Running
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Hi all,
Went sailing last night in gusting F6, my first time in any real wind in my OK.
Was running and could not seem to control the boat/sail properly, as soon as I pointed up into a broad reach I could get the boat to settle. I pulled the kicker as hard as possible but the sail still seemed twisted and quite full which I think was why I capsized to winward 3 times during the race and one time got physically thrown form the boat (very large gust that I had not noticed coming). Is this just something I need to learn how to handle, i.e. even on my very narrow river gybing from reach to reach, or just become accustomed to the rockiness. Or have I set up my kicker wrong and I should be able to get the sail flat enough to run dead downwind?
Thanks for any help,
Adam
Running in a breeze on all boats with unstayed rigs can be an issue to start with as you can allow the sail to go in front of the mast. If you are aware of what you are doing then this is OK but it can cause some instability.
How much centerboard are you using?
No c/b at all is very tricky. I use about 1/3 to 1/2 on the run to make steering effective but keeping the effective (center of lateral resistance!) bit of the c/b well aft so the boat doesn’t try hard to head up.
What action did you try to stop the roll to windward?
Ther are lots of things to do here, some better than others. Generally I find that holding a straight course on the run and pulling in a lot of mainsheet when the boat rolls to windward helps (I mean a lot if it is a good gust- A full armfull!). It is not going to gybe unexpectedly in a real breeze. You can get away with going down the run with the boom quite a lot back (up to 45 deg) in a breeze – not so fast but more stable.
Usually, newcomers to the boat try to stop rolls to windward by jumping about and trying to pull kicker, centerboard etc.. This usually makes things worse and the spectator element better. Theer are other things like putting too much kicker on etc. but I would generally expect that it is the basics that you are having trouble with.
Hope this helps.
Bill
Hope some of this helps.
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