Duh, if you look at that photo most of the boats have 2 reefs in and from the
looks of the water the wind is blowing 28-30kts. So if they are heeled over at
30 deg it's not because they think that's the best way to go. It's the only
way.
S/V Express 30 "Ringmaster"
"No shirt, no skirt, full service"

No, they could drop the main entirely and sail at much lower angles of
heel -if that would be fast -but it wouldn't be... If they are offshore
racers they have 3 or 4 reefs and a trysail too.

Cheers

SAIL LOCO wrote:
Duh, if you look at that photo most of the boats have 2 reefs in and from the
looks of the water the wind is blowing 28-30kts. So if they are heeled over at
30 deg it's not because they think that's the best way to go. It's the only
way.
S/V Express 30 "Ringmaster"
"No shirt, no skirt, full service"

No, they could drop the main entirely and sail at much lower angles of
heel -if that would be fast -but it wouldn't be... If they are offshore
racers they have 3 or 4 reefs and a trysail too.

Some of the boats in the photo have more reef in than the others. I don't know
of any race boats that have 4 sets of reefs and nobody's going to drop the main
and put up a storm trysail in 30kts. Plus your also forgetting that different
boats are sailed differently. For example anybody that races a J30 in a one
design fleet NEVER reefs the main no matter what's going on.
S/V Express 30 "Ringmaster"
"No shirt, no skirt, full service"