Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Sailing on the edge


3 comments:

  1. There is much less surface area touching the water when you have the wind and you're heeled over like that - and you can go faster.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It varies from boat to boat but best heel is where the helm is neutral. Most racers will tell you to "sail it flat". Heeling is fun but it dumps much of your power off the top of the sail.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Racers do crunches in the winter so they can hold the boat 'flat' upwind in the spring, summer and fall races. Nobody hikes out hard without a clear reason. The angle of the photo is poor but there doesn't appear to be any reason to be close hauled on a broad reach.

    ReplyDelete