My Formula for Sailing Close-Hauled When the Wind Picks Up

At first it seems like the slightest puff of wind on these Martins heels them way over so that you are burying the rail but it takes just a little bit of experimenting to get a little more forward motion out of it with less of it's tendency to stand on its ear.

Here's the formula that seems to work for me...

1. Set the jib car so that when you haul in on the jib sheet - the clew is touching the fair-lead block. 
2. Harden the outhaul and the cunningham on the mainsail.
3. Move the traveller all the way to leeward. 
4. Crank in the main sheet (this also tends to "tighten" the forestay).

Steer via the ticklers on the jib. You can see them best if you are sitting up on the rail,  forward of the tiller end.

Using these steps you have in effect flattened out the sails (reducing the draft or belly in them) thus minimizing the heel (well reducing it anyhow).

I found that as the wind gets to 12 knots or more that the boat kinda hangs in the ol' close-hauled groove as long as you pay attention to your steering. As the wind picks up more you can let that inner-tickler on the jib go to 45 degrees upward then finally as the wind goes even stronger you can let it go vertical as you steer to get the max from this point of sail.

Oh, and of course you can point higher during the gusts using this same set of trim elements although for all of this close-hauled action its a good idea to keep a hand on the main sheet so you can ease it if there comes an overpowering gust.

So - go ahead and try it out - maybe there are some from tricks you've developed from your own experience that can let us all optimize boat speed as we become masters-of-the-martins.

New Tricks for Old SeaDogs.

Any boat that can do 6 knots in 5-kn winds is a blast. Of course, in 20 kn winds, it is a white knuckle ride. The basics of sail trim which Ken G. and John N. imparted to us still apply, but we have had to adapt to the new rig.

As Ken C. mentioned, trying to make the ticklers on the jib break togrther is a bit tricky. It seems that the best thing to do, as Colin suggested, is to move the jib cars forward and get as much draft in the jib as practical. I don't think we are ready for tapered jib sheets as suggested in one of the blogs.

The main sail seems to require more attention. Getting the sail shape right took a little time. With the floating tack we ended up placing the Cunningham hook in the tack cringle to tension the luff. We ended up with an annoying horizontal crease at the first batten. However, yanking on the boom vang straightened this out. We kept the boom vang tensioned throughout the sail which also helped to keep the main off the spreaders. I suppose we will need to send the sails out this winter to have reinforcing patches where they touch the spreaders. It seems this is a problem on this type of rig with swept back spreaders and no backstay.

Choreographing the crew during tacking and gybing is another consideration especially when the helmsman and mainsheet crew have to switch sides and squeeze through the space between the mainsheet and traveler rigging at the same time. When racing, I would like to practice at the dock first and then fine tune on the water.

I am looking forward to flying the spinnakers! I'm sure we need a clinic.

One last tip, when flaking the mainsail, tie the forward sail tie through the ring (cringle?) at the head of the sail to stop it from flopping around.

The Martins have added a new dimension to our Club.

New Boat Blues

Yesterday Jack N and I took Martin #2 out for a sail.

We had trouble opening the top sliding acrylic companionway hatchslide, it would not move forward. After a few hits with the palm of my hand I managed to push forward a couple of inches just enough to slide the door up and out of the way. The top would still not move, only after a well placed kick it move forward enough to be able to slide it all the way forward. Inspecting why it would not slide we noticed the head of the screws holding the track in place have the top of the screw sticking out and jamming the slide top.

Sailing on a Starboard tack we began to hear a rubbing noise when we moved the tiller. When we docked we found that the bolts holding the gudgeon had come loose.

Sailing downwind we found the main sail resting against the spreader and the shrouds even by letting the main out very little, we quickly abandoned that point of sail. Checking back in the Martin website they show a picture of it sailing on a run with main resting on the shroud and spreaders I guess it’s OK to do it. However past experience has showed that this type of set up damages the main sail.


Looking at the spinnaker pole in the boat we saw that the line used to pull back the piston is too short and prevents the plunger from traveling all the way to the end.

As the wind filled the jib the halyard holding it up become loose and the sail sagged. Since the halyard does not come back into the cockpit there is no way to adjust it also the location of track with the fairleads is mounted too far forward and does not allow the sail to be properly shaped as the corner of the sail comes to rest against the fairleads.

Under the present set up the advanced bridle type traveler system prevents the boom from going past the center of the boat. As a racer I like to be able to get past the center since I found that doing so increases the boat speed by about .5 knots.

This plus my previous experience on it is giving me a very bad opinion of this boat.
I would expect that a new boat delivered to a new customer would be flawless.
I have read the glowing review their web site reports and wonder if we are talking about the same boat.

Furling Line Tip

Here's a tip regarding the headsail furling line that was shared with a few of us this evening (apparently Barbara G. figured this out)... If pulling on the line from the companionway or cockpit is too difficult, try pulling on the section between fairleads along the side of the cabin interior. This will give you some extra purchase on the line, and when you release it you can quickly take up the slack near the cleat with your other hand. Do this several times over and your headsail should be neatly furled.

First experience

I have been out on them 3 times so my experience is limited. Twice with winds close to 20Kn and once with 5 Kn.

I noticed a few things that could cause problem

1. The furling line is very difficult to operate if you are just pulling on it from the cockpit no matter what the wind strength is and it also cut into the frame of the door.
2. The halyard for the jib for some reason is not long enough to allow the sail to come down and still be held on deck. It appears that before you lower the jib you will have to attach a line to it to bring it back down
It also has a tendency to come loose. There is no proper attachment for it.

3. The halyard for the main on Martin No 2 has the “nylon” cover coming off at approximately were it is wound around the winch.

4. You must wear sailing gloves if you are handling any of the sheets. I’m sure they strong enough to perform the task they are designed for but are too small to handle (In my opinion)


I’m sure once we get used to them they will be fun boat to sail.

Possible Hints from m244 Predecessor

 Here's a link to a Martin 242 Tuning guide by Ullman Sails. Although the mainsail is different I think that the comments on both Mainsail trim and Jib trim are relevant to the Martin m244's. Have a look and perhaps experiment with the suggested settings.

Oh and don't worry about the fact that the 242 has an adjustable back stay which the m244 lacks. Colin Jackson from Cooper said that the designer - Don Martin's advice is to not bother with it. The Ullman sails guide seems to support that view. 

Hey - maybe we need to develop one of these guides of our own for the Humber Sailing Club m244's.

Yee hah!

First Impressions

Never took the reef out in approx 10Kts. Even with 4 on board sitting on high side lots of heel. If the boat is raced in 30knts with full sail I need to learn how to reduce heel Saw Colin doing a check sail single handed with FULL sail. He seemed comfortable - perhaps unlike J24s these boat are designed to sail with much heel

Both sails had a lot of twist. I could not get the head sail trimmed to what I consider correct twist (All tell tales breaking at the same time) due to position of cars. Need to move them forward

With the car forward to reduce twist and sheeted hard sail was still very deep as clew hit cars and limited trim that could be applied. Deep sail will I think limit pointing ability but did not check tacking angles

Similarly main had much twist even sheeted hard with traveler centered


We did hit 6.5 knts and more with approx 10 knts of wind so the sail trim worked. The boat was easy to control, very sensitive and could be sailed close to a buoy in a trial rounding. Need to work out a drill for handling sheets during tacking for good racing.

Tried stopping the boat from a close reach per the last step in COB. The boat coasted further than I expected given how fast it lost momentum under power. It will be important to lose speed after tacking to broad reach during COB

Down wind sailing the main hits the spreaders very early but did not do much down wind sailing . Will be O.K. with a chute - Do we have chutes? Members will need to be careful not to damage sails on spreaders

Crew complained furler hard to operate (We did furl downwind behind main) Reported also finding same problem on previous sails. I think it may be a question of finding the correct position to get good purchase on the furler line

When docking in cross wind I had trouble because I did not expect how quickly the bow fell off and the boat moving sideways. I understand the plan is to put the Martins on the end of the docks that seems a good plan to make docking easier. I need to practice docking and make more use of the motor rather thank letting the boat coast in. Watched Colin docking. Made good use of motor particularly in reverse to pull stern in to dock after
nosing bow in.

Bottom line - Great boat!! fast and fun like driving a sports car after driving a Cadillac. Comfortable to sit and plenty of cockpit room so much better than a J24. No motor lifting problems of J24. I'm sold!