Advice Appreciated

Hello Laser Forum

I am new to laser saling and have been out a few times in light seas without a problem.

On my last trip out the wind was about 15 knots and found I couldn't sail upwind; When I tried to sheet in the main to fill the sail, the boat would heel over to much. When I eased it, the sail wouldn't fill.

Can anyone suggest as to where I am going wrong?
 
Hello Laser Forum

I am new to laser saling and have been out a few times in light seas without a problem.

On my last trip out the wind was about 15 knots and found I couldn't sail upwind; When I tried to sheet in the main to fill the sail, the boat would heel over to much. When I eased it, the sail wouldn't fill.

Can anyone suggest as to where I am going wrong?

Did you flatten the sail with the sail controls (cunningham, outhaul, and vang) to depower and also hike hard? If you did all this and the boat still heeled too much, maybe you don't weigh enough to hold it down.
 
sometimes we forget what it's like to be a beginner -- too much information all at once.

Merrily's advice is a good starting point -- you want to set up your sail in a "depowered" way before you ever sail away from the dock. So the cunningham, outhaul, and vang will all be as tight as you can make them. (Some sailors would tell you to leave a little slack in the outhaul -- enough to barely slide your hand between the mainsail and the boom -- roughly 3 or 4 inches; not too much!)

Now, out on the water -- I'm guessing you're not using the tiller and the mainsheet in coordinated fashion. They work together to let you sail the boat upwind.

First, it's important to start with some way on. Don't try to go from a standing start or luffing or in irons to hard on the wind. We're just working on the ability to sail upwind at all -- racing starts will come later.

So reach along on a beam reach. The boat should be going very fast. The sail should be trimmed so that it is full (not luffing) but so that if you let it out just a few inches, it will begin to luff. You'll probably need to be hiking out a bit to achieve this. But don't focus too much on hiking at this point -- if you're elegant with the mainsheet and the tiller, you can make the boat go upwind in 15kts without hiking at all. Hiking is just a technique to allow you to power up and go faster.

Now, once you're comfortable reaching along in this fashion, working together, bring in the mainsheet about 6 inches, and steer just a little bit up into the wind. Adjust your course so that the main trim is as it was before -- full, but so that the slightest ease leads to luffing.

Repeat -- trim in another 6 inches, and steer in a little more.

And again.

If you try to go from a stopped position, or a beam reach, to the fully trimmed main position all at once, it's natural that the boat will heel over too far. The boat needs both SPEED and an ATTACHED FLOW of air over the mainsail to go upwind.

Let us know how it works out!
 
Hello Laser Forum


On my last trip out the wind was about 15 knots and found I couldn't sail upwind;


two things I'll add to bjmoose's post:
1) have a ball reaching back and forth (on a broad reach), because when you get the main trimmed in right and the tiller right you will be blasting along with the spray flying!

2) when I am trying to sail upwind in 15kts I have the vang on fairly firm and I have to remember to release it as I tack, otherwise I often end up "in irons" because the boat just doesn't want to tack through the wind.

have fun with it!
 
Before you have the knack for getting the sail and boat flat, try pulling your daggerboard up 6 inches or so.

You will slide to leeward a bit, but it will help you flatten out the boat as you gain experience.
 
2) when I am trying to sail upwind in 15kts I have the vang on fairly firm and I have to remember to release it as I tack, otherwise I often end up "in irons" because the boat just doesn't want to tack through the wind.

When it gets windy, it helps to wait for a relatively flat area of water to tack in. Then if you put the tiller over quickly, the boat's momentum will carry it through the tack and you can complete the tack before the next bad chop. Also, you have to ease the sail and hike out of the tack to keep the boat from spinning back up into the wind.
 

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