What’s a Jib Car? I was reading a sailing blog and came across this strange reference “ensure that jib cars are in the right position”. What? I know what a jib sail is but what is a jib car? Here’s what I found:
A Jib Car is a device that increases the effectiveness of the jib sail, which makes sailboats go faster. The Jib Car equally distributes the tension across the entire jib sail. Adjusting the Jib Car on a slider improves the effectiveness of the entire sail, illustrated below.
In this article, I will cover the principle behind trimming a jib sail with a Jib Car. The best way to show this is with diagrams, which I will add below. There are several brands of Jib Cars and I will add a couple photos of them. There is also an excellent video on YouTube which explains this well. Let’s go!
Sailors Want to Go Fast
Using the free energy of the wind to move across the water is something that many people enjoy. Talking with sailors, you will discover they often talk about how fast they were going. This is because the average speed of a sailboat is no faster than walking! Increasing your speed in a sailboat takes you from “when are we going to get there?” to “Wow”.
Trimming With a Jib Car to Go Faster
The way to get your sailboat going faster is to maximize the efficiency of each sail. Jib Car to this for the Jib sail. The idea is to make sure the top and the bottom are pulling equally. You do this by getting the jib aligned to the center of the “luffing”. This is the area of wasted wind energy.
My own illustrations in Photoshop will help you see this at a glance. Below we have a sailboat with a jib sail. The black line is the Jib Car track. And the three dots that I added (red, green, red) represent the Jib Car in three different places, fore, center and aft. These are places relative to your boat and other variables.
Jib Car Too Far Aft
This illustration shows when the Jib Car is too far aft. Notice how the “Wings” show that the bottom section of the sail is too tight, while the top of the sail is too loose. Only the mid section of this sail is really working to move the boat.
Jib Car Too Far Fore
This illustration is the reverse. Notice that it shows when the Jib Car is too far fore. Notice how the “wings” show that the top section is too tight and the bottom section is too loose.
The reason there is a Jib Car and a Jib Car Track is that this adjustment is relative to your boat, the wind and your sailing conditions. Some sailors add marks to the Jib Car Track to return to a previous setting adjustment.
Jib Car Centered and Working
This illustration is the “Goldilocks” location where the Jib Car centered. The “wings” behind the sail show the relative equality strength of the top, mid and bottom sections of the sail.
Jib Car photos
I found several brands of Jib Cars. The first one is rather simple with only a loop for your rope (Sheet). While the second has a pulley to ease the wear on your gear. Since ropes are a regular sailboat expense, it’s a good investment to keep them in good shape with a Jib Car that has a pulley.
There is a very good video on this subject here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nngun5Y867U).
Conclusions
I’m new to sailing and I just learned something new. I hope this was clear for you and you enjoyed my descriptions. If you would like to learn more about Jib Cars or sailing, send me feedback and I will look into it. Thanks for visiting and happy sailing.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nngun5Y867U