Reply To: Leeward Heel upwind – moderate air, nasty short chop
Interesting to follow up on this.
Over the last couple of weekends there’s been quite a decent breeze and moderate waves with overlying chop on Dublin Bay and I’ve been starting at the same time as the Lasers, which gave me a chance to experiment with tune a bit better.
Suffice it to say that what Daen was saying is exactly what I’d say now. The boat absolutely needs some heel upwind in waves. 5 Degrees or so at least. Whether it’s an effect of engaging the chine or reducing slamming, it’s really noticeable in both speed AND pointing.
I wrote the first post in this thread on a day when we’d been sailing over small but very steep chop and on that day even more heel seemed to work. Mightn’t be a general trend..
As always, more time on the water makes everything clearer.
H
