26S keel position, it's effects on heeling

[Wingnutt]

I have the most fun in big wind, I love putting the windows in the water..

But then I look down in the cabin at my guests, and their pale faces, frozen in abject horror. They cling to anything they can, like a cat being held over a bath tub, they peer up at the madman in the cockpit, looking down on them, laughing.. "Who is this psychopath, why does he want to kill us.. "

Which brings me to my question..

Will raising the swing keel some allow for more side slip in the water and thus reduce the amount of heel? I assume up wind performance will suffer as the boat will move sideways more than with the keel all the way down, but I'm OK with that in this instance. I just want to reduce heeling to make for a more comfortable ride for my sissy friends.

Thoughts? Ideas?

[Wind Chime]

Hey Wingut,

What it sounds like you are looking for is better "boat balance". Not effort verses resistance - but heel angle.

If you are periodically heeling past 20-30 degrees, you can depower the sails by spilling wind to get the boat back on her feet. Spill wind by easing sheets or twisting off the mainsail.

If constantly heeled over its time to reduce the sails and reef.

Raising the daggerboard (swingkeel on a S or X) mostly moves the center of lateral resistance aft, creating more weather helm but does little to reduce heal angle.

A balanced boat is easier on crew and the boat.

http://johnellsworth.com/writing/nautic ... lance.html

[mastreb]

Nope, less keel doesn't = less heel. It just means more sideslip.

First thing to do for less heel is ease the mainsheet. It's pretty immediate.

When that stops working or unbalances the helm, it's time to reef. If your jib is a furler, bring it in about 1 foot. Continue furling the headsail to keep the heel down until the boat doesn't balance on the helm. At that point reef the main and let the headsail back out for balance.

When you've reefed the main and got the jib furler down to just a patch and you still can't keep it heeled, it's time to pack up and head home.

[sailboatmike]

Good ideas in the last post, easing the main sheet is number one to reduce heel, just remember a highly heeled boat is slower through the water than a slightly heeled boat due to increased wetted area causing drag, it may look spectacular but its slow,

to reduce heel, make sure your halyards are tight, tighten the outhaul, tighten the vang, that flattens the belly out of the sail and deflects the wind rather than catches it, if you have a traveller set it to leeward a couple of notches, once again deflecting the wind (it all seems counter intuitive until you think about it hard)

If the wind is up dont cleat in the main sheet, use it to play the sail, easing it through gusts and bringing it on in lulls.

We did an experiment a few weeks ago when it was blowing around 20 knots, 2 identical boats, 1 Reefed and 1 unreefed, the reefed boat was faster through the water at all points of sail as it wasnt heeling as far.

So do you want people to think you a gun sailer because you have the windows in the water, or do you want to be a gun sailor and have the sail trim appropriate for the conditions and sail fast

[Wingnutt]

I've been bringing the main down to the first reef and rolling the jib in a bit. My issues, my friends issue.. Isn't the overall heel of the boat, it's the sudden drastic heel that occurs when we get puffs. I sail mostly on the lakes in central TX, due to the surrounding geography steady wind is a rare thing. Sailing the gulf coast is so much easier by comparison.

Personally I don't get bothered by the sudden heel anymore, I'm used to it and I know the boat is not going to get knocked down. It just scares the hull out of everyone else.

[Hamin' X]

in unsteady wind conditions, you need to have the mainsheet uncleated and in your hand. Ease, or and take it in with the puffs and lulls and it will act as shock absorber.

~Rich

[Tomfoolery]

in unsteady wind conditions, you need to have the mainsheet uncleated and in your hand. Ease, or and take it in with the puffs and lulls and it will act as shock absorber.

And since the OEM fiddle blocks are kinda crappy, assuming they're the same as the , get thee some aftermarket ball-bearing blocks and good line. Turning large line over tiny sheaves under load is tough enough, but the plain bearings in the original blocks makes for a lot more effort when playing the main sheet by hand.

Even better would be ratchet blocks, or even Ratchamatic blocks (lower block only), but what the heck - it's not my money I'm spending on your boat.

One of my Christmas presents this year was a set of Garhaur ball-bearing fiddle blocks with cam cleat to replace the originals on my boat, bought from BWY. They're actually quite nice, and have better terminations than the ones BWY shows on their web site. The shackles can be locked against rotation, or left to rotate freely, unlike the ones in BWY's photo. That might be handy to keep the top block from getting twisted up, but experience will tell.

Mine also came with a new main sheet, but I don't know if that was extra, or if they just threw it in. The blocks were a gift, so I'm not about to ask.



A number of folks here have these upgrade blocks, from what I've read here.

[mastreb]

2nd sailing mainsheet in hand in puffs. Works like a charm to keep the boat even keeled. Like a charm, not like an actual keel though.

[Ixneigh]

I'll have one of the ratchet block mainsheet setups. Where do i order it from?
Ix