Some Easy Ways To Reduce Heel (Tipping the Boat)
For many sailors – especially inexperienced sailors – a sailboat
heeling in excess of 15 or so degrees is not only uncomfortable; it’s downright
frightening. So, one of the most
important skills for the new sailor to learn is how to reduce the amount of
heel that the boat (and crew) is experiencing.
One prevalent problem that many new sailors have is that the
boat they have purchased is a previously owned one with old (maybe the
original) sails. These old sails have
stretched significantly since they were new - - they’re “blown out”. This means that there is too much draft or “belly”;
and the sail is more powerful than originally designed. One problem of these “blown out” sails is
that they don’t allow the boat to point and sail upwind very efficiently. A second problem with the “blown out” sails is
that instead of driving the boat forward, these sails tend to tip the boat over
much farther than newer sails would.
This creates excessive heel which is uncomfortable, inefficient, and
frightening. What follows are several
ways that a skipper and crew can reduce the degree of heel.
One of the easiest things a skipper can do in a gust is to
steer the boat a bit more upwind (called feathering upwind). Doing this spills wind out of the sails and
decreases the wind’s pressure on the sails.
Of course, the sails often flap and make a lot of noise (called
luffing). Luffing the sails too much
weakens the sails even more. So feathering
is a short-term fix; not a long-term solution.
Similarly, the mainsheet could be eased a bit – causing just
the mainsail to luff. The luffing mainsail is spilling wind. So, the boat tends to heel less. Easing the mainsheet is usually preferred to
easing the jib sheet because the boat will tend to stay on course with a
luffing main; but tend to round upwind with a luffing jibsail.
As you grow in proficiency, easing the traveler control line
so that the traveler car moves to leeward along the traveler track will become
preferred over easing the mainsheet because the mainsail’s adjustments don’t
change – just the mainsail’s angle to the wind changes. When the gust dies down, the traveler can be
pulled more to the center of the track and the mainsheet won’t need to be
changed.
If there is a steady increasing of wind velocity, more direct
inputs to the mainsail and jib sail will probably need to happen. One of these direct inputs might be to change
down to a smaller jib sail – even to a storm jib. Changing to a smaller jib can really calm
things down – especially heeling. If
your boat has a furling jib, simply rolling up two or three turns accomplishes
about the same thing as changing to a smaller jib.
There are direct inputs for the mainsail that are effective
too. An easy adjustment would be to
increase the tension on the Cunningham and the clew outhaul. Increasing these two adjustment lines will
tend to flatten the mainsail and make it less powerful. The wind is becoming more powerful; so, the
sail doesn’t need to be as powerful compared to before.
Similarly, the jib halyard be tightened to help flatten that sail.
Finally, you might want to reef the mainsail. On Snickerdoodle I have three reef
points. A flattening reef that nicely
flattens the bottom half of the sail… A
first full reef point that decreases the mainsail area by about 20%... And a second full reef point that decreases
the mainsail area by a similar amount.
All of the reef points are set up with single line reefing which makes reefing
a 30 second maneuver or so.
All of these “fixes” can and should be practiced on nice days
with an approximate 5 to 15 knots of wind blowing. Accomplishing the “fixes” will be easier than
when the wind is gusting to 25+ - - - but you will be able to see and feel the
effective differences even with the lighter breeze blowing.
