windward heel – downwind – how much?
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Once more – the silly question.
Since I don’t have boats to compare against, it’s not obvious to me how much I should heel to windward on the runs. I’ve noticed that the helm goes neutral at quite modest heel angles, but the guys in this picture seem to be heeled much more than that.
They’re heeled right up to the angle at which I’m thinking things like “Whoooaaaah”.
I read somewhere too that – above flat calm conditions – Finns use quite modest heel angles downwind. Now, they have no chine, but I do wonder. Should I be heeled like the guy on the left of the picture, or more like the guy on the right?
H
depends on how you feel the boat is responding i have been using modest heel in heavier winds so to keep the rudder feeling light and neutral.
in really light winds you can dare to go as far as you like but being upright is much quicker then being upside down!!
Like a lot of OK questions, the answer to heel downwind is ‘it depends on what you are trying to achieve’. The guy on the left (Think it’s Nick?) looks happy to play the right side of the run and is digging deep with airflow going from leach to luff. Its no accident that his angle is lower than other boats as that is his natural bearing considering the windward heel he has. Whatever angle he has, he wont be steering with the rudder as the boat will be set to make that neutral. Presuming the mark is higher than he is, at some stage he will come higher and get the airflow moving from luff to leach.
The guy who is higher, is happier to play the left of the run (his left), and probably has airflow coming from luff to leach. Due to the direction of the flow he needs less heel to keep his tiller neutral. If gusts flow in from his side he’s in clover.
Waves are an important consideration in that depending on the angle of them can make it easier to roll to leward of the wave or heat the boat up to windward to get over the wave. Both boats might in fact be doing this and if the photo was taken 30 seconds later maybe the angles and styles would reversed.
I do think it’s important, to get the airflow going one way or another. Leach to luff, or luff to leach. No flow is so slow! Anyway Downwind is one of my weaknesses and I’m lecturing now so I’m off.
TW.Heeling to windward doess a number of things, as does sailing by the Lee.
heeling to windward gets the COE over the hull and thus requires less rudder ( thus drag) to go in a straight line which shuold equal faster….
The angle will vary depending on if you want to bear away down a wave ( more windward heel) or head up ( less heel) as this moves the COE relative to the boat and effectivley steers the boat without the rudder..
if however you are a mere mortal like me, you need to add a bit of rudder as well…
As for by the lee sailing, see the link below, which explans it and the techniques pretty well
http://www.roostersailing.com/articles/4TH%20DIM%20WEB%20ARTICLE.HTML
Flat water and lighter winds is the time and place to practise these things as when you add waves and a bit of breeze it gets kind of, well wet!!!
Have fun
Chris
GBR 2148 ( When its been measured)Also, windward heel lifts the CoE, so if there’s a vertical wind gradient, it lifts your rig into more breeze. Dave
Blimey….sitting at my “Workstation” waiting for a supplier (you know who you are!) and thought I’d read some nuggets of information. Windward heel, C of E, wind gradient….my brain hurts.
I thought the down wind form was as follows:- bear off and kneel down until the boat stops wobbling about, scabble around in the back tank to find a packet of Silk Cut, swear at your lighter because its got wet, scabble around for the emergency lighter, pull some strings and let some strings off (doesn’t seem to make much difference but looks good), look around for the camera boat and once spotted put on the “I’m concentrating and therefore need to frown” face, find yourself at the bottom mark ready for some leaning out, simple.
As I understand it the Downhill God (should that read “Downhill Cod”) is our own Mr. R. Austin who got a special mention in Largs from the Referee for letting his boat wobble about a little bit too much.
Any more pearls of wisdom or if you would like to book a private sailing clinic please don’t hesitate to let me know.one or two things dont ring true with you post rcg 1 work you dont do any and only 1 spare lighter and last ready, when have you ever been ready for anything in a boat nice to see you came through the 3rd ice age unscathed see you on the water
I’ve continued messing about with various levels of heel and as far as I can see it’s much faster to go with more heel in light and even moderate wind. This is true even well beyond the point at which the helm goes neutral. I’m guessing you just get more and more onto a long narrow v-shape hull as you heel onto the chine.
When sailing downwind I’ve tested it quite a few times and the more heel the faster i went.
More heel is faster….until you fall over.
h
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