Mixing to achieve high and VMG mode

You possibly heard the term high mode or VMG mode. High mode is simply where you want the boat to point as high as possible, either to climb away from someone off a start line to hold a lane or lee bow another boat to force them to tack. VMG mode or Velocity Made Good mode is where you sail the boat as fast as possible to windward to achieve the fastest speed directly to the windward mark, usually with the main boom about a cm from the centre of the mainsheet post. We do not have access to instrumentation like on a yacht so achieving best VMG is a little bit of guesswork but most designers will give you a setup to get you close to a VMG set up. Of course even with a designers numbers, there is always the eyeballing of the boat to get the best rig set up e.g. getting the main and jib leeches parallel, achieving a balanced helm etc. With high mode you want the main boom in the centre of the boat. Of course remember in high mode, the boat will slow a bit and you will have to make a call when to get back to VMG mode

So when you set your boat up, you are looking to achieve max VMG. Now the high mode setup is easy to achieve with your transmitter. Once sheeted in, by moving the sheet stick to the left or right, you can pull the sails in a little bit more to allow the the boat to point up or ease them out slightly. I found the technique to work very effectively on the DF95 and DF65 where you can hold a high lane for 30 seconds or more without any loss in speed.

Here is the high mode in action on the transmitter and the boat. You can increase or decrease the amount of movement to suit your boat or rig setup.

So how do you do it on the transmitter.

Mixing on a Spectrum

Lets start with a Spectrum. These are the setting for a DX6e

First of all go to the monitor screen on the function list.

Move the left hand stick up and down and you should see the bar above THR move up and down. Then move the left stick left and right and see what moves. In my case it is the RUD. These are the two items you need for the next step.

Look for "Mixing" on the Function List and click on it to pull up this menu.

Go down to Mix 0 by rotating the toggle on the bottom right hand side of the transmitter. Press the roller toggle to open up the mix screen for mix zero. It will indicate INH>INH as shown above.

The following screen will appear only it will say Mix 0 instead of Mix 2

Click on Normal to get the following screen. It will not look quite like this but you should have no problems replicating the screen.

A bit of background on the way my transmitter is set up. My boat rudder steering stick on the right hand side is listed as AILeron and on my transmitter the left hand stick when moved up and down, controls the sheets, and shown as THR and when moved left and right moves RUD. So I want to use RUD for my mixing

Fingers crossed once you have done this, when you sheet in and move the throttle stick to the left the sheets should tighten by a few mm. Move the stick to the right and you will ease the sheets slightly. Increase or reduce the rate to suit how you want to set the high mode.

Mixing on the Futaba T6K

On the Futaba transmitter it is a little different. On the main menu which is accessed by holding down the + button on the bottom right of the transmitter and select P Mix.

 Note on the screen grab below I have already set the mix, up:

CLick on INH for Mix 1 and you will get a screen that looks like this:

Work through the screen until it looks like this:

If you have it right than when you shift the sheet stick to the left it will sheet the boom into the centre, and when you move it to the right it will ease the sheet slightly. BEWARE, to use the high mode the boom must be sheeted approx 1cm from the centre of the mainsheet post for VMG mode.

If you have any issues with this don't hesitate to ask and best of luck giving this a go.

Mixing on the Flysky

Fianlly lets do this on the Flysky and thanks to Richard Calas of Emsworth RSC for the detailed explanation and pictures

There are two popular models of Flysky transmitters currently used by the Radio Sailing community, the “Old style” FS-i6 and the new FS-ST8.

The set-up procedure to enable the MIXES function to be used to switch from VMG to High or Low mode is fundamentally the same for both with one or 2 minor exceptions as the following screen grabs will illustrate. Follow the instructions and you will easily be able to set up your VMG/High/Low modes for either transmitter. The numbers shown are what I use but you can set yours to suit your own requirements

FS-i6.

Access the FUNCTIONS SET UP menu

Toggle through until you come to MIX

Click on MIX

You will notice the Mix number is set to #1. This does NOT refer to the channel you are attempting to set the mix up for, it is the number of the mixes available; you can have up to 10. Best to just leave it alone.

Set your transmitter to look like the next screen grab

Now go to Testing below.

FS-ST8

Access the GENERAL MENU in the menu screen

Scroll through until you get to the MIXES Menu

Select and access MIX #1

This is the default screen you will now see

You will note that M (Master) is set to Ch3 and S (Slave) is set to CH4. You need to swap these over so M is Ch4 and S is CH3. The next screen grab shows what you are aiming for.                                However, if you scroll over the CH3 and try changing it to CH4 you will find you can’t. Similarly, if you try changing CH4 to CH3, again you won’t be able to. This is because the FS-ST8 has its software set up to stop you having two of the same channels on the same screen.

The solution is as follows.

change M:CH3 to M:CH2 then

Change S:CH4 to S:CH3 now

Change M: CH2 to M:CH4.

Done.

Now change all the other numbers as shown in the next screen grab.

Testing.

The next bit is true for both transmitters

Having saved your settings, you now need to test them.

Turn your boat on and GENTLY sheet in the main fully in. Adjust the main sail so it is approximately 10mm off the centreline, or over the rear quarter on a DF95 or DF65.

 If everything is correct, if you now move the lever to the right the sheets will come in a bit more (High Mode) and if you move the lever to the left the sheets will move out (Low Mode), and if you let go of the lever the sheets will return to the normal position (VMG).

If it works the other way round, ie High Mode to the left, it is because your receiver is factory set to work in reverse, the same as with your rudder and winch servo. Do NOT adjust the reverse in the REVERSE function just change the -10% on the screen above to +10%.

If the function only works when you have moved the lever up a bit, like you would when sailing normally, it is because you have set the OFFSET too high say 20%. Reduce this until you find a position you are happy with.