Some sailors believe that mast bend is everything. Here at Trimsense, we disagree. Let us explain.
Firstly it is necessary to understand how bending the mast affects the mainsail.
Suppose you have a sail that is the shape of a square, and totally flat. If you attach it to a perfectly straight pole, it remains flat. Basically you end up with a flag.
If you have an oval — and again flat — piece of sail and attach it to a mast of matching bend, it will once again remain flat. But now, if you straighten the mast a bit, the sailcloth will obtain some depth.
This is how sails work: if the mast is straighter than the sail’s luff curve, the sail will have some depth to it.
So, bending the mast is an important way of adjusting trim — but it is just one of the factors that make up the sail’s flying shape. And, since in the end it is the sail — and not the mast — that drives the boat, it makes way more sense to measure sail shape, not mast bend.
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