N1EE wrote:


Also in chop, lighter boats can be stopped by a wave.

True. And while it is possible to foot off and regain some VMG, usually you
can't regain all of it.


The light weight water ballasted Mini-Transat boats
use ballast, not just for increasing righting moment
but to maintain inertia--the added mass keeps them
moving.

They also shift the center of mass forward, put the bow down.



I agree a broader keel would be less likely to stall
in turbulent conditions. Why is it better for such
keels to be swept back?

I don't really know how it works, but swept back foils are more resistant to
stalling. Anther keel shape you might notice some time is that many fin
keels are tapered in profile to the bottom edge, but they are not tapered in
section. The chord gets shorter and the camber gets fatter. This does two
things, it reduce turbulence off the bottom edge and makes the lower secton
harder to stall, and gets more ballast down low.

BTW I thought Frank's answer was good. Much shorter and to the point than my
rambling posts.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

DSK wrote:
....snip...
BTW I thought Frank's answer was good. Much shorter and to the point than my
rambling posts.

Thanks, Doug; but my comments were too brusque. You actually took the
time and effort to explain some details, when by contrast I just said
something like "trim appropriately." Probably not very valuable advice
to someone who's a bit hazy on the "best" way to trim his/her boat.

Sounds like we're basically talking about the same concepts; so maybe
in either case it's a starting point for discussion/argument, like the
thread about cats vs. monohulls and pointing vs. VMG which developed
from your comments. That was good stuff.

These are the kind of threads which make this ng valuable to
participants. (Well, *this* participant, anyway.) I hadda laugh when
Bobsprit jumped in and offered his advice on how to pose a question
for discussion. Yeah, right. Like anything he's ever posted has
generated and actual discussion. It's always just looooong threads of
"my dick's the biggest" vs. "no, my dick's bigger" and "you're gay"
vs. "no, you're gay."

I'm happy to have an honest disagreement with someone. I have friends
who favor "classic cruisers" with full keels, high D/L ratios, etc.;
and we often have long "discussions" over a bottle of wine (or two)
about what constitutes the "best" sailboat. We sometimes get a bit
loud; but somehow it never degenerates into that silly ad hominem
crap.

Anyway, I'll just say that this was a good thread. I've enjoyed it and
look forward to others like it. I don't participate often; but I read
most threads here.