Sailing in Chop

T

THE COOKIE PIMP

New Member
Happy New Year to All

I started the year by sailing the annual Hangover Regatta at our club.
A Portsmouth race with an 8 mile course. Lots of fun trying to stay out of wind shadows of the big boats.

After the race I was left with a couple of questions I would like to post for some advice. The wind picked up to 15+ not shifty, but starboard was favored strongly. I tried to work my way up the middle of the course and had a hard time trying to figure when to tack. I know in most big sunfish regattas
they run long up wind courses. When your a mile out from a mark how far do you go before you over stay the mark.

Also at 15+ the chop picked up. What is the best way to attack the chop.

One last question. I can not hick for long periods of time due to back problems. Is it better let the sail out and keep the boat flat or sheet in and sail healed.

Fairwinds
 
Last year (2005!) there was a thread about sailing on choppy waters

http://www.sunfishforum.com/showthread.php?t=706

I found Tim Polaski's response most useful, although I haven't had a chance to try his recommendation.

Happy New Year to all those intrepid Sunfishers!

May you get nothing but lucky shifts....

PS: Maybe some of the others can respond to your other questions.
 
THE COOKIE PIMP said:
One last question. I can not hike for long periods of time due to back problems. Is it better let the sail out and keep the boat flat or sheet in and sail healed?
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head, I believe that the gurus advise that it's better to go for speed (let the sail out) than to sail healed (and sideslip). If you have a Sunfish Bible, you can see for yourself what the experts recommend.
 
It is much faster to sheet out than sail heeled. If you are sailing with a plastic daggerboard you have another option, which is to feather the boat by pointing a little too high, so there is a little luffing in the front of the sail. You will heel less and still make good forward progress. This won't work with wood board as you can't keep the flow around the board with the flat shape of the wood board. You will just go sideways. You should experiment with feathering and sheeting out too see what works best for you in different conditions. BB
 
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