First, I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and I hope you have a merry Xmas!! After all we've gone through over the past 2 years we certainly deserve it.
How many of you can sail your boat closehauled or on a close reach WITHOUT touching the tiller or wheel? I'll bet some of you can.
How many of you can sail your boat with just a LIGHT TOUCH on the tiller or wheel? It took me a while to develop a light touch, Without ALL the sail trim controls for the main and jib in perfect adjustment for the point of sail and wind condition it's imposable. In my early sailing learning days I fought the tiller/wheel - unnecessarily. When I lived in So Ca a friend had a property in Baja that was mostly only accessible by plane and we flew there often. Occasionally he let me fly the plane but he told me I had a death grip on the yoke and to loosen up or I'd never be any good at flying. I just couldn't so a pilot I'll never be!!
On a boat it's all about balance. If the boat is out of balance it's inefficient. If you have to exert force to the tiller/wheel to hold a straight course - your boat is out of balance and you're forcing it to hold a straight course. Your rudder is not creating a fine blade that is cutting through the water - you're dragging it through the water. and eventually the rudder will stall and stop working. You'll create weather or lee helm. You also need a minimum amount of heel to balance the helm. You can maintain a constant heel angle in puffs merely by "feathering" the boat - sail the boat a bit closer to the wind. Feathering only works up to about 12 knots of wind. Above 12 knots you need to make use of the mainsheet or traveler - I prefer the traveler.
Things change when sailing on a close reach. Feathering doesn't work. In lifts & puffs it's important to maintain a constant heel angle and balanced helm. Ease the main or traveler and reset after the lift or puff.
Once you get the boat balanced all it takes is a light touch on the tiller/wheel to detect and react to changes in wind velocity & direction. If it gets so breezy that you can't keep the helm balanced without luffing the mainsail you need to take further action to de-power the main & jib - adjust the outhaul, move the fairleads, adjust the Cunningham or halyard etc.
Our pilot friend made flying look easy because he used ALL the plane's controls to his advantage and the plane flew straight and true with little effort on his part. The same can be true for a sailboat BUT initial set up is necessary. ALL the sail trim controls for the main & jib have to be in perfect sync from the jump. So, unless a sailor understand the function of ALL the sail trim controls for the main & jib this exercise will never work. He can't GUESS at the adjustments. I've taken the guess work out of the equation with the SAIL TRIM CHART. It tells you WHAT adjustment to make and the THE SAIL TRIM USERS GUIDE tells you WHY you're making a sail trim adjustment. The WHY of sail trim is everything - otherwise you're just guessing at the adjustment.
How many of you can sail your boat closehauled or on a close reach WITHOUT touching the tiller or wheel? I'll bet some of you can.
How many of you can sail your boat with just a LIGHT TOUCH on the tiller or wheel? It took me a while to develop a light touch, Without ALL the sail trim controls for the main and jib in perfect adjustment for the point of sail and wind condition it's imposable. In my early sailing learning days I fought the tiller/wheel - unnecessarily. When I lived in So Ca a friend had a property in Baja that was mostly only accessible by plane and we flew there often. Occasionally he let me fly the plane but he told me I had a death grip on the yoke and to loosen up or I'd never be any good at flying. I just couldn't so a pilot I'll never be!!
On a boat it's all about balance. If the boat is out of balance it's inefficient. If you have to exert force to the tiller/wheel to hold a straight course - your boat is out of balance and you're forcing it to hold a straight course. Your rudder is not creating a fine blade that is cutting through the water - you're dragging it through the water. and eventually the rudder will stall and stop working. You'll create weather or lee helm. You also need a minimum amount of heel to balance the helm. You can maintain a constant heel angle in puffs merely by "feathering" the boat - sail the boat a bit closer to the wind. Feathering only works up to about 12 knots of wind. Above 12 knots you need to make use of the mainsheet or traveler - I prefer the traveler.
Things change when sailing on a close reach. Feathering doesn't work. In lifts & puffs it's important to maintain a constant heel angle and balanced helm. Ease the main or traveler and reset after the lift or puff.
Once you get the boat balanced all it takes is a light touch on the tiller/wheel to detect and react to changes in wind velocity & direction. If it gets so breezy that you can't keep the helm balanced without luffing the mainsail you need to take further action to de-power the main & jib - adjust the outhaul, move the fairleads, adjust the Cunningham or halyard etc.
Our pilot friend made flying look easy because he used ALL the plane's controls to his advantage and the plane flew straight and true with little effort on his part. The same can be true for a sailboat BUT initial set up is necessary. ALL the sail trim controls for the main & jib have to be in perfect sync from the jump. So, unless a sailor understand the function of ALL the sail trim controls for the main & jib this exercise will never work. He can't GUESS at the adjustments. I've taken the guess work out of the equation with the SAIL TRIM CHART. It tells you WHAT adjustment to make and the THE SAIL TRIM USERS GUIDE tells you WHY you're making a sail trim adjustment. The WHY of sail trim is everything - otherwise you're just guessing at the adjustment.