Options to minimize heeling?

[tweitz]

One comment. Someone mentioned that heeling increases the waterline length and therefore the theoretical hull speed. That was true of the boats years ago, but on the newer, beamier boats with a plumb bow, there is almost no increase in waterline length with heeling.

[a64pilot]

I believe the secret is to put her at the helm, let her control the amount of heel, she will be way more comfortable once she understands she is in control, it’s just normal

[skenn_ie]

Originally Posted by Zhent

Hi everyone (this may be a silly / newb question, so apologies in advance.)

My wife and I have taken our 101 and 103 classes and are enjoying sailing about this summer, learning and gaining experience on the water. We've had some great instructors who have a ton of experience, which has really helped answer some questions that don't always come up online.

T

Thanks!

Practice sailing a little further off the wind. If you buy your own keel boat, look for higher ballast ration and a little beamier. 5:1 L/B is about average. Wider beam does usually mean slower sailing though. Fatten the sail (downhaul on the mainsail luff, get your fairleads in the right place for the staysail) in stronger winds rather than spilling wind. That will allow you to ease the sheets and keep the boat more upright. Alternatively, take your wife sailing with an experienced ocean sailer and show her that it is quite common to sail with the lee rail underwater, at least some of the time.

[Tayana42]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I believe the secret is to put her at the helm, let her control the amount of heel, she will be way more comfortable once she understands she is in control, it’s just normal

Bingo!![emoji106]

[JimZeigler]

Interesting topic. First of all, I assume you are talking about a boat with a fixed ballasted keep and not a sailing dinghy. It took my wife a while to realize the our first ballasted boat could heel over under normal sailing condition without the danger of capsizing. In fact, you could put the mast on the water and it would sill upright, not that we ever did it. I think when we were tuning the mast by healing the boat and adjusting the slack, she realized how stiff the boat really was.

The boat heals because the sails are pulling the boat over, not the wind pushing against the sails. The sails are wings and the wind rushing past them creates the lift that pulls against the righting moment. Jus tot prove that, next time you are sailing in moderate wind, harden up and sail as close to the wind as you can. Then start a tack but don't release the jib sheet. The jib will backwind and you are in a "hove-to" position. With a little judicial use of the rudder, the boat should hold at an angle into the wind. Two things you will notice - one the boat is not healing as much, and two, this is a great position if you have to use the head, fix something or just some relief from working up wind.

I started out racing and so my issue was not so much heeling as the resulting weather helm and drag the rudder created. The broader beam cruising boat of the 80's (like Hunter 37) would develop a lot of weather helm and become unsteerable if they healed too much. The rudder was turned so much to counteract the weather helm, that the boat slowed considerably. The reefing scheme on our older Catalina 34 was to start reefing the main to a double reef before reducing the genoa. In fact, we would to a triple reef before taking in any serious genoa.

That took a lot of the weather helm out and the boat settled into a manageable heal.

Also watch the sail twist. I assume the taught you that both the main and jib should luff uniformly along the entire length of the luff. If it luffs lower, you need to add twist. The upper part of the sail will be pulling hard and creating more healing force. In fact, before you take a reef in the genoa I would try moving the job pulleys aft and see if that reduces the heal.


You can also try a fisherman's reef. This is especially helpful in gusts. You ease the bow into the wind until the leading edge of the main sail is luffing. That reduces the efficiency of the main sail and reduces weather helm. I t requires a lot of attention, tight ( versus sloppy) steering gear and a fine hand. You almost have to see the gust coming across the water and anticipate them. The only risk is turning too much into the wind and luffing both the jib and main, but if you set up right, the main should be luffing several degrees into the wind before the jib.


All else fails, get a catamaran.

[jleeglenn]

This is a matter of testing your spouse's tolerance for both heeling & motion below, most difficult when going upwind. Heeling is only part of the equation as sailing upwind in choppy seas is not a particularly comfortable experience no matter how your sails are set.

….for that matter sailing fairly flat in larger beam seas isn't particularly comfortable either, it's just that the motion is more three dimensional...….pitch, yaw & roll all in one package.

As one earlier post suggested, if the tolerance level is low...……...sail some catamarans before buying.

[JPA Cate]

I don't know if this will fit for you and your good lady, zhent, but one thing that may help a lot is to take courses with separate instructors for you and your wife. That way, she will learn to stand on her own feet as a sailor, and not feel so dependent on you for her well being--which to me, is a good thing; plus, each of you will then come together with some slightly different inputs from your separate classes, and that, too, can be a benefit. There are actually courses run by women for women, and sometimes those are a really good fit, as well.

If she is interested, she could offer herself as crew on a club racer. She will learn a lot about expectations, and to some extent will become de-sensitized to the heeling issue. You learn from the others around you, and no one is scared, so why should you be? at least it was that way for me. Now, one other thing, I hope your wife is a swimmer, because that takes a lot of worry out of the heeling fear, since getting wet is an annoyance, but not life threatening. Now, far offshore, that's a different deal, but just normal sailing, not really a problem in warm waters.

Hope this helps.

Ann

[dinghysailor]

I am a bit surprised there has been little mention of multihulls since that would seem to be the obvious choice if you dont like your boat heeling over. We now have a 32foot Farrier trimaran, although we still do nearly all our sailing in our rather heavy old sailing dinghy, maybe that will change as we get more used to the bigger boat and hopefully overcome our anxiety about handling it in harbours and in stronger winds. We find the trimaran actually heels quite significantly, but less than most monohulls. I am told that Dragonfly trimarans heel less than Farrier ones. I have never sailed on a catamaran but I hear that they generally heel less than trimarans and that you can leave your drinks on a cabin table without wedging them against a fiddle - that is not the case with our trimaran, at least not unless conditions are very gentle. A catamaran sailor told me that sailing a catamaran is like taking a little piece of the land with you (I wish!) so if you really dont like heeling that could be a good choice. However, our trimaran does seem to sail nicely and we seem overtake other sailing boats, including the few catamarans we have come accross at sea.

[nmccubbin]

If the lee lifelines are in the water (not just a little spray) you have way too much sail up. As others have said, sailing flatter is faster.
I was surprised at the post that mentions boats with only one reef. We have three sets of reef points and use them all, frequently.
One good way to avoid heeling a lot is to remember that gentlemen (and ladies) NEVER go to windward. Realistically, if you are cruising long term, you can plan for very little windward work.
Beware of very stiff boats, such at hot racing machines. They tend to have a jerky, seasickness-inducing motion. I have sailed about 80,000 miles including transatlantic etc. and the only time I have been seasick was beating to windward in a very stiff racing machine.

[ghochgraf]

Wife of the previous owner for Eclipse panicked when they were heeling. She got out a knife and cut the foot off the sail. Needless to say the boat stopped heeling. We bought a nice used boat with a new mainsail.
Since then we've've learned to put in the first reef as soon as we see the first whitecaps. We often have two reefs in the main and one in the jib while other boats are flying all their canvas. They're also heeling more than we are.
Eclipse is MacGregor 26S, known to be 'tender'. She easily heels to 10 or 15 degrees, but really hardens up (secondary stability) at 30.

[drcat]

I would chime in on the catamaran option. While heeling in a monohull might be the first issue with your wife, how about heading downwind with waves/swells on the aft quarter for long distances? This is a much more common situation with cruisers, especially doing tradewind and Caribbean routes. Monohulls will roll back and forth while cats will roll very little. Woman on La Vagabonde got tired of monohull motion in Pacific, so did the Sailing Zatara family, they both switched to cats. If you look at cats, look for ones with 2/1 length to beam ratio. I personally like the Privilege 39's for cabin room, length to beam ratio, bridgedeck clearance and reasonable prices. Youtude Taking the Chance sailing on in Caribbean now.