Brian McGinnis

One thing I have noticed over the past few sailing seasons is that many sailors are unsure about how much vang tension to put on a sunfish rig. While there is methods out there to adjust the vang while sailing, the majority of sailors set it and forget it during a race.  Deciding how much vang tension to put one is one of the toughest things to judge on a Sunfish.

The Sunfish has a lanteen rig with the length of the boom being 164 inches and the foot of the sail measuring around 160 inches.  With the design of the rig being the way it is, the majority of racing sailors will be able to trim the mainsail enough when sailing upwind to negate the effects of having any vang tension.  The main time I find the vang helpful in upwind sailing is when the wind is strong enough that one needs to sheet out the main sail consistently in order to keep the boat flat.  In these cases, one would want plenty of vang tension on so that when you ease the main, the end of the boom by the outhaul cap does not raise and ultimately make your sail more baggy.  That being said, I find the most important part of the vang tension is for downwind sailing speed.

The way I setup my vang tension for the day is to sail dead downwind or even by the lee on both tacks prior to the start of the first race of the day.  What I’m looking at is the outer leech panel just above the sunfish on the sail.  With the proper amount of vang tension one will obtain the proper leech tension to avoid the the leech opening up or spilling off air. Ultimately, one will be able to maintain better pressure in the outer portion of the sail above the sunfish. This will be advantageous against competitors when trying to maneuver the boat downwind as well as sailing by the lee.

The next question that most people would naturally have at this point in the discussion is how to tell if they have too much vang tension on.  I’m not entirely sure the proper words to describe how the sunfish sail will appear with too much vang pressure on, but focus your eyes towards the bottom of the sail, below the window, from the gooseneck back towards the outhaul and cunningham cleats.  In this area of the sail, it will definitely look a little funky like it being choked off or something.  If it is very strong winds, this shouldn’t be too big an issue.  However, in the moderate and lighter winds, one may want to ease the vang off some and try sailing downwind to see if the leech will hold pressure without opening the leech and spilling off air.  The more one practices with these settings, and focusing eyes to the proper parts of the sail, the easier it will become to judge putting vang tension and ultimately the improvement in downwind sailing speed will be there for sure.  Best of luck.