Kit Guides

Tuning Guide By Steve Cockerill With the possibility of sailors well in excess of 90kg sailing the Rooster 8.1, we have built in a large amount of luff curve the sail to support the leach – even when the mast is bending sideways under the full hiking load of the sailor. This means that the rig has to be set up differently to the Laser® Standard Rig sail that perhaps you may be more used to. If you were to merely use the equivalent vang (kicker) tensions of Laser® Standard Rig sail you would immediately notice, on an off-wind leg, that the luff of the sail is over-full and the shape of the sail is not balanced. This guide has been written to help you get the most out of your Rooster 8.1 Rig. Pre sailing tips If you are using the glass fibre sleeve in conjunction with a Laser® Standard Rig lower mast you will need to pack out the inner sleeve with tape to ensure a good interference fit with the lower mast and to pack out the joint of the upper mast to ensure a good fit in the extender tube. If you don’t ensure a good interference fit for both you may find your leach tension reduced which will reduce your pointing ability. Upwind 0-6 knots Kicker tension should be block-to-block or more (the term block-to-block means sheet the mainsheet blocks together and pull the slack out of the kicker) You may have to use some Cunningham to help open the top of the sail (take a look at your tell tails) you may also find that with a new sail you have some luff curve creases that are there due to the luff curve of the sail not matching the oddities of different spar bends – with more use the sail cloth will get a little softer and accommodate these differences. Use of the Cunningham will also take these creases out. I flatten the Outhaul to reduce the drag and try to match the depth in the head of the sail. Perhaps only hand width depth in the bottom of the sail. In the picture perhaps only 3-4 knots I have used lots of Vang to flatten the luff of the sail and used some Cunningham to unlock the upper leach and take out some luff to clew creases. Upwind 7-12 knots The Vang tension needs to be increased with wind strength however, depending on your weight, you may be able to sail with less Vang tension at some point in the increasing wind. Personally at around 77kg there is no point for me where I need more power as I am on the light side for the rig. Therefore I go from underpowered and using Vang to unlock the sail to overpowered and needing Vang to de-power the sail very quickly. Again I flatten the sail in the base as I am not looking for power from depth as there is plenty of sail area, so I tend again to leave the foot at about hand width. The picture shows no vang tension in 8 knots. Upwind 12-20 knots Again for me I am seriously overpowered and use immense Cunningham tension to windward Speaking to the heavier sailors who are sailing the boat well, the same is true. They have commented to me that the sail still needs a little wearing-in to get the best out of it, but they think that it is because there is less resistance to the use of Cunningham. Again Vang is used heavily and as a light person, I think I use more than the heavier sailors, but I am lucky that I am also quite agile as the increased Vang tension makes it hard to get under the boom! Heavier sailors are inclined to use less vang to de-power which at the same time gives the sailors more room to cross the boat. I think if you are new to Laser® style sailing, you might find the amount of Vang tension impedes your movement around the boat. Laser® sailors are often aware of easing the vang tension to tack in strong breezes. Control the foot of the sail with Outhaul tension to keep it as flat as possible without restricting the use of the Cunningham. Always get the Cunningham on first and pull the Outhaul on afterwards. Upwind above 20 knots You are looking for a challenge! Play the sheet constantly! I am not sure that there is a survival technique to employ. In the Standard Rig Laser® you might release the vang tension completely in over 35 knots in order to make good to windward so maybe this is worth a try. I also suggest you don’t ease the Outhaul! Update from Steve, February 2009: At the Nationals Last year on the windy second day I decided to use as much Cunningham as I could put on. I used the old style both legs pull with straight arms. I figured that either the sail would break – or I would be able to sail fast against Greg Carey who is a big unit. It worked!! No I mean I was very very competitive. The mast bent on its own – a bit like a windsurfer rig – and I sailed to windward with no kicker – but with the sail block to block. It was so easy! I beat Greg to the first mark and the rest is history. Downwind 2-6 knots As the introduction explains, we have a lot of fullness by the luff of the sail to distribute across the sail profile so use plenty of Vang tension. You will find that easing the Vang will not make the leach open any more or increase the flow over the sail, which is different to the Laser® Standard Rig in which you would ease the vang lots on a run. Use the red camber line to give you a clear indication of the fullness across the sail. In this picture I am able to run by the lee despite the lack of wind and with lots of vang, as the increased vang makes the flow attach to the sail. If you understand calibrations better, I use 75mm (approx 3″) more tension (measuring the 75mm as a distance the double block and becket on a 15:1 Vang has travelled away from the boom key block) than I would have used in similar conditions with a Laser® Standard Rig. I release the Cunningham and tend to keep the Outhaul quite tight, perhaps eased a little only as I tend to think of projected area rather than depth. Downwind 7-12 knots Not much change to the above. Perhaps you can ease the Outhaul and Vang a little on a deep reaching run as the fullness should move with the wind flow. Downwind over 13 knots Downwind 13 knots and above – hang on and enjoy the ride! The helm should be relatively easy as the rig is well over the bow reducing any weather helm but sit well back. Reaching 4-8 knots Your problem will be to unlock the upper leach. In this shot you can see that many of the boats still have plenty of Vang tension and no Cunningham tension Reaching in Over 12 knots You might want to hang onto the Cunningham as you go off wind to keep the fullness forward and avoid too much weather helm. Laser® is a registered trademark owned by Velum Limited and currently licensed for use in Europe to Laser Performance (Europe) Limited. Rooster Sailing Limited is fully independent of both Laser Performance (Europe) Limited and Velum Limited.

Bent top masts in the Laser®, now ILCA, are not fast - you loose leach tension which in turn effects your pointing ability.This video shows you how to check for a bent top mast, how to straighten it and then if you are convinced it is close to breaking, how to end for end it so you now have a new top mast. You will see from this video that I was pretty convinced that this top mast was ready for end for ending. The bend on it was quite extreme, which meant that I was going to have to stress the rivet hole to get the mast straight; they say aluminium only bends and straightens nine times before breaking and as this was also a second hand mast you never know when its going to fall over.Please forgive my lack of pillar drill, vice, etc. This is what I call boat park engineering. We hope you find the video informative!Products used: Stainless Steel Rivets

POST VIDEO NOTE: Please use a separate piece of short grey line in the Rooster kit to attach the two blocks to the traveller eye. see image below: This is to stop any chance of the two blocks and their 3mm elastic from tensioning the traveller in any way. This was required by measurement at the 2018 World Championships. The story: During the recent RS Aero World Championships, it became apparent that if I wanted to release the controls downwind efficiently that I would need to change the control lines to over deck take up style. The old style tended to get a little tangled downwind: I was inspired by Steve Norbury's version that I had seen at the Aero Southern Championships which I knew was class legal. Obviously, I have put some of my splicing experience into the kit to fasten the two Ronstan Shock Blocks in place and used Rooster's EasySplice™ Continuous Control Line as it's just so easy! I used the Ronstan Shock Blocks as they can be colour co-ordinated and are very light - which I guess is nice as the boat is so nice and light. I also used Selden 30mm Loop Top Blocks for the take ups. They are also lighter and more than man enough for the job. Rooster has produced a kit with most of the splicing done, all you will have to do is 'cow splice' the Ronstan Shock Blocks onto a pre-made double loop 180mm line under the deck. But if you are feeling brave, take a look at the related Rooster Videos on Splicing (Reverse Brummell Hitch, Spectwelve and Rooster EasySplice™ Continuous Control Line). We suggest you use 2mm Spectwelve (an SK78 12 braided Dynema) for the take-up tidies and Rooster 4mm Spectwelve (an SK78 12 braided Dynema) for the traveller. You will also notice that I have adopted the Rooster colours which have been used extensively in singlehanded sailing with blue for downhaul/ Cunningham, grey for outhaul and red for kicker or vang. Feel free to take the parts and ropes in the colours you are used to. I used 5m of EasySplice™ for the outhaul system, although I did not have much line to spare so perhaps it's worth taking 6m and losing a bit. Our kit is now 5.5m so you will need to first ensure your outhaul is maximum off. Then join the outhaul when it can just go in front of the centreboard case with a little movement. For the downhaul, I used 8m of EasySplice™, plus 1m of 2mm Spectwelve for the two side deck tidy's and 1m of 4mm Spectwelve for the traveller. Tools: I like my tools so I tend to try and use them all. But if you are keen to do the whole thing yourself then you will need: Serrated Scissors 2/3mm Pull Fid 4mm Push fid Rooster EasySplice™ Needle Fid (I use the super thin needle for the EasySplice™ Control Line splice). Needles and Waxed Whipping Twine (available on the Rooster website to finish off the joins in the control line.) If you purchase the kit, then you will only need the EasySplice™ Needle Fid, twine and needle, although I am sure you would still find the Serrated Scissors useful. Splicing Tip When you cut the centre core out of easy splice, leave it as loose as possible. This will enable the other line to pass into it easier. Do not try and milk it to make it smaller as this will make it harder to pull the other end through it. RS Sailing is the most forward-looking company I have ever been close to. I understand that they will be stocking these 'Rooster' upgrade kits in due course. I think it will make a significant difference to your Aero sailing enjoyment - if it could get any better! Save Save