Tacking in high winds

[Baha]

What a great thread!

On my , I had the same issues and actually had my first sail in pretty high winds. Did a few "Chinese" gybes and had her on her side quite a bit.

I could not tack on some points of sail without stalling, period. I decided to just keep the motor on and handy, and practice with very slow, easy tacks, watching the sail shapes and experimenting with my timing on when to release and then power up the headsail. Gradually, I got to where I knew what my speed had to be before starting the tack, which I think is the most important but often misjudged part of the tack.

I didn't see this mentioned before, but reefing is important. If you want to make a sharp turn on your tack, you need daggerboard. If you are heeling big-time, you should not (as I understand it) have your daggerboard all the way down, because that just amplifies the heel. All I have currently is the one reef point. I am telling myself that I will put in the 2nd one when I need my main sail worked on.

Lastly, in the winds I encounter when river/coastal sailing, which tend to be gusty, having a smaller headsail really makes your life easier.

Just my 2 cents.....

I found this....kind of explains what I was talking about with the daggerboard......comments apprecaited!

In simple terms: The wind puts a sideways force on the sail (as well as the forward forces) which pushes the boat sideways. If you have no centreboard, this will not cause the boat to heal, only slide sideways. By putting the centreboard down, you are resisting this sideways movement. However, the wind is pushing the sail - the top of the boat, the centreboard is resisting at the bottom of the boat causing it to rotate.

Think about a person tripping over. Their momentum going forwards is centred on the upper half of their body, as their foot hits something, the resistive force is applied to their feet. They rotate forwards.

The centreboard reduces sideways movement at the expense of needing to correct more heel. You need to find the balance for the conditions.

(N.B. this does not apply when running where the centreboard does give some more stability)

[sailboatmike]

Yes exactly, no centerboard into the wind equals no forward movement, just getting pushed sideways, the centerboard gives you lift into the wind like a plane wing, less centerboard effects your ability to point up and make way as you will just get blown off the wind so of course you will heel less because your point of sail will no longer be beating (sailing into the wind) more like reaching (sailing with the wind on the side of the boat) as you get pushed off

Unlike most larger boats we have unweighted keels making our boats more like dinghies in reality, the keel does very little in the way of righting moment except provide some resistance , its all about providing lift.

A good place to start is reading the recommended centerboard settings for sailing dinghies

[BOAT]

I'm not sure I understand what you guys just said but I can tell you that I always have my daggerboard all the way down - almost ALL the time - the only time I think about pulling it up is when I am coming into the harbor mouth because they have some shoaling issues there or rarely I might pull it up when going downwind. And I have never ever used the motor to come about - I have had it happen that I just could not get the boat to come about before because there just was not enough wind - but in those cases I have always just let the boat drift to whatever position it wants and then start all over. if the wind is blowing anything over 2 knots I NEVER have a problem tacking. I don't understand why your boat would not tack in high winds - it makes no sense to me.

[Neo]

The centerboard drop is an interesting subject (worthy of a new thread too).
I rarely adjust my centerboard, manly because I forget it's there (with everything else that's going on) but the times I have tried to adjust it, while underway, it would not move (up or down) .... So at what point should I be trying to adjust the drop of the centerboard?

[sailboatmike]

Ok this is what I understand the position to be from reading many books on dinghy racing and from some of my own experience.

When going into the wind the centerboard should be all the way down to help create lift, this helps push the bow into the wind and gives resistance for the sails to push against to create forward drive. less centerboard will push you off the wind and decrease the angle at which you can sail to windward.

As you sail at a lesser angle to the wind the boat needs less lift resistance so accordingly the board can be raised slightly, this decreases drag and thus increases speed,

When sailing down wind the boat can trip over its keel (we have all seen videos of boats pitch poling on youtube) so while some is needed for directional stability no lift is needed at this point of sail, so the keel can be raised even further, once again less keel in the water equals less drag equals more speed.

Im pretty sure our boats are not going to go hard enough to pitch pole, but just reducing the drag will proportionally give to a nice speed boost.

Of course the greater majority of us cant be bothered to try and push every tiny bit of speed out of our boats, so sailing with the keel all the way down is just easy.

I did the experiment of 1/2 lifting my keel when on a broad reach in lightish conditions and managed to squeeze around 1/2 knt extra speed out of the boat, really its a bit like lifting the outboard leg out of the water

[Highlander]

Sailing into the wind in high sea,s can be challenging @ times , as far as extra weight up front in the bow I would say it definitely helps ,I have 2 anchors mounted on my double anchor roller on my bowsprit 50' of chain & 200' of anchor rode in my anchor well plus a nice big House Battery under the V-Berth which also doubles for my anchor winch so I have a lot of weight up-front
http://vid844.photobucket.com/albums/ab ... 0_2494.mp4

most of my sailing is done with 1/3-2/3 D/B down , up-wind all D/B down , downwind D/B is mostly all the way up

J

[Doug W]

And risk spilling it??!!!

Awww com'on! Doncha have a beer holder onboard?!!

oh...my...

I've got to get me one of those!

[Neo]

When going into the wind the centerboard should be all the way down to help create lift, this helps push the bow into the wind and gives resistance for the sails to push against to create forward drive. less centerboard will push you off the wind and decrease the angle at which you can sail to windward.

As you sail at a lesser angle to the wind the boat needs less lift resistance so accordingly the board can be raised slightly, this decreases drag and thus increases speed,

When sailing down wind the boat can trip over its keel (we have all seen videos of boats pitch poling on youtube) so while some is needed for directional stability no lift is needed at this point of sail, so the keel can be raised even further, once again less keel in the water equals less drag equals more speed.

Thanks Mike, this is great information

[Highlander]

And risk spilling it??!!!

Awww com'on! Doncha have a beer holder onboard?!!

oh...my...

I've got to get me one of those!

Yeah me too she,d help me get lot,s of lift !!

J

[Doug W]

[quote="Highlander]

Yeah me too she,d help me get lot,s of lift !!

J [/quote]
hahahahahaha

[LoHo]

I don't normally like warm beer, but in this case...

[Wind Chime]

Nice cans

[sailboatmike]

[quote="Highlander]

Yeah me too she,d help me get lot,s of lift !!

J

hahahahahaha [/quote][/quote]

Have you been taking those little blue tablets again with a "V" on them

[Neo]

I second that motion Mike..... I never mind a thread being hijacked for another subject (to do with Macs) but the stuff above is best aired on another forum.

[Ixneigh]

Anything beyond 20 degrees of heel and I reduce sail.
In 25k of wind I have the 2nd reef in and a small hank on jib. In 30k i go anchor somewhere. Boat will tack ok with good wave timing and back winding the jib as she come around even with my skegs which slightly hinder tacking. If the boats on her side she ain't going to Do it.
For heavy air that roller furling headsail is not as good as a nice stought hank on (not the factory jib) headsail. Not by a long shot.
Btw tacking at low speeds in lighter conditions.
I used to have an issue tacking with no board down (in shallow water) but I learned a fun little trick. Release the jib pull the main then pick up both rudders. Once she's around just drop them again.
Ix