keltiks' 1980s Ross 35

[JustHarry]

Dyneema is awesome aye. Crazy lightweight too. And it doesn't hold water like a lot of other ropes do.

 

[felixx]

Bro I have read this entire thread, only because I did not know what a Ross35 is

I have years of Coastguard Volunteering, was a commercial fisherman, even driven a paddle boat, recreational fishing and boating but have never been on a sailing boat. I have learnt lots, 

Thank you

[keltik]

On 19/06/2026 at 12:33, felixx said:

Bro I have read this entire thread, only because I did not know what a Ross35 is

I have years of Coastguard Volunteering, was a commercial fisherman, even driven a paddle boat, recreational fishing and boating but have never been on a sailing boat. I have learnt lots, 

Thank you

Thank you for reading. Crazy to think I started this 4 years ago and have learned a huuuuge amount but still have a long way to go.

[keltik]

On the subject of learning, I think it's paying off. The last few months have really been all about learning to keep the boat sailing "in the groove".

Part of that is steering the right way to keep all of the sails in their performance window. Part of it is learning how to trim those sails to get the performance window wider or at least where you need it to be. 

The groove feels like being in the right gear. It's a delicious brain challenge trying to understand whats going wrong and which rope is going to fix it. 

We're not playing with bags to catch wind here, these are finely tuned airfoils which need the right angle of attack and camber for the right wind speed.

This new learning has been made possible by a great crew turnout this winter. For example, I've been able to have someone dedicated to trimming the backstays - helping flatten the shape of the mainsail as gusts come through. Another person changes the angle of attack using the traveler and then there's twist adjusted with the sheet, the cunningham, halyard tension... There's a lot going on. 

Get it right and you get to go fast.

[keltik]

Then we have similar tuning challenges with the head sails. Listening to a smart mans podcast, he said a common mistake is to have everything pinging tight to get the best airflow heading into the wind... But you just end up with flat sails and no power. Need that sweet curve to generate some aerodynamic lift. So now we have started leaving things a bit looser and only flattening the sails to reduce power when there's too much wind. 

Also FINALLY getting sick of using the gennaker because it's safe and easy. It sucks except in a very narrow wind angle.  My goal for the rest of the winter is to grow some balls and get the symmetric spinnakers out more often.