"DSK" wrote in message
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Maxprop wrote:

"DSK" wrote in message


No. There is no such thing as zero heel--a boat will always heel
when
beating to windward unless it's a small dinghy with a 300lb. skipper
and
similarly-sized crew.

Not true.


Explanation of your response, please.


The boat heels in response to
1- the amount of wind
2- the way the sails are trimmed

If there's a LOT of wind, then yes the boat will heel... even with no
sails up at all. In normal sailing winds, it is quite possible to trim for
5 degrees windward heel. This is not new, it was fairly common advice...
yet very rarely followed... back in the 1960s.

I can't imagine what sort of trim would heel a close-hauled boat to windward
in normal (non-drifter) winds,WITHOUT the addition of hiking railmeat. But
I'm open to learn.

One thing that is new, and that I have not tried, is Oz1's advice that
fancy plastic sails don't need to be heeled to take shape in very light
air.

Fully-battened mains will obviously stay in shape, even when heeled to
windward. But I wasn't aware that the same thing could be achieved with
some of the new sheet laminate headsails.

Yep. The boat accelerates much better and if it's one of those gawd-awful
days with chop & light air, it can go thru the lumpy parts better.


I agree that it does, but what is your explanation for this effect?


???

Why do I have to explain it?

You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, but there must be some
reason for it. I was just curious, not interogative.

It doesn't take a heavy crew, even.


Not in light air. That's what I said originally.


Nor in moderate air... if you're in control of the boat and not
vice-versa.

Depends upon your definition of "moderate air," and whether you're sailing a
dinghy or a more substantial keel boat. A dinghy is easy to keep bolt
upright in moderate air, but a keel boat will be somewhat more difficult
unless one has a hefty crew complement on the weather rail.



OTOH there are times when I like a lot of heel, like just before a tack



For roll-tacking?


Bingo.

Roll-tacking was not allowed in Snipe events when I raced them. Now
apparently it's SOP. When just sailing around the lake with friends or my
wife, I used to roll-tack the Snipe and found it to be a very effective way
to power through the tack. This was long before discussions of the maneuver
hit the sailing press. Later I used it routinely when racing Lasers, but
finally was DSQ'd in one race in a regatta in Michigan for using "disallowed
kinetics." Forced to stop, it ****ed me off so thoroughly that I sold the
Laser and quit dingy racing altogether. It was a bitter pill to discover
that years later it was considered okay.

Max