Telling Tales
Ever wonder how to really tell what those tails and not just a random tale?
After doing a bit of surfing I came upon this site and I think it’s pretty good!
The telltales make the trimming of the sails and the steering of the boat easier. You shouldn’t stick too many telltales on your sails – when sailing, the amount of information streaming in exceeds the capacity of the crew, so keep it as simple as possible. In this article we explain which telltales are essential and sufficient at the same time. We recommend not to have more telltales than that. The telltales in the leech should be made of a rather strong nylon strip. Normally they are already installed by your sailmaker. The telltales in the luff should be of woolen yarn glued onto the sail with a colorful sticky-back.
