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January 12, 2024 2 min read
Two types of tell tales are most commonly used on dinghies and keelboats. Leech and luff tell tales.
Leech tell tales are located on the back edge of the sail and are made from lightweight spinnaker/ streamer material. These will tell you how to trim your sail depending on what side of the sail the tell tale is curling towards or if it is flying freely.
Luff tell tales are located parallel to the bolt rope or luff tube. They are usually located approximately 50 to 60 cm inwards on the Laser sail. These are positioned in a way they can be seen and in the best-undisturbed wind in the deepest part of the sail. These will tell you about your angle if you are pinching too close to the wind or if the wind is stalling out of the top of the sail.
ILCA 7 /Laser Standard
A general rule of thumb for the position on the lowest tell tail on a standard sail is 80cm up from the foot and 60cm in from the luff sleeve. For the next one up 150cm up and 40cm in.
ILCA 6 / Laser Radial
A general rule of thumb for the position on the lowest tell tail on a standard sail is 80cm up from the foot and 50cm in from the luff sleeve. For the next one up 130cm up and 50cm in.
ILCA 4 /Laser 4.7
A general rule of thumb for the position on the lowest tell tail on a standard sail is 70cm up from the foot and 50cm in from the luff sleeve. For the next one up 120cm up and 40cm in.
Some ILCA sails come with a tiny X where the tell tales should go. These small pencil markings are just visible when new to give you an idea of where to put the tell tales.
Telltales allow you to help you see what the winds flow over the sail; without them, you wouldn't be able to see this.
Needed 5m of a low stretch rope to act as a mast raising / lowering tail on my Wayfarer forestay as the existing 5mm rope was a bit thick to pass under my reefing spar attachment. Now it fits snugly and the mast raises and lowers better than it did before because of less friction and "bounce".
The top cover was delivered on time as expected. The cover fits perfectly and hopefully it will last forever … Thank you
Bought this for my son so can’t personally comment as I’ve not used it. However he was very pleased with the purchase and said it’s great quality.
Always happy with my orders from Sailing Chandlery. They are quick to post and very helpful when I have had a question.
Jason delivered the boat on time at Hayling Island Sailing Club. The boat was new and all the spars were in perfect condition. Jason came to pick up the boat and return the deposit which I gave at the time of the delivery. Every interaction with Andrew and Jason were handled very professionally. I will recommend to any sailor Sailing Chandlery in the future. I really appreciated how easy it was to charter this boat. Thank you very much. Jacques Kerrest
This was a birthday present for a sailing daughter (i don't sail!) She was delighted, it hasn't been out on the water yet but she's looking forward to trying it out and says it's just what she wanted... so looks like a good choice by me after helpful advice from Sailing Chandlery staff!
I bought the 2.5mm dyneema for a special winch/pulley project which needs to pull two sides of a cradle exactly simultaneously for about a meter. Originally I was going to create loops on both the LHS and the RHS, then loop them together onto a 3mm dyneema rope. This gave me two issues : firstly the "knot" would be large and may rub on the cradle (not much room available), secondly there was no redundancy if the 3mm dyneema was to fail. So I then looked at splitting the drum on the winch into 2 halves so I could wind on both the RHS and LHS 2.5mm ropes on together. This would give redundancy if one leg was to fail but it would not guarantee simultaneous pulling.
Then I had a brainwave. I spliced the 2 x 2.5mm together and then fed a 1.5meter tail through the middle creating a combined rope of approx 3.5mm diameter. I then wound this onto the drum of the winch as a single rope. This would ensure simultaneous pulling, and also provide redundancy if say the outer sheath was abraded and failed - also there was no significant "knot" so it fitted in neatly in the space available.
It was a bit of a fiddle pulling the tail through but not really difficult with the D-splicing tool.
All in all, I am very impressed with the dyneema and I am glad I did not choose a wire rope for this application.
Quick and easy to fit on to the end of the sail and work perfectly.
Thank you 'Sailing Chandlery' for your quick service and easy website which helped me pick the correct part I needed. I am back sailing when the weather allows.
Prompt delivery, with helpful updates and time slot spot on. Perfect new sail at a great price and the number fixing service is well worth it. It even won its first race! Thank you.
This was an easy thing to sort out for my Wanderer. It's a common part for a wide range of boats. The whole thing comes complete that's the Rudder pivot bolt, wing nut and 'socket washer' for the bolt head. The whole process took just a couple of days for my order to be picked dispatched and shipped and I was ready to go sailing again.
I needed GBR letters for the ILCA Europeans and they arrived by the next post.
I bought four of these blocks to deal with Control line take away Perfect.
Great product. Very good quality and price!
Quick delivery, great item
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