Power Sailing Question

[GaryMayo]

I love the thrill of heeling over. Wind in the sails. One of my favorite things in life. Better than motorcycling at any speed.

On a day with 4 MPH winds, can you sail into the wind, with the engine going to bring the boat to the wind? I know it is a sailboat, and it is a power boat, but what experiences do the members have being both boats at the same time?

I may get my first ride in an X this weekend, if the weather is nice.

[mastreb]

A lot of people motor with the main fully up at speeds below 7 knots. It stabilizes the boat in the water and eliminates side-to-side rocking especially when countering the wakes of others. As long as the ballast is in, there's no safety issues.

On an X or M going over 7 knots, I'm not sure anyone does this. You must have the CB/DB up in order to plane without danger above 7 knots, and having the main up at these speeds will cause side-slipping and will likely blow-out your main sail. It would be pretty damned scary changing direction in what amounts to high speed winds. The Boom would be able to kill people moving across the cockpit, and since you aren't sailing it would be difficult to keep track of the true wind and when the boat would tack. I'm guessing gybing would be largely impossible as long as the boat's speed exceeds the true wind.

Not something I'm going to try.

[opie]

Can I guess you are speaking of using the motor to turn into the wind so as to douse the sails after a fine day of sailing? I always start my engine and use the motor to head into the wind to lower the mains'l. Is that what you are referring to?

[Andre Emmenegger]

Motor sailing works great in light winds. I have done it a lot on trips, when I needed some forward progress.

[Tomfoolery]

I haven't done powersailing on my enough to get a feel for it, but I do know that the sails on my last boat (34 ft keelboat) would help the auxiliary quite a bit, depending on point of sail. I would gain a knot or two over just the engine. Also steadied the boat quite a bit.

[Catigale]

I used the motor to both boost the speed and help the pointing - to save an extra tack on a long beat....especially on the Cape where when you tack you head out to the middle of the Vineyard sound and feel a foul current...