uneven shroud tension to accomplish this if the mast is bent. It is much more important for the mast to be straight than for it to be centred in the boat (so forget the tape measure test from rail to rail).

To set up the ram, make a scale from 0 to 10 on a piece of masking tape, each whole number corresponding to a 1/4 inch increment (0 is at top). Then pull the shrouds "just tight" (ie. strum them, and get about 1 ½ inches of wave vibration). Then set the rake to 25 feet 8 inches. Pull the ram down just enough to straighten the bottom of the mast completely (very little tension on ram purchase). Now the skipper sights the position of the ram car on the track, and crew tapes the scale there so that it lines up with 7. This will get you onto the Hamelin tuning matrix. Stick to the Hamelin numbers, but the theory behind them is that you use the ram to "roll the bubble" of the fore/aft bend of the mast, so that the bubble (apex of the curve) is roughly centred at the spreaders. If there is too little ram, the bubble will be too low (the apex of the mast curve is too low), and the top 2/3 of the mast (or thereabouts) will be too straight. With too little ram, the bottom of the main sail becomes too flat (depowers), while the tip is allowed to power up (because the top 2/3 of the mast is too straight, the sail becomes too full higher up). When you rake to depower, be sure to keep pulling the ram down (according to the matrix) to keep the "bubble" constant in the same spot on the mast.

To sheet the jib on a beat: sheet in tight, and then ease out in ½ inch increments once the boat slows noticeably. Use the jib leech telltale to help find this point. Rig the boat with a shackle holding the sheet to the jib clew (not a knot) so that you are always pulling the sheet to EXACTLY the same spot each time. One quarter inch sheeting increments are very significant, in terms of maintaining the "slot" between the jib and main. Mark your jib sheets (tape, coloured thread, etc.) so that you know exactly how much sheet tension you are using - it's almost impossible to adjust sheet tension by 1/4 inch unless the sheets are marked. Have the crew sit on the leeward side (on a light air day) and sight up the slot to spreader height while adjusting the jib sheet by 1/4 inch at a time. You'll be amazed at how much that small an adjustment changes the distance from jib leech to spreader. Note that as you rake, the jib must be tightened to maintain this slot distance. Alarie and Hamelin depower exclusively by raking - never by allowing sail twist.

The centreboard should be calibrated in 1 inch increments, with 0 being straight up and down (or forward of that if the board is designed to be forward canted, like the new high-aspect boards). Stick a scale on the head of the board facing aft (ie. facing up when fully retracted), so that as you retract the centreboard, the numbers start to show out of the top of the centreboard trunk. The scale will be measured 1 to 15. Each one inch adjustment of the centreboard is a significant adjustment, but not less than that. On a 3 sail reach (from close to beam), leave it all the way down unless you're overpowered (the boat is "tripping" or "sticky"), then pull it up one inch at a time. On a "split run", retract the board completely, but if you can "wire run", then leave it down as far as you can (0 or maybe 1 or 2). During a 2 sail close reach, retract the centreboard to 6 (as not much power is needed), the vang should be the same tension as a beat, and the crew plays the mainsheet from the wire.

Depowering rule - "rake early, rake often". Check the tuning matrix, but Alarie was suggesting that we go to 25' 6" as soon as it was blowing over about 10 knots ! (This must depend on crew weight to some degree, but the idea is that upwind you shouldn't need to be easing the sheets too often in the puffs - there's a "happy medium" that Alarie is trying to accomplish. Depowering by twist is slow - BUT, in extremely light air, he likes to have some twist in the main to get the boat moving, so use ZERO vang and don't sheet the main too hard - just to the centre.)

The vang can't be used at all in light air. By about 12 to 14 knots, pull it "just tight". The upper main leech telltale is the only one affected by the vang, and Alarie and Hamelin almost never stall it (it's just quivering at correct tension). Vang is not easily calibrated for a tuning matrix, but sew or tape marks onto the vang tail so you see the cascade blocks moving past them as you tighten the vang - this will let you reproduce the vang tension upwind again once you've blown it off to go downwind.

If the second main leech telltale is always stalling, the mast is too straight. This telltale should NEVER stall, regardless of vang tension. Fix this by tightening shroud tension, maybe lift the ram, or maybe it's a spreader problem (need more deflection).

In light air, the driver should also fly the spinnaker sheet for the best feel.