Sailing upwind against the waves

cabalar

New Member
Last weekend we had a regatta so that, when going on the port tack, we had small/medium waves coming perpendicularly into the bow. I've read that one should make fore and aft movements to avoid slowing down each time a wave "attacks". However, I couldn't find the right combination of movements.

Waves were very continuous and, when my boat was just getting out from a jump, a new wave was already coming into my bow.

What should I do? Perhaps I should avoid that angle of 90 degrees into the waves? Any suggestion?

Pedro.
 
It takes more aggressive stering and body movement to get around those waves. Sail up the face of an approaching wave and down the back, always sheeting in and out. It's called "driving the waves". Just remember up and down, up and down. Move your upper body forward going up the wave face and throw it back going down the back of the wave. This body movement will help ster the boat and you will need less tiller movement. However, you have to be careful with this body movement because it can get called as a rule 42 violation. So, save the body movement for the big wave sets. This all takes LOTS of practice. Also, remember when you tack to wait for a flat spot or you could end up at a dead stop. Downwind is a whole other issue.
 
Pop-n-Jack said:
in most boats you want to go 45 deg. into the waves, except on PWC you should go into the waves at 90 deg..

We're talking about racing sail boats here. Not going clackety, clack up the ICW in a power boat. Most often we have to go at the waves at bad angles to get where we need to go.
 
If the wave height and frequency permit, try sailing from wavetop to wavetop. I think Tilman says something about sailing upwind in waves is like driving over the tops of cars in a full parking lot, with the waves being like cars. You'll get to your destination fastest if you don't have to "drive" up and down each "car."
Anybody have thoughts on centerboard height and how it might work into the mix?
 
I was just looking at this on the Rooster site. I'm pretty slow (both thinking and sailing :) ) and was having a hard time following. I think what he was saying is that you want to go straight up the wave face and bear off down the back side. This seems really counter intuitive, since it seems you would almost stop - so I probably have it exactly backwards ???

Also the video clip showed inboard & outboard motion as you are bearing off and then trimming back in. Am I correct that this body motion is pretty well accepted - as long as you don't rock the boat mast past vertical?

Mike
 
knot_moving said:
I was just looking at this on the Rooster site. I'm pretty slow (both thinking and sailing :) ) and was having a hard time following. I think what he was saying is that you want to go straight up the wave face and bear off down the back side. This seems really counter intuitive, since it seems you would almost stop - so I probably have it exactly backwards ???

Also the video clip showed inboard & outboard motion as you are bearing off and then trimming back in. Am I correct that this body motion is pretty well accepted - as long as you don't rock the boat mast past vertical?

Mike

This is what I was saying in my previous post. You do not have it backwards. Given size and frequancy as you bear away down the back of a wave you ease the sheet as you head up into the face of an approaching wave you trim in. You're basically going from close reach to close hauled in quick motions. You DO have to be careful with body movement. As the video states only use it to get through "Bad sets" of waves and settle back to sitting still in the boat. If you keep moving back and forth you will get called for a 42 violation.
 
yeah, i know that you were talking about racing, i was just saying what i teach the people that i teach safe boating to who haven't been in a boat before and won't be sailing in any races. But still it is the best way if possible.

PWC=Personal Water Craft (Jet Ski)
 
This thread is way too complicated...When the waves are coming straight into your bow you simply steer down slightly and mover your shoulder back and up adjusting to waves, when waves are hitting the side of your boat that is usually your pointing tack, meaning you can gain heighth by pinching without getting slammed by the waves.

Watch someone better do it.
 
Thank you all.

The attached diagram is what I understood from the explanations. Now I guess I know the theory, but it seems that this will require a lot of practice (especially when waves are short and continuous).

One thing I hate about these situations is that, in order to practice, you have to wait for another day with similar weather conditions. Typically, this won't happen until the next race :(

Thanks again,
Pedro.
 

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Last weekend we had a regatta so that, when going on the port tack, we had small/medium waves coming perpendicularly into the bow. I've read that one should make fore and aft movements to avoid slowing down each time a wave "attacks". However, I couldn't find the right combination of movements.

Waves were very continuous and, when my boat was just getting out from a jump, a new wave was already coming into my bow.

What should I do? Perhaps I should avoid that angle of 90 degrees into the waves? Any suggestion?
Pedro.
It's a little unusual to have waves that far out of line with the wind. Usually, upwind is also 45 degrees to the waves. So, on starboard tack, were the waves on your beam?
Think of waves as alternating current. On the face of the wave the current is foul (against you) and on the back the current is fair (with you). The advice to head up climbing the face and bear off down the back is to minimize your time in foul current and maximize the time in fair current. We're not talking big changes in heading, 5-10 degrees should do it.
But, if the waves are as you describe, you can't take them on any more directly; you'll just have to power up and keep slogging. It would be nice to avoid that tack, but most races don't work that way.
 
This thread is way too complicated...

Totally agree. Pinch up on the face (more apparent wind), bear off on the back side (apparent wind diminishes). You can ooch your upper body backwards as you go over the wave so the bow doesn't slam down. Depending on the wind strength you will trim on the up and ease on the down. One more thing: leeward heel in light to moderate winds so your boat won't slip sideways.
 
Regarding the steering motions, I believe the Rooster videos describe it as the following, which has helped me understand the proper motions:

Imagine your boat is capsized (mast horizontal). Your rudder then acts like the tail flaps on an airplane. Your objective is to steer the boat through the waves with as little disturbance as possible, so you want the bow to lift on the wave faces and drop on the backs. To do this, push the tiller away from you on the faces (steering up-wind) and pull towards you on the backs (steering down-wind). The rudder will "steer" the bow up and down, respectively. Obviously your boat is being sailed considerably flatter than this scenario, but the extremity helps illustrate the actions. Just remember that this is at odds with the 'throwing your weight back' motion, as mentioned above which you should do when your boat is about to fall down the back of a large wave. I'm still a bit confused myself as to when you should work the boat through chop by steering and moving your body in-sync with the waves (if you ever should), ie. decreasing inertia and helping the boat pitch vs. when you should be moving forward on the faces and throwing your weight back on the backs (as Rob B says), ie. increasing inertia to prevent the boat from pitching, slamming, and the flow over your foils and sail being disrupted.

The steering technique can be used for large boats as well. Recently sailing a Mumm 36 upwind in a bit of a nasty sea involved massive tiller motions in some cases to keep the boat from slamming into and off of some of the larger waves. I'm not sure if this was the fastest option, but it was the option that slammed least thus protecting the boat and the sleeping sailors inside. I imagine it wasn't slow either, as speed loss through the waves seemed much less than simply straight-lining them and it certainly felt better.
 

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