Why Keeping the Boat Flat Usually Makes It Faster
The boat leaning further over does not necessarily mean it is going faster.
One of the most convincing sensations when you first start sailing is heel.
The wind fills the sails, the boat accelerates, the gunwale moves towards the water and suddenly everything feels much more exciting. It is therefore very easy to make the connection:
More heel = more wind = more speed.
The first part may be true. The second often is not.
In many dinghies, once the boat heels beyond its efficient sailing angle, it actually begins to slow down. The rudder works harder, the centreboard becomes less effective, the sails are no longer producing their force in the most useful direction and the hull itself may be presenting a less efficient shape to the water.
Quite often, the faster sailor is the one whose boat looks rather less dramatic.
And that becomes particularly noticeable when moving from a stable training dinghy to something long, narrow and responsive such as an A-Rater.
Heel Is Not the Same Thing as Speed
First, we need to distinguish between two things that often happen at the same time.
A gust arrives.
The aerodynamic force on the sails increases.
The boat accelerates.
The boat also heels.
It is tempting to conclude that the heel caused the speed.
It did not.
Both were consequences of the increased wind force.
If the boat then heels too far, some of the additional energy from that gust is effectively wasted rather than being converted into forward motion.
A useful way of thinking about it is:
The object is not to stop the wind pushing on the sails. The object is to turn as much of that force as possible into useful forward movement.
That is where boat balance becomes so important.
What Happens When a Dinghy Heels?
A sailing dinghy is designed to work as a complete system.
The sails produce aerodynamic force above the water.
The centreboard or daggerboard produces hydrodynamic force below the water.
The hull moves through the water.
The rudder controls direction.
The crew move their weight to control balance.
When the boat is reasonably upright, all of these components can work together efficiently.
When the boat heels excessively, several things begin to change at once.
1. The Sail Force Becomes Less Useful
Imagine a boat sailing upright.
The mast is approximately vertical, so the sail is standing upright as well.
The aerodynamic force generated by the sail has both a sideways component and a forward component. The sideways component is resisted principally by the centreboard and hull, while the forward component drives the boat.
Now heel the boat considerably.
The sails are no longer vertical.
Some of their force is effectively directed differently relative to the boat and water, and the geometry becomes less favourable.
There is another important effect.
As the masthead moves sideways with heel, the effective vertical height of the rig above the water decreases.
You have taken a tall sail plan and tilted it over.
In strong winds that can sometimes be useful because it reduces the effective driving force and helps depower the boat. But if your aim is maximum speed, deliberately allowing excessive heel is normally an inefficient way of managing the power.
Good sailors try to control the power rather than simply allowing the boat to fall over under it.
2. The Centreboard Works Best When It Is in the Right Orientation
The centreboard is not merely there to stop the boat drifting sideways.
It is effectively an underwater foil.
As the boat moves through the water, the board helps produce the sideways force necessary to oppose the sideways component of the sail force.
When the boat is upright, the board is approximately vertical.
Heel the boat substantially and the board tilts as well.
Part of the force it produces is then directed vertically rather than horizontally.
That means less of its effort is being used for the job we particularly want it to do: preventing sideways movement.
On an upwind leg, this matters enormously.
A boat can appear to be moving quickly through the water while quietly slipping sideways.
The sailor may feel fast.
The GPS may even show reasonable boat speed.
Yet another boat, sailing flatter, may be making much better progress towards the windward mark.
That distinction between speed through the water and useful progress towards your destination is one of the important steps in becoming a better sailor.
3. The Rudder Starts Working Overtime
This is one of the effects that beginners can actually feel through the tiller.
As many dinghies heel, they develop increasing weather helm.
Weather helm is the tendency of the boat to turn towards the wind.
A small amount can be useful. It gives some feedback through the tiller and provides a degree of inherent safety because a boat that is released may tend to turn towards the wind and depower.
Too much weather helm is different.
Now the helm has to pull or push the tiller significantly simply to keep the boat travelling in a straight line.
That means the rudder is no longer sitting approximately in line with the water flow.
It is operating at an angle.
And an angled rudder produces drag.
You are effectively dragging a brake through the water while trying to sail faster.
This produces one of my favourite practical indicators of whether a boat is balanced:
How hard are you having to pull on the tiller?
If you are fighting it continuously, something is probably wrong.
Rather than simply using more rudder, look at the whole boat.
Is it heeling too much?
Is the mainsail over-sheeted?
Should the crew move further out?
Should the mainsheet be eased slightly?
The tiller often tells you about a problem that started somewhere else.
4. The Hull May Become Less Efficient
Dinghy hulls are designed with particular waterlines in mind.
When the boat heels, the shape of the hull that is actually touching the water changes.
On some boats, a little heel can reduce wetted surface in very light winds and may occasionally be useful.
But as heel increases, particularly in moderate and stronger winds, the underwater shape may become increasingly asymmetric.
This can contribute to steering forces and increase drag.
The stern and bow may also sit differently in the water.
The result can be a boat that feels tremendously energetic while actually travelling less efficiently.
This is particularly interesting because our senses are not very good speed instruments.
Spray, noise, movement and heel all make a boat feel fast.
A quietly balanced boat can sometimes be travelling considerably faster.
5. Excessive Heel Changes the Sail Shape
The problem is not simply that the entire sail tilts.
The rig itself is under changing loads.
Mast bend, leech tension, mainsheet load and the relationship between mainsail and jib can all change.
On a simple training dinghy you may not consciously notice most of this.
You may simply discover that the boat becomes harder to control.
On a more sophisticated racing boat, small changes can be much more noticeable.
The objective is to keep the sails working efficiently while controlling their power.
That distinction matters.
Depowering a sail efficiently is not the same as simply letting the boat heel until something gives.
A Training Dinghy Makes the Lesson Forgiving
A good training dinghy is deliberately forgiving.
Take a stable two-person training boat.
A gust arrives.
The boat heels.
The crew move their weight out.
The helm eases the mainsheet slightly.
The boat comes upright and accelerates.
If the response is a little late, there is normally time to recover.
That is one reason these boats are such good teaching platforms. They allow the sailor to experience what happens without every mistake immediately becoming dramatic.
You can deliberately experiment.
Sail on a close reach in a reasonable breeze and notice the tiller pressure.
Then allow the boat to heel more than necessary.
Notice what happens.
Does the tiller become heavier?
Does the boat try to round into the wind?
Now move the crew weight out and flatten the boat.
Quite often the tiller becomes lighter almost immediately.
That is not theory from a textbook.
You can feel it through your hand.
Then Try the Same Thing in an A-Rater
Move to something like Champagne and the same principles remain, but the consequences become more obvious.
An A-Rater is long, narrow and carries a substantial sail area.
There are also several people aboard whose combined weight represents an important part of the boat's balance.
A gust arriving is therefore not merely something for the helm to deal with.
It is something for the entire crew to anticipate.
If everyone remains comfortably inboard while the wind increases, the boat can heel rapidly.
The helm then has several problems at once.
The rudder load increases.
The boat wants to turn towards the wind.
The sail forces are changing.
The crew may suddenly decide to move simultaneously.
And the helm may instinctively try to solve everything with the tiller.
That is usually rather late.
The better solution began several seconds earlier.
Someone saw the gust approaching.
The crew were warned.
Weight moved before the gust fully arrived.
The mainsheet was prepared.
The boat remained comparatively flat.
And instead of the gust knocking the boat sideways, more of its energy was converted into speed.
That is a very different sensation.
The boat does not necessarily feel as dramatic.
It simply accelerates.
Flat Does Not Mean Completely Level at All Times
There is an important qualification.
"Keep the boat flat" is a useful coaching instruction, but it should not be interpreted as:
The mast must always be exactly vertical.
Different boats have different optimum sailing attitudes.
A small amount of heel can sometimes be useful.
In very light winds, sailors may deliberately heel a dinghy slightly to reduce wetted surface, encourage the sails to fall into a useful shape or give the helm a little more feel.
Traditional boats may have hull forms that behave differently from modern planing dinghies.
Downwind sailing introduces still more considerations.
So the real principle is not:
Heel is bad.
It is:
Uncontrolled and unnecessary heel is usually inefficient.
That is a much more useful rule.
Why Beginners Often Let the Boat Heel
There is also a very human reason for it.
Moving your body out over the side of a boat initially feels uncomfortable.
Leaning backwards while your feet are held under toe straps can seem rather unnatural.
Easing the mainsheet when a gust arrives can also feel counterintuitive.
Surely, if the sail is producing power, we should keep all of it?
So the beginner often remains sitting fairly upright while gripping the mainsheet tightly.
The boat heels.
The helm pulls harder on the tiller.
The boat rounds up.
Then the helm turns the rudder more aggressively to compensate.
Now we have:
more heel,
more rudder angle,
more drag,
less effective centreboard,
and less controlled sail power.
What started as one small balance problem has spread through the entire boat.
Hiking Is Not Just About Stopping a Capsize
This is another important change in thinking.
Beginners often assume that hiking out is something you do to stop the boat capsizing.
It certainly helps with that.
But hiking is also a performance technique.
Moving your weight out provides a righting moment.
The wind is trying to rotate the boat one way.
Your body weight is helping rotate it the other way.
The further your mass is from the centreline, the greater that balancing effect.
You therefore allow the sails to generate substantial aerodynamic force while keeping the hull and foils closer to their efficient orientation.
You are not merely preventing disaster.
You are helping the boat convert wind energy into speed.
Sometimes Ease Before You Steer
Suppose a gust hits and the boat suddenly heels hard.
A beginner's instinct may be to steer sharply into the wind.
That works because turning towards the wind reduces the aerodynamic force on the sails.
But large rudder movements create drag.
Sometimes a better sequence is:
move your weight appropriately,
ease the mainsheet enough to control the power,
keep the boat flatter,
and make only the steering correction that is actually necessary.
Of course, conditions differ. In a very powerful gust, steering towards the wind may be exactly what is required.
The important point is that the rudder should not be your only control.
You have several controls available simultaneously:
your body weight,
the mainsheet,
the boat's heading,
the traveller or other sail controls where fitted,
and the actions of the crew.
Good sailing comes from coordinating them.
Watch the Top Sailors
One of the most useful things a developing sailor can do is watch an experienced fleet in a strong, gusty breeze.
Do not just look at who is in front.
Look at the boats themselves.
You will often see one sailor apparently having a tremendously exciting time.
The boat heels sharply in every gust.
The rudder moves constantly.
The sail is repeatedly pulled in and dumped.
Everything looks busy.
Then look at one of the better-balanced boats.
The crew move before the gust.
The sail is adjusted smoothly.
The tiller movements are small.
The hull remains remarkably level.
And the boat simply moves away.
Fast sailing often looks surprisingly uneventful.
A Simple Exercise for Your Next Sail
The next time you are sailing upwind or on a close reach in a moderate breeze, spend a few minutes concentrating on just three things.
First, notice heel.
Second, notice tiller pressure.
Third, notice speed.
Allow the boat to heel a little more than you normally would and feel what happens to the tiller.
Then deliberately flatten the boat with body weight and appropriate sail adjustment.
Do not stare at the sails while doing this.
Look ahead.
Feel the tiller.
Listen to the water.
Watch another boat if one is nearby.
You may discover that when everything becomes quieter and easier, you are actually going faster.
That is one of sailing's wonderful contradictions.
The Gust Should Accelerate You, Not Knock You Over
Ultimately, this connects with a much bigger sailing skill: anticipation.
If you wait until the boat is already heeling dramatically before responding to a gust, you are reacting.
If you see the darker patch of water approaching, warn the crew, shift your weight and prepare the sheet before it arrives, you are sailing ahead of the boat.
That distinction becomes increasingly important as boats become faster and more powerful.
In a forgiving training dinghy, you may have several seconds to correct the problem.
On Champagne, with her long narrow hull, substantial rig and several crew aboard, the response needs to be coordinated much earlier.
And that is one of the reasons sailing a more demanding boat teaches so much.
It magnifies the principles that were present in the training boat all along.
Conclusion — Fast Often Feels Surprisingly Calm
Dramatic heel makes wonderful photographs.
It produces spray, excitement and plenty of stories afterwards.
But it is not necessarily fast.
A well-balanced dinghy uses its sails, centreboard, hull and rudder as one coordinated system. Excessive heel disrupts that relationship. The centreboard becomes less effective, the rudder works harder, weather helm increases and some of the wind's energy is wasted.
The developing sailor therefore needs to make an important change in thinking.
Do not ask:
"How much wind can I hang on to?"
Ask:
"How efficiently can I turn this wind into forward motion?"
Very often the answer begins by moving your weight, controlling the mainsheet and keeping the boat flatter.
The spectacular boat may look faster.
The flat boat may simply sail past it.
And perhaps that is one of the great lessons of sailing: speed does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks beautifully controlled.
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