How far do you heel your boat.

[Pete]

OK so I know heel reduces speed, but at the same time I wanted to get a feel of the boat and how it behaved when heeled over. so it was gusty Sunday morning and I pulled the sails at tight so I could get her heeled over pritty good. At one point I could see water comming in around the chain plate . (I have not sealed them yet) It wanted to round up but I held it there at long as i could. Then my sailing buddy suggested we take the sails down and motor for a while.

Pete

[Lloyd Franks]

Heeling to 10 or 15 degrees settles the boat into a groove. The hull shape in the water at that point is best for foward motion. Any more heel after that puts a less hydro-dynamic hull in the water. Good for fun, perhaps, but not for speed. That is why reefing is desirable in high winds. Easier to keep that groove.

[NiceAft]

Everything Lloyd Franks said is true. Especially the part about fun.

The Admiral and I have had the boat heeling to about 50 degrees. The reason I say "about", is because the indicator only goes to 45, and when it hit it, we kept going Yeehaaa It's the most fun you can have at 2MPH. Well, almost

Ray

[Matt19020]

I have had it to 50 degrees so far.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b5oCk8Lgsg

[Scott]

I have shrimped the clew on the genoa and on the A-spinnaker.

Thats about yehaaaw degrees. (no admiral aboard. well she was there for one of the spinnaker dips)

[Currie]

Same as the others here - maxed a couple of times at about 45º-50º - but it's not really sailing More like crabbing through the water sideways. My magic number to keep it under is about 30º. It sails very nicely at 15º-20º. To control it in increasing winds - Spill, then Reef, then Spill the Reef, then motor home.

~Bob

[beene]

SPILL????

A good sailor can handle 50 deg and not SPILL a drop of rum...... or was the scotch......

G

[c130king]

Many here will say that 15-20 degrees is the "sweet spot" but I like the power and speed that I seem to get around 30-35 degrees.

But above 35-40 I round up. I have only hit 45+ a couple of times and only momemtarily as I would start to round up pretty quickly at that point. I really don't think I could get "knocked down" if I was sailing at 5+ kts...the boat would round up too quickly...or did I just jinx myself...



Happy Sailing,
Jim

[Scott]

If they cant see the top of your keel its not really showin' off is it?

[Pete]

OK so I dont really know how far I got mine over but I could see water about an inch up on the window, and a good flow of water comming in around the chainplate. Any idea how far over that is. The sails never touched the water. I don't plan on doing this too offen but would like know have a real number to brage about.

[Trouts Dream]

I would think anything above 45 would be bragging till you got to 90 and then anything over that is best kept quiet.

[NiceAft]

I have opening ports on Nice Aft, and we occasionally forget to close them when sailing. On one of those times when we hit 45+ degrees, I remembered that the ports were open. I had the Admiral go below to close them. As she reached to close the starboard port, water started flowing through the opening. She got it closed, but was a little wet from the process. I told her there is a nautical term for what had just happened............................SINKING

Ray

[Bluecrab]

This is just about perfect, 20 deg, 6 mph.

Wally

[Québec 1]

I don't have to heal my boat cause it's not sick!

[ChockFullOnuts22]

I'm not sure how many degrees it was, but this is the farthest sustained lean that I have done so far. I'm not brave enough to put the deck in the water.