Heeling and New Sailor

[SurferShane]

I discovered one benefit of healing a few days back. Going around a point in the lake I ran straight up a submerged reef. The wind over the last few days had been gusting up to 30 knots so I had been happily steaming along a bit too close to shore. After grinding to a stop I simply put up my heavy little genoa and let the gusts heel the boat till I was free.

Well there you go; heeling can really work for you?

[Dumluk]

New to sailing here. Have had some real lessons on a 'J15 like' boat, a sunfish, some simulator 5 practice with a laser, and skippered daysail rentals of a hunter 34. My main training is with a 26" RC craft designed like an America's cup yacht.

Rounding into the wind happens a lot on the Kansas lake I sail. At first I thought it was weather helm and cut some new sails thinking the mainsail was too large for the given wind. Rounding still happened when the boat heeled and the more severe the heel the more the rounding.

I think rounding into the wind during heeling is separate from weather helm. I was looking at the RC model from all directions, balancing the boat by the hull and now and I think the rounding is because the sails rotate the boat stern over bow. When a sailboat is straight up (no heel) buoyancy prevents the bow from going underwater (down and around the boats center of rotation). If the boat is heeled say 90°, the sails will still rotate the bow forward, but now there is less water (buoyancy) to restrict the forward rotation. The boat bow rotates to the horizon like a camper's compass pointing north.

Also a rudder is useless on a well heeled boat as left and right now points the bow up out of the water or down into the water.

Lessons learned:
1) When boat is heeling uncontrollably give up on rudder control unless you have rudders that point out like airplane elevators. I think the Volvo Ocean Racers use this feature with two rudders since they are either heeled port or starboard their entire useful life.

2) Let the main out and turn into the wind. This will reduce both the forward force of the wind and the heel at the same time. This will also maintain rudder control since the rudder will direct the boat port and starboard versus wet and dry.

3) Use smaller sails on windier days.

4) Get a boat with lower but wider sails. I think lowering the force of the sails closer to the waterline should help, but that increases the real weather helm effect (wind difference fore and aft). Do tall rigs roundup
more so than ketches?

Does rounding when heeled happen often on large craft such as 35' on 'big water'?

[markpierce]

If heeling in a sailboat bothers one, she should consider a catamaran, a motorboat or a non-boating pursuit.