The first and most important factor in increasing the performance of the DN is the amount of effort put into your program. The results are derived from the cumulative time and decisions made on all of the different areas of attention. I have and continue to spend much time thinking and working on my own program

Two senses that I believe are invaluable in tuning are:

"FEEL and SOUND"

You have to listen to the runners on the ice. You have to feel the boat. From these inputs you will be able to know what to work with when you get on the ice. Without these you will not have a clue where to start. When I first started racing the DN, John Keock from NJ told me one important rule.

"when the boat is set up right, it will be fast and easy to sail."

In other words if you are fighting the boat such as hiking, excess trimming etc. you are not set up properly.

TUNING PARTNER

Ask a fellow sailor or competitor to be a tuning partner. This is the best way to get going fast. Keep trying adjustments, compare ideas and opinions. This you will find to be invaluable in learning how to make your boat go in every type of condition.

ALIGNMENT

Runner alignment is critical. If the two side runners are not perfectly parallel you will be slow. Most people will agree with this statement but they do no put much effort into a proper method with attention to accuracy with repeatability. If you sailed up a weather leg of a race course with a set of runners that are not lined up you probably wasted the amount of energy it would take to drag one blade sideways 75’ or more with it loaded with force. The next time you get passed badly, you might know why. There are many methods to achieve great results. The method I use is as follows:

1) Using a riffle scope jigged to fit (sharpened edge only) onto the blade, align a pair of blades so they are perfectly parallel to each other. This I accomplished by using a bench mounted chock (upside down) and sighting and noting the exact point approximately 50’ away. With the second blade in the chock (mounted @ 180°) the blade is aligned to the same point. The material used to make adjustments is thin adhesive backed Teflon tape. This is applied only to the inner surfaces of the blade body that come into contact with the inside flange of the chock.

2) With the blades mounted on the plank with the boat set up I glue the chocks on. I set the boat up with the pivot bolts of all three runners level. Then I deflect the plank enough to simulate down wind sailing before a runner would lift off the ice. This is about .5" below straight on my plank. Now a runner cut width is taken directly below the pivot bolts on the side runners. This then transferred to a horizontal bar 50’ or more away. The cut width is marked off with plumb lines from thread. This bar is also centered to a centerline of the hull (very important).

3) The last step is to align the two runners to their respective threads with the scope. If this is done properly your alignment will be guaranteed all the time. There will never be a reason to worry about it again! To align other sets of runners just repeat the first step with each pair of runners.

4) This procedure, I think is one of the best because it takes into account the squat of the boat while under load. There is a critical relationship of the difference in rotational angle of the plank and perfect alignment.

RIG SETTINGS

Regardless of what type of spar and plank you have the settings of the shroud lengths are very important. Simply, the headstay controls leach tension (twist) and mast compression. The side stays control the amount of the mast bend through compression. With the wood/carbon mast I seldom have to change my heeadstay length unless I change mast step locations. All I adjust is the side stays one or two holes. With an aluminum spar or stiff wood mast the headstay has to be continually adjusted for changing wind and ice conditions. Reason for this is that the stiffer mast will not have the range of motion to self adjust for different loads like a puff or a slow section of ice.

The goal is to be able to sail upwind with out the boat getting overpowered. Having to ease sheet removes compression from the mast and straightens the mast. This in turn will make the sail fuller and now more powerful. Then, more sheet is necessary to twist the leech open to reduce power aloft. Properly set up the rig will automatically change gears with changing forces applied. When sailing up wind the boat will stay under control and accelerate when a puff hits. Result = Faster with less effort.

MAST / SAIL

The mast and sail definitely have a relationship that needs to be addressed. The proof of this was the combination that Henry Bossett of NJ. and I proved last season with the masts that I developed. Over the last few years the ability to carry a fuller sail was realized. After several designs to complement the spar were tested. The end result was amazing. At the Worlds and North Americans the two of us literally sailed away from the competition.

The point is that there are differences in sail and mast designs. You should experiment with spars and sails if so desired. If you sail and aluminum rig the sail will generally be much flatter and the all around range of performance will be less. One note of interest that is widely agreed upon, the wood masts are much easier to sail from a physical point of view.

Battens play a part in how I tune the sail. When the wind comes up I often start with the top batten, changing to a stiffer selection. This will tend to let the top of the sail twist open depowering the sail. This reduces the amount of power generated in the top portion of the rig and also tends to flatten the upper section as well. This will keep you down on the ice. In very light wind or slow conditions I will use an extremely soft set of battens (whole sail). This deepens the sail and tightens the leech somewhat. It also appears to make the sails feel more lively.

PLANK

Planks are reasonably straight forward. I tend to sail with a relatively stiffer plank than most. The deflection of the plank with my body weight is approximately 1.25". I believe this will keep the runners better in line throughout the distance of travel. I also believe with the stiffer plank that I have better control of the mast in terms of amount of desired bend. Reason for this is that the plank does not bend as much when fully loaded. Therefore the mast does not fall off centerline as much unless I prefer it to do so by letting the sidestays off. This helps in light air as well because it can be powered up sooner. As some of you might have noticed even with my large body size and weight I am usually the first one hiking! Strange?

STRAIGHT RUNNERS

I have spent much time straightening my runners. This is a very tedious job! It involves much time using the sander and the scope. It has to be done. They have to be perfectly straight.

RUNNER SELECTION

Here is a subject that has a wide opinion base. The only runners I have used in competition over the past five or so years have been one set each of 440c inserts or 3/16 angles, both of stainless steel. I carry many sets around with me but I tend to use these two sets for most all conditions confronted. I use small plates on the front. We are spoiled here in North America. At the European championship last year I learned my lesson. They do not move their site unless absolutely necessary. All I had was my regular inserts and angles and one pair of SS plates that had not been used in years. The conditions in Sweden were 2" of old snow with 2" of freshly fallen snow. The result was, I learned what has to be done when sailing in snow. I was not even competitive.

The amount of flat and crown does make a difference but not as much as people tend to think. Aligned runners are more important.

BLOCK LOCATION

Almost all the time I pull aft very hard with the location of the blocks on the boom and the rear deck. I try to under rotate the mast all the time. Aluminum rigs tend to need more adjustment. They often need to be forced forward to rotate the mast in light air.

MAST STEP LOCATION

Most of the time I use the aft location on the deck and the mast. In highly loaded slow conditions like slush and snow I move forward to add compression to the rig sooner.

HULL GEOMETRY

The square of the plank to fuselage is often overlooked. This can have a great affect on your sailing angled if not correct.

End of article.