You're right that an underwater shape with more longitudinal stability
helps a lot. But it's not necessary to get the boat to "sail itself"
to windward or close reaching. On a beam reach or off the wind, no dice!


Gary wrote:
Longitudinal stability?

Perhaps I should have said "directional stability" sorry,
I'm not good at explaining things.

The tendency of a boat to go straight rather than spin like
a top (or vice versa). Some high performance boats will
literally sling the crew out of the boat if allowed to turn
as fast as they want to. Personally, I don't think that's
necessarily a bad thing, but the skipper has to know the
boat's characterisitcs and how to successfuly use them to
advantage... or at least cope...

Fresh Breezes- Doug King