Safe healing angles

[Fred Johnson]

What is the safest heal angle for a 26S? The manual says it will recover from 60 degrees, but what is realistic? 15 degrees seems far to me right now as I am new at this but I need to access some experiance on this subject. Thanks

 

[Mark]

heeling

As far as safety goes, there is no "limit" under ordinary conditions (exclude hurricanes etc) as the boat will always recover. I try not to heel farther than putting the rubrail in the water on windy days (it leaks anyway). This is probably about 30 degrees and by then it is getting pretty uncomfortable (ergonomically) anyway.

 

[Sally]

Heeling by a heel?

Great article on this subject at sailnet.com and great article on how the better half feels about heeling Gender Gap or Gender Mirror Heeling and Performance http://www.sailnet.com/collections/articles/index.cfm?articleid=ddcksn0334 http://www.sailnet.com/collections/articles/index.cfm?articleid=rousma0064

 

[fabrizio]

Safe?

I just came back from a 25 knots 4' seas two hour struggle. It was my first time out with the 26x in such weather and after reefing the main and opening only half jib, we were still unable to keep the boat at a comfortable angle, we were constantly pushed down to 25 degrees.Being the first time in that wind, we did not know if it was safe to keep the boat heeling more or not. The problem is that anytime we would let it heel more, it would go down so quickly and swiftly that we thought it would not stop and eventually capsize. My experience with bigger fully keeled boats is that they eventually keep a heeling angle and mantain it, the 26x seemed to just keep going with no end in sight. I would like to hear from other 26 owners what they think.ciaoFabrizio