Sailing Downwind Offshore - how to stop rolling ?

[SailingHarmonie]

Here is a trick that never seems to show up anywhere, but it works a charm on our boat.

We use twin poled out headsails for DDW work. Veryeasy to handle, and reasonably efficient and no gybe risks. If you don't have the sail trim right, this rig can roll terribly. What's the trick?

Ease off the sheets. Quite a bit. Until the top 20% or so of the sails are just on the verge of luffing. Now, when a wave pick up the quarter, and the boat starts to roll, the headsail on that side fills more, and pushes the boat upright. As the boat rights herself, the push stops. The nasty vortices that amplify the roll never get going. It's ike night and day.

Try it, you might be surprised.

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

@ #57:

A joy to read — quintessential common sense :-)!

Cheers!

TrentePieds

Best Part is you can do this even If not offshore

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

Best Part is you can do this even If not offshore

Actually if not offshore, the guy sailing DDW is simply cruising along to his mark with almost no work involved.

I always sailed the speed angles downwind and we (me and the DDW sailor) would usually arrive at the downwind mark together.

We were first and second out of 17 Hobie 16's.

We, my son and I, overtook the DDW sailor twice on the last upwind leg to the committee boat due to large wind shifts and my 15 year old son's tacking calls

By age 15, he had been my crew since age 10 so I went with his calls knowing you learn fast when you are young

We won the regatta with 4 firsts and one second. It was at Sardis Lake, Mississippi in 1997.

We did the 100 mile Round the Island Race a month earlier in September (Ft Walton Beach FL) on a Nacra 6.0 and another regatta with a 30 mile race in between. Juana's Navarre, FL )

[SteveSadler]

Boat design is the biggest factor in dw sailing. Modern boats are wider, flatter, deeper, lighter, than their older production kin. Initial stability is far greater, hard chines have a large role in that. That said, sail plan has consideral influence as well. Wing and wing for example is much more stable than twin headsails alone, or spinaker. The main flattened by a vang is the key.