OldCat - again great info. I've had several people tell me that locking the keel won't matter as much as keeping the cabin & compartments sealed.Let's not scare the newer skippers:naughty: - a Pitch Pole would be almost impossible on a lake - generally this takes large breaking waves on a ballasted boat. Unless sailing in a hurricane...
I would hope that the keel lock bolt would prevent this, or at least provide enough friction to slow it down and not to blow a hole in the hull. However, I am not volunteering to be the tester...
At about 75 degrees of heel on a J22 - the sails are so flat to the water that the boat won't go over any farther. I have tested this... twice . A local sailing instructor sank a J22 in 6 feet of water when two very heavy students refused to move in a tack. Also, a spinnaker could make things much more exciting.
Generally true - but none of the fast racers sail that way here. Yep - they don't. The local conditions are that when the wind gets up - it is very gusty with significant holes before each gust. The gust to base wind ratio is also significantly higher than most other areas. Because of this, racers sail for the average wind - unreefed. They heel over in the gusts because for a few seconds they are overpowered. Reefed they would lose too much in the average wind, so they give up some in the gusts.
Heeling over and sheeting out to control it are part of sailing here. Even the best racers with added rail meat can't react fast enough to prevent 30 degrees of heel. Most of the time the wind is light here - but when it gets up - it's wacky. The basic principles are the same, but local conditions can matter.
OTH: when uncomfortable - reef. Speed matters less than maintaining control.
JMHO, OC
I've noticed the J's look like they handle heeling better, i witnessed it several times in our lake in Austin. This pic doesn't show the scary heeling he was doing, a gust make picture taking hard that day...
I am way more interested in becoming a proficient sailor than racing around. Apprecite the great info again!!