Too tippy?

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Bill Leathen

heel

I had an old American 17 that I started sailing on. The second time out with the "new boat", (about my 10th time sailing) we got hit by a gust that literally did have the cabin window in the water, and water pouring into the cockpit. I remember thinking that it would dump from the cockpit to the cabin and we would sink. Fortunately the cabin door is about 12" above the cockpit floor and nothing like that happened. My wife hung on to my 2 year old son for all she was worth. My older son (about 5 at the time) did fine. I was surprized that even after I let the main out, how long it took the boat to come up. We dropped the sails and motored back to the dock. Since then with a H23, we sometimes put everyone on the lee side just to see how far we can get it over. But its not easy to get the Hunter rail in the water and definetly we have never had the Hunter over as far as we did the American that one day.
 
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Roland Camp

Depends o time of season

The comfortable degree of heel increases as the season goes along and the amount of sailing we do. With our 235, 15 degrees in May was plenty. By August it took more than 30 degrees to become concerned. When we bought our 331 last year it did not have an inclinometer. That was one of my Christmas gifts to my wife. The larger boat rarely heels more than 20 degrees, but to be honest, we didn't get out as often as we would have liked and did not go out in heavy weather.
 
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Walter

No Muscle Cramps

A Catalina 36 is a fairly large vessel, would you not agree? If I go careening down the bay with too much sail, and too much heel, I have to work my muscles too hard staying in the cockpit. I don't like it anymore than My Admiral does and we both consider too much heel a cheap thrill for younger folks (harmless) or poor sailsmanship (a different matter)
 
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Mike

Mike in Cape Cod

The first thing I do when guests complain about a sailboat heeling too much is head for the dock and drop them off.
 
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Don Huseman

use your traveler

When I race we keep the boat on a max heal of 15 .The way we do that is first use the traveler. Next use the sail shaping controlls, Haliard back stay and vang to flaten the sails. It gets very complex and the best way to learn is to watch the "Shape of speed" by north sails. It is complex but after you master the tape take out your crew and try and do the things they say to do. The big difference you will have on a crusing sail boat rather than a racing sail boat is large numbers of deck slaves to do all the work and sit on the rail. So the ability to depower the sails by flating them and bending the mast back are the easy ways to get the boat upright. Partice this in light winds don't wait untile it blows because that is when it gets crazy and that is not the time to learn were your reaf points are. Strong wind sailing is alway hard work but it can be fun too.
 
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Wayne Ford

sporty spouse

My wife prefers to sail rather stress free so we try to trim our sails so that we don't heel much more than 20 degrees generally.
 
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Julie

I am an Ol' fuddy duddy sail'n a C27 *zzz

I sail to relax and enjoy my time on the water. I don't mind 10 degrees or so and when the gusts drive her over 15 degrees I adjust the traveler.I like to stay dry, warm, and comfy. I like to have a cuppa something in one hand and the tiller in the other.If I make a mess below; I have to clean it up, so I don't deliberatly heel her over past 15 degrees. I know others like to heel their boat over until the rail is under, that is okay if it's their boat. When its my boat I do it my way. That is one of the reasons why I bought this boat. So each to their own; easy does it says me :)
 
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John

Weatherhelm is the key .

Each boat has a design factor that determines the ideal heeling angle. In general it is a myth that you go faster the more you heel. Usually you end up sliding as much sideways as you go forward. Unfortunately a lot of non sailors don't like to sail because they have had some bad experiences with excessive heeling that in most cases is needless. On my boat, the ideal heel is about 12 - 15 degrees. At this angle there is a minimum amount of wetted surface and the sails and keel are working harmoneously, if properly trimmed. After about 20 degrees there is so much weatherhelm it becomes too difficult to steer and it is time to let out the main, etc., etc., Ideal weatherhelm on my boat is about 3 degrees. Keeping everything in balance is the key to good sailing and no one gets uncomfortable with that.
 
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janine kaczynski

all the way

When we are on a scream from Mt. Sinai to Pirates Cove (or vice versa) we like to let Konpai heel over 35 degrees. Of course, it's always more enticing in a charter or somebody else's boat. When the season is new and there's not a lot of crap on the boat, I feel better about excessive heeling. We sail a lot of trips to Connecticut, the east end of L.I. and R.I. and Block. Coming from South Norwalk we blasted a pin-straight GPS course on a reach with the current in our favor. It was so nice to see the gps track 9.0 If we sail away for the weekend, sometimes on the way back, if I'm tired, I just want to get to home port. At that point, I'm touchy, and if I steer, I feel way more comfortable than sitting in somebody else's heel. I don't see many women like me out there and would like to see more good, friendly, down-to-earth women sailing. Hopefully now with my Captain's License I can help that along.
 
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the Pirate of Sha-lin

Washing the Decks

If six tons of Pearson 33 gets too tippy, then we probably shouldn't be out sailing-but we probably are. Actually, those heavy air days are good for washing the decks and windows. "OK, that side's clean, Muskrat, prepare to tack!" ;D
 

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Bob Snowden

It depends

The degree if incline that becomes significant varies basically on whether the admiral deems it so. I've noticed that we tolerate a greater degree of heel when she(the admiral) is at the tiller.
 
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Chet Klyn

Marry a Sailor

If the lady won't sail, get one who will. My wife has been sailing since she's been a teen. She helms, I pull lines. Works for us..
 
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Captain Janine

Thata girl!

Did you ever notice there is some sort of glue that men are born with that seeps from their hands to the tiller of a boat? It is just outrageous that in 2003 men think that they are the only ones who can handle boats. CHANGE is GOOD!
 
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Don

Re: Boat Design

About time someone come up with a resonable response. Being a realitively new sailor, this is something I am concern with. Does anyone have data for the other Catalina Yachts? (Stu you know everything about Catalina 34.. any data?)
 
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Captain Janine

Behold what manner of man are these...

Writing...the final frontier. I'm relieved to find somebody else who thinks about writing well. Unfortunately, some people just need to get it out quickly and don't have a care as to whether it is accurate or not. Expression, whether it is done well or not, is important. It would be nice to have more money than brains though, don't you agree?*5
 
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Jeff M.

It's the same as the remote control for the T.V.

Captain Janine, you must forgive us as we cannot control ourselves! The same gene that forces us to take the tiller also forces us to covet the T.V. remote! (my little sister is a nurse and she refers to it as 'acute testosterone poisoning')As to heeling the boat, I thought that was how you were supposed to keep the deck and windows clean! (I think someone already mentioned that) As long as I'm not gonna break the boat or toss someone in the water, well... let's face it, it's FUN! Come on, who wants to ride on a SLOW roller coaster? Just trying to make sure the windows are watertight, Jeff
 
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John D LeClare

ten degrees not a second more

Ten degrees, not one second more and it’s my fault. Three years ago I took my wonderful wife on her first sail. Being a submarine sailor I was very green. I had just bought a twenty-eight year old twenty-seven foot sailboat. She had been sitting for five years on the hard with a cracked keel pocket. After much epoxy work and a quick lesson on what all those darn lines were for I was off. One week later I was ready to take my darling wife of twenty years for a nice sail. The dink did not swamp rowing out to the mooring but we were sitting in about a foot of water when we reached “Improbable”. No problem, I have been sailing for a week and this was the Chesapeake Bay not the North Atlantic anyway. Two-foot waves and fifteen knot winds, heck I’ve seen seventy-knot winds and twenty-foot waves, through a periscope off course. “Dear take the wheel while I put up the sails,” sails that have been laying on top of and out side of the boat for five years. Wow, I had never sailed that fast, or tilted that much. Winds kicked up to twenty knots. “Wow” I thought, “this feels faster than seven knots”. More wind, more tilt. Not so Wow. Was the toe rail supposed to be under water, was the wife supposed to be looking angry? Rrrrip , the main sail splits two foot above the long horizontal thing. Swish the same long metal thing slams into the cockpit missing my wife by an inch. Wow, the boat is upright again. Ten degrees, not one second more! Now I know what a boom , a topping lift and a reef point are, what a sail cover is for and what heel is. “Improbable” only slows past ten degrees anyway. When I’m alone though, I still like to “burry the rail”.
 
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Debbie and Greg Wynne

Finding the groove!

I have to say my favorite part of sailing and heeling is feeling that you have found the groove, with well trimmed sails and a finely balanced boat, thanks to a good husband and wife team...I must say! As my husband and I have become more experienced sailors it is awesome to compare how in the beginning we were only comfortatble with a 10 degree heel and now a 30 degree heel is no big deal and is quite fun and exhilirating! Of course, there are those days when we don't feel like the hard work on a heavy wind day, but that is what reefing is for. Or perhaps....hanging out at the dock! Sailing is the best! :)
 
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Sid R Ballantyne

Believe it or Not

My wife is the one who loves to heel the boat! I get nervous and start reaching for the mainsheet. My girls are 11 and 12 and when we first started sailing our 27 foot Watkins they really freaked out when we heeled over to about 25 degrees the first time out. The 12 year old actually was climbing over the windward rail preparing to jump for it!
 
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Dale Wells

Different heels for different folks

I have a rule sas to who is with me: My wife & daughter: 20 My brother & spouse: 30 My sister 30 Anyone else: what ever comes with the ride. You pay a lot of money for this kind of ride at the fair. We wash the rails and deck once in a while. I call it a good day if I've gotten the commings wet.
 
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