Author Archives: Brian McGinnis

Proper Sunfish Vang Tension

Posted on by

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.

DSC_0339_1339

Use Google Mobile App, Google Sync, and Google Apps(Gmail) to backup your BlackBerry Contacts and Calendar

Posted on by

In April 2009, I purchased my very first smartphone, a BlackBerry Curve 8330.  Even though I had been a techie for many years now, this decision brought me to the next level.  The BlackBerry became my new laptop on short trips, using it for navigation, local search, emails, instant messaging, social networking, news, and even as a portable entertainment center for music and movies.

I instantly could see I would rely heavily on this device, and therefore wanted to maximize its usage in every regard but especially in staying connected with people.  Contact information and calendar management soon became a big deal to me.  I could be organized and motivated like never before.

The first thing I did was reach about to a bunch of people I knew had used BlackBerries and inquired about their favorite applications, and where they went to research for further information.  While I had received a great amount of feedback from people, their was one commonality I found in the responses from every techie that I had asked. Download the Google Mobile App, Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Sync.

This was hands-down the best recommendation I had received. The Google Mobile App was simply a bundle of applications similar to how the Google Pack is offered on computers. Within that application, installing Google Maps and Gmail was as simple as could be. The key element to the whole equation was the Google Sync application. By using that application, one can sync all their contacts from Gmail on the computer wireless over-the-air directly to their BlackBerry.  The same functionality exists with the Google Calendar application where you can sync it to your BlackBerry native Calendar over-the-air. One can also sync multiple calendars using this functionality.

Now, the central place for my contact management on my BlackBerry would be my computer which is way easier for me to enter information in.  I was able to export contacts from my other email account address books, and import them into Gmail.  I was able to cleanup and organize the contact cards a lot better on the computer. Ultimately, I could now choose to delete my BlackBerry Contacts and Calendar databases at any time, and I would be able to sync it back  using Google Sync.

This comes in very handy when doing upgrades to your BlackBerry or if it crashes on you, it would have to be a bother to have to ask for hundreds of contact’s information again. With the ease of a computer to manage contacts, it now makes sense to add restaurants, place of interests, home addresses, work addresses, and other information most people don’t usually enter on their mobile phones.  By having this information, I can easily get directions to locations using Google Maps without having to type anything.  I can do local searches using a variety of applications.  I also can feel safe and secure knowing that my calendar and contacts will always reside safely on Gmail and Google Calendar, and can easily be restored to my BlackBerry without even hooking up a cord to a computer.