Top 5 Vanguard 15 Rigging Tips

By Al Sargent

There’s a lot that one can do to improve Vanguard 15 performance. But if you’re just setting up your Vanguard 15 program, where to start?

Here are some ideas, all oriented to our San Francisco V15 fleet’s racing conditions on Clipper Cove adjacent to Treasure Island, which typically feature 10 to 20 knot breezes in flat water, and extremely short courses, with 2-3 minute upwind legs that make it critical to achieve separation in short order.

Note: > I encourage you to contact Svendsens, our longtime fleet sponsor, to purchase the items below. However, since SvendsensMarine.com doesn’t have pages specific to Vanguard 15 gear, I’ve linked to other websites for illustrative purposes. I’ve found Svendsens to be very responsive. As of this writing (March 2014) our main contact there is Matt Ford.

Read the full guides — expanded versions of each tip with photos and updated part links:

Tip #1: Stamasters

Having your rake adjusted properly is critical for breaking away on the starting line. The stock Vanguard 15 shroud adjusters provide a number of barriers to getting the right rake.

First, they take a long time to change. This makes it hard to try out different settings to find what works best. Evening winds in Clipper Cove typically start strong and gradually fade as sunset gets closer, making it imperative to reduce rake (rake forward) to put more power into your rig as the evening wears on. Since our race committee often starts a new three-minute sequence when the last boat crosses the line, you might have just one or two minutes, up until the two-minute gun, to change your rig.

Second, they’re unsafe in windy conditions, because there’s a moment when the leeward pin is completely disconnected. If you were to capsize while on port when your shroud is connected, and right your boat on starboard, your rig would fall over.

What You’ll Need

Stamaster shroud adjusters, along with shorter shrouds.
2 zip ties to go around Stamasters.
Wrenches and screwdriver to swap out shrouds.
Sharpie waterproof permanent marker.
Electrical tape or rig wrap (self-bonding rigging tape).

Setup Guide

When you buy Stamasters, you’ll need shorter shrouds than what ships with a stock V15. These should measure 14 feet, 0.75 inches (428.6 centimeters), measured pin-to-pin (from the pin that attaches to the top of the mast to the pin that attaches to the top of the Stamasters). Svendsens can make a pair of shrouds, including Stamasters.

Tip: > I prefer 14' 0.75" to be able to get a bit more rake in heavy air.

When you rig up your Stamasters, make sure that the numbers are facing the centerline of the boat so that it’s easy to read them when adjusting the shrouds on the water.

It’s a good idea to put one zip tie on the base of each Stamaster to hold the two metal slats tight together (but not so tight that you cannot crank the Stamaster down to zero — max rake, around 20' 9" from masthead to aft corner of deck). This provides a couple of benefits:

Consistency: When determining your rig settings, you eliminate any variance due to one of the Stamasters having a “wide stance” and the other having a “narrow stance”.
Durability: When it’s windy and you have a lot of rig tension (around 900 pounds), keeping the slats together means less torque on the pin holding the Staymasters to the hull, and thus a lower likelihood of breaking the pin.

Once shrouds are setup, you can tape up pins and ring dings with electrical tape so that nothing catches on the crew’s clothes.

A small but important finishing touch is to mark the deck, just aft of each shroud adjuster, showing which direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise) tightens the shroud. If you only have 60 seconds to adjust your shrouds, this helps you do it fast.

Lastly, be sure to understand which settings are rake forward, and which are rake back. The higher the numbers, the more rake forward, which is better for light air since it provides more power. For heavy air, you want lower numbers for more rake to shed excess power. Seems obvious, but when I first started sailing V15s I got this backwards, and it was not fun sailing in light air with a raked-back rig.

Tip #2: Vang

A proper vang setup is critical in windy and moderate conditions.

Windy Conditions (Stamasters 0-3 / 20' 9" - 21' 3" rake): You need to be able to crank on vang tension to induce mast bend and take camber out of the mainsail.
Moderate Conditions (Stamasters 4-7 / 21' 4" - 21' 7" rake): It’s critical to be able to adjust your vang upwind, tensioning in puffs and easing in lulls.

An 8:1 vang setup — one cascade plus the stock blocks — works well. Granted, the Vanguard 15 class rules (as of January 2013) let you create boom vangs with 12:1 tension (two cascades plus the stock 3:1 blocks). But in practice, those are tough to setup right, so an 8:1 vang is a good place to start.

What You’ll Need

1/8” (3 mm) Spectra line, maybe around 20 feet long.
Harken 16mm block.
Wichard D shackle big enough to fit over boom strap.
Ronstan RF78 swivel shackle.
Wichard D shackle to attach Ronstan swivel shackle to mast.
Zip ties to fasten shackles.
Tool to tighten shackles.
Sharpie waterproof permanent marker.
Electrical tape.

Setup Guide

It’s important to ensure that the vang system is strong enough to withstand heavy air jibes fully tensioned. You need to be able to confidently throw in a jibe in 25 knots, in a prestart situation when your vang is cranked. The shock loads in this kind of a situation can be quite high. While it’s good to shave weight in some areas, the vang isn’t one of those places.

Because of this, you want strong, forged Wichard shackles, not the thinner stamped shackles that are used on mainsheet blocks. The bottom shackle can be a bit smaller than the upper one, since the latter has to fit over a wide boom fitting.

You want a Harken 304 wire bullet block, which has a higher breaking strength than standard Harken bullet blocks. The 304s have a working load of 1500 pounds, enough to accommodate shock loads on jibes. In contrast, Harken wire bullets have a working load of 500 pounds and Harken carbos have a working load of 330 pounds.

Rigging Steps:

Blocks and Swivel: Fasten the Harken wire bullet block to the boom such that the pin handle (which you use to screw the shackle tight) is facing up. This makes it less likely to scratch the crew. For the bottom part of the system, have the shackle handle pointing up. This means one less place for the jib sheets to catch in a tack.
Vang Rope: Take your Spectra line and tie a hitch through the bottom vang block (the one with a cleat). Pass one end through your Harken wire bullet block, then down to the stock vang block (the one without a cleat). Tie the line to the vang block with a bowline.
Adjustment: Adjust the hitch so that the upper vang block is about a foot from the bottom vang block with the boom horizontal. This uses less rope (less weight and windage), gives you enough “throw” to really tighten the vang in heavy air without two-blocking, and lets you fully ease the vang so that your boat doesn’t capsize on the dolly, ramp, or dock.
Tail: Pass the other end through the turning points on the two blocks, eventually exiting out at the cleat. Tie a bowline at the end for the skipper to use while hiking out upwind. The bowline should reach the jib cleat but be no longer, to avoid getting sucked into the mainsheet block.

Before the starts in moderate conditions, we’ll toss the tail of the vang over the starboard side of the hull so that we can easily access it coming off the starting line. Many times we’ve come off the line with the vang eased a bit, for more power in a lull. Then when a puff hits, we crank on the vang and immediately get 3 degrees higher point, start lifting off the boats to leeward and pinching off the boats to windward. Money.

Once everything is setup, crank down the shackles with a tool, then zip tie them shut. Then tape all shackles and ring dings.

Tip: > When you head out with your new vang, mark the line at “max tight” so that you can quickly replicate settings prior to your leeward mark roundings in heavy air and focus on hiking.

Tip #3: Telltales

Those of us who sailed collegiately probably are familiar with the practice of applying telltales in key locations. Vanguard 15s are no different. Here are three recommended locations for applying telltales.

What You’ll Need

Cassette tape (buy several since these are hard to find!).
Electrical tape.

1. Shrouds

Tie telltales on the shrouds, around a foot above where the boom touches it. This makes it easy for the skipper to see when steering downwind. A combination clove hitch plus one half hitch works well. You’ll want to replace the cassette tape every couple of months before they break on their own.

How to use the shroud telltales when sailing wing-on-wing:

Header: Watch telltales to show when you get a header. When this happens, ease the jib sheet to keep the jib from collapsing while at the same time steering downwind. Once back downwind, you can pull the jib sheet back to its usual position.
Lift: Watch telltales for indicators of a lift. When this happens, you’ll want to jibe if possible, since sailing a V15 by the lee is slow. If you can’t jibe, then head up to get back to a downwind course.
Optimal Angle: It’s fastest to sail as high as possible wing-on-wing without the jib collapsing. Use your telltales to determine when you’re close to that angle without your jib becoming unstable.

2. Lower Jib Luff

Use electrical tape to stick telltales a couple of inches above the stock jib telltale position, below the second seam, about one inch from the luff wire. Telltales in this position indicate luffing more quickly than the stock telltales. Cassette tape responds a bit quicker than wool telltales. Keep the tape smooth to prevent the telltales from catching.

How to use the lower jib telltales:

Straight-line speed: Keep inside telltale at a 45 degree angle to the horizon.
Pinching: Keep inside telltale pointed straight up.
Footing or planing upwind: Keep inside telltale straight back.

3. Middle Jib Luff

Use electrical tape to stick telltales midway up the sail, between the stock upper and lower telltales. Just below the third seam works well. As with the lower telltale, place these about an inch from the luff wire.

How to use the middle jib telltales:

Start Acceleration: When accelerating for the start, you’ll typically bear away onto a close reach in the final seconds. When this happens, your crew should trim to the middle telltale. (If they trim to the lower telltale, the top of the jib will luff and lose power.)
Reaching: When sailing the offset leg or a reach, the crew should trim to the middle telltale.
Lulls: If your crew is close in height to the skipper, or taller, then the skipper can drive to the middle telltale upwind if the crew comes in in a lull. This lets you keep the boat in the groove at all times, without shifting position.

Tip #4: Shockcord

Like telltales, shockcord is a low-cost yet essential enhancement to your V15 setup. You need shockcord in three places.

What You’ll Need

Around 20 feet of thin shockcord, around 1/8” or 3/16” in size. Solid elastomer lasts longer than traditional bungee and exerts more force.

1. Headstay

You need shockcord to keep the headstay from messing with the jib telltales. Two strands of shockcord is the right amount; one strand doesn’t exert enough force to keep the headstay out of the way and three or more strands is overkill, adding too much weight and windage to the bow. (That said, the solid elastomer has greater return force, so one strand might suffice. Boat optimization is often a journey of experimentation.)

Setup: Rig up the jib with your mast in the max forward position (9 on the Stamasters / 21' 9.5" rake) and tie the shockcord such that it barely keeps the headstay tight. By doing this, you’ll ensure that the shockcord will still allow you to put your mast into the max rake position (0 on the Stamasters / 20' 9" rake).

2. Hiking Straps

One of the keys to fast tacks is to always have your straps in the same position, so that your feet can slip right into a hiking position. Shockcord is critical for doing this.

You need shockcord in four places. From back to front:

Forward Crew Straps: Shockcord to hold up forward end of crew hiking straps, using the aft portion of the mast step. Two loops for each strap, going through aft pin on mast step.
Center: Shockcord to hold the crew and skipper straps next to each other, and hold them up using the handrail. When doing this, it’s important to keep shockcord away from the mainsheet ratchet to minimize the potential for the mainsheet to get caught.
Aft Skipper Straps: Shockcord to hold up the aft end of the skipper straps, using a loop just under the tiller.

3. Mainsheet

You need shockcord holding back the aft portions of the mainsheet tails, in order to keep the mainsheet from twisting, which ensures that you can ease it upwind.

This really matters. Case in point: one of my most embarrassing Vanguard 15 races was in a windy Nationals race long ago. Because I didn’t tie the mainsheet shockcord long enough, I had to depower by feathering the jib. Not fast in the short Berkeley Circle chop. When it came time to duck boats, my mainsheet couldn’t ease and I had to do a crash tack to avoid hitting a boat on starboard. After we did our 360, we were in last. All due to a silly little shockcord adjustment that I got wrong.

Setting up the shockcord loops at the midpoint of the aft inspection port seems to work well. Two separate shock cords, each tied around either side of the pintle.

Tip #5: Jib Halyard

Vanguard 15s come with 3:1 jib halyard adjusters with a “horn cleat”. These are problematic for two reasons:

Light/Moderate Breeze: The optimal jib halyard setting seems to be when the leeward shroud just barely goes slack in puffs. To find this optimal setting, you need to try many different settings. Having to constantly untie a halyard from a horn cleat burns up a lot of pre-start time.
Windy Conditions: You need to crank on a lot of jib halyard tension. Having a 3:1 system makes it harder to get enough halyard tension.

The solution is to replace the horn cleat with a clam cleat and to setup the jib fine tune with a 4:1 system, tucking the tail through the vang bail and tying a bowline at the end.

What You’ll Need

Aluminum clamcleat (CL211 MK2AN) for jib halyard line.
About 15 feet of 1/8” (3 mm) Vectran rope.

Setup Guide

You want to get a clam cleat with the same hole positions as the stock horn cleat. You should be able to use the same screws to mount it.

You want to use Vectran, not Spectra, since the latter “creeps” meaning it stretches gradually over time. Vectran is also less slippery than Spectra, allowing it to hold better in a clam cleat.

This setup lets you find the optimal jib halyard setting in light and moderate breeze, by intentionally rigging it on the loose side, then pulling it on, bit by bit, until the leeward shroud barely goes slack in puffs. Since all you need to do is luff the sails, pull on the fine-tune bowline, and sheet in again, you can find the optimal position within a couple of minutes.

In breezy conditions, having 4:1 on the jib halyard makes it easier to get enough jib halyard tension without heading to the dock.

Conclusion

There’s a lot more that can be done to optimize a Vanguard 15. And I admit some of the above tips will come across as obvious to experienced V15 racers. But hopefully following this list will get a new Vanguard sailor on their way to sailing faster.

If you have any questions, please do let me know: al.sargent at gmail.

Originally published on Medium