Ep 14: The Downside of Excessive Heeling
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 เม.ย. 2020
- Welcome to Episode 14 of Carpe Diem Sailing. In this video I discuss the disadvantages of excessive heeling under sail and how this can significantly hamper sailing performance and affect crew morale.
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Just stumbled on this video... very well explained, I’ll have to make my father watch this so he understands that more heeling doesn’t mean more speed !..
Instant subscribe !
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, I appreciate the support.
Brilliant video, i have had the same argument with my brother, less sail in strong winds = happy crew and you actually will sail faster over course. I have found the same in my sailing dingy.
Thanks for the comment Gordon. I’m delighted that you agree and enjoyed the video
Nice explanation for those new to sailing. Part 2 “how to fix this” would be nice as an entry to intermediate sail trim.
Thank you Mark. I completely agree and have a video on shortening sail or reefing coming up. Thanks for the kind words.
@@CarpeDiemSailingMagazine Looking forward to that.
Well, yes! Very well done!
Hi Marco. Just wanted to let you know that we have linked this video in ours. You did a very nice job and we think it will benefit our students in helping to understand heeling. Cheers, Capt. David
Thank you so much Capt David, I appreciate it. Good luck with your channel 👍
Always Great information!!
Thanks again!
Wow! incredible explanation.
Glad you think so!
Great video. Love all the theoretical explanations
Glad to hear it! Thank you!
Excellent as always, Marco! Thanks for the clear explanations and informative graphics. You always see comments from people congratulating a skipper for posting video of his boat with the rail buried... but like you said, it's only a good thing on a rare number of hull designs nowadays!
I appreciate that!
Yep the only thing it’s good for is trying to make sailing more “exciting” and photo ops.
Thank you , 👩✈️ for explaining the concept so clear!
Love your channel 👍👍👍
Thanks for the kind support 👍
Great explanation! I would only add that in my opinion, the altered shape of the submerged part of the hull is only a minor contributing factor of the weather helm, and that the main reason is the center of effort of the sails being moved to the leeward side of the heeling boat. Traditionally, people think about the center of effort and its front-back position with respect to the lateral component of the sails' force (in relation to the lateral projection of the submerged hull), but the same applies the lateral position of the center of effort with respect to the forward component of the sails' force (and the frontal projection of the submerged hull). When the boat heels, the center of effort (where the sails are pulling forward), moves to the leeward side, while the point where the drag force pushes the hull back moves only little. This creates a noticeable distance between the two forces resulting in a windward turning moment.
Thank you for your comment Petr. You sound like you might have an engineering background. I don't understand the physics as well as you do so thank you for explaining. I also wanted to keep things simple - the boat heels too much, the boat rounds up - and offer solutions for keeping the boat flat. I have not found on my personal boat that the CE makes that much difference. I sail to windward and point well in heavy air with just a jib, even though theoretically I should have too much lee helm. My own belief is that the heeling causes enough turning moment to counteract any lee helm.
@@CarpeDiemSailingMagazine Thanks for the reply Marco. You are right, I'm much more of an engineer than a sailor :) I've actually got my baseline sailboat license only recently (but I must say that for an inland country, the knowledge of physics background of sailing required here in Czechia even for the basic license is reasonably deep). Anyway, as you speak about the CE, you are talking about its fore/aft position (as determined by the combination of sails, their reef etc.), which is the typical way of thinking about it. My point is that the CE (being a point in space) can also move side to side, which is exactly what happens when the boat heels. Imagine the sails propelling the boat forward as if it was pulled by a rope tied to the mast, say 2 meters above the water. When the boat stands straight up, the pull is in line with the hull (when viewed from the top) and no extra force on the helm is created. When the boat heels (say 45°), the point where the rope is attached moves to the leeward side (by approx. 1.4 meters) and is no longer in line with the hull. So the propelling force is now offset from the hull to the leeward side, thus turning you against the wind. As a result, you get exactly what you describe - even though the fore/aft CE predicts lee helm, the side-to-side effect can balance it out, allowing the boat to be balanced with the jib alone in strong winds.
It's of course not necessary to know all of these details as long as you know how the boat behaves, but it brought me a lot of joy and confidence to understand the reasons for the weather helm rather than just accepting it as "magic", so I wanted to put this concept "out there" if someone finds it useful too. BTW I really enjoy your videos, your channel provides one of the most straightforward instruction on sailing on the internet IMO.
@@PetrHosek, hi, I like your physics approach. And yes it helps to understand the basics of the mechanisms in play. Greetings from Mauritius.
Awesome video.
I'm a very green sailor, but a fairly experienced control systems engineer. I always assumed one of the biggest reasons you lose performance was that the projected sail area goes down as you heel, reducing sail power.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for these videos. I'm a Sail Canada student in Ontario and have found your content supplements the syllabus well. I feel lucky to have stumbled upon your TH-cam page. I especially appreciate that you've made show notes available for download for many videos as I've been taking notes. I found the diagrams for this lecture quite helpful and would love if they were made available on the show notes site as well, along with the infographics from the Tide Tables video. Thanks again!
Thank you for the kind comment BK D. Thank you for the great suggestion. I will get to it as soon as I can. I'm delighted that you are finding my videos helpful.
Excellent presentation as usual. Your easily understood detailed explanations teach me much more than I have learned through books, other videos and even a full week live aboard sailing course
One thing I think should be briefly mentioned is how to decrease heel. I “think” releasing the sheets or turning into the wind would decrease heel.
Thank you for your kind comment. Easing sheets to heading up will reduce heel but it is not the right thing to do. Easing sheets in a short gust is also called a Fisherman's Reef but it is hard on sails so I avoid it. Heading up will also depower sails but will cause them to luff which similarly is hard on sails. Best to shorten sail properly by reefing.
Good and simple explanation well done. We will try out next season.
Best of luck! Thanks for the kind comment!
Very well done video. Subscribed!
Thank you Marco. I appreciate it.
Top notch videos! Thanks
Glad you like them! Thank you!
Sir, I am an experienced sailor, but your explanations are helping me fine tune my skills. I've subscribed ad really appreciat your efforts here on TH-cam. If I was in Canada, I'd take a class with you. Too far south, unfortunately. Best Regards, and Safe Travels.
Welcome aboard Ted. Thanks for watching.
great content! as a young sailor In MB there is no comparable teachers. lake Winnipeg has been my classroom and teacher haha. wish I could become a sail teacher but no such possibility here in MB
Hi JC, thank you for the kind comment. If you’re interested in becoming a sailing instructor check out Sail Manitoba’s website
sailmanitoba.com/
@@CarpeDiemSailingMagazine I have taken their courses but non of the instructors offer more training than I already have acquired. I was told I will have to go to BC to do any further training. I love the teachers here just very old and not willing to do much on water.. it's a darn shame. at this point I'm just going to get my captions license from transport canada and charted people and if the want to informally learn under me then I guess that's the best MB can offer. if there is any other avenue you can think of I would greatly greatly appreciate a point in the right direction!!!
Great explanation. Where I am struggling is defining what is "excessive". Each boat is probably different, and therein lies the challenge, but after watching the video, I'm still unclear as to what is "excessive", the basic premise of the video. Thank You.
According to North Sails more than 4 degrees of weather helm means your boat is out of balance. There is a formula for every foot of tiller length but I can't remember it right now. I will try to find it and get back to you.
This from North Sail U book of trim:
Feel of the Helm
Weather helm is a key trim guide. A nearly balanced helm is fast in light to moderate winds. In heavy air most boats can tolerate about 8° of helm without stalling. (Note: on tiller boats 5° of helm is about 1” of helm per foot of tiller length. Ie. For a four foot tiller four inches of helm equals 5°. On wheel boats you will have to measure the ratio of wheel rotation and rudder turn
Modern sailboats with flat bottoms, beam carries aft, and deep fin bulb keels, sailing as upright as possible is the recommended technique
A good portion of sailboats begin to struggle at 15 degrees of heel. I sail in strong winds quite often. My main is almost always reefed. Easier to shake it out reef it back in.
Scares me plenty!! Lol... well done!
You and me both!
Also the sails lose forward force, I experimented with a hobby cat, getting it to fly a hull instead of eased sheet, it was slower.
Very good point. Haven't been on a Hobie in years I remember how slow flying a hull really was. It was kinda fun in it's own way but definitely slower.
to correct a heel in the moment do you come off the wind and ease the main or jib OR head up into the wind?
To correct heeling in a gust, ease the main, easing the traveller is best but mainsheet works too. Bearing away and easing the sheet will not work unless you bear away far enough to be on a broad reach. Heading up would also work but is not ideal. If the heeling persists reef.
so best way to stop the heeling? Do you prefer to ease the main out or heave to? Thanks for vid
Hi Josh. It depends. The best way to stop heeling over the long term is to shorten sail (reef) progressively and balanced between mainsail and headsail. In the short term in strong gusts if you are being heeled you can ease the mainsail for the duration of the gust or what I prefer, lower the traveler for the gust and then bring it back up again. Hope this helps.
Thank you!
I have been with this guy on his boat today and he totally heels a lot. It got up to 45° or so at times. You barely could sit in the cockpit without holding yourself in the seat by putting your leg on the opposite side.
He tells me thats how you sail faster and keelboats cant capsize.
Technically he's right that keelboats can't capsize, but what's more right is that they won't capsize by wind alone. Many have capsized in big seas but that is because they are rolled over by a breaking wave. Once rolled over they should come back up. That is all besides the point in this case. As you saw in my video a very few, older full keel boats might go faster heeled over. The majority of boats actually go slower. It's an illusion that you are going faster. If he says that the knotmeter says he's going faster that may be through the water but on a beat it's all about VMG (velocity made good) and no boat heeled over at 45° is going to haver good VMG. Thanks for the comment
@@CarpeDiemSailingMagazine Thank you for your video!