PlaneSailing
Member
Hi - just a simple question about downwind (if there is such a thing as a simple question!) :
I have sailed fairly successfully by going by the lee downwind in light air. However, attempts at BTL during racing in heavier winds have been dramatically costly - I ease out the sail, wobble, boat rolls on top of me and . . . . capsize to windward.
When going from a normal run to BTL - Should you ease out the main and bear away simultaneously or do one before the other to get to BTL safely?
BTL seems to be stable when you get there, as is a very broad reach, but there seems to be a very unstable zone in between.
Tiller or heel? - I understand using boat heal to steer is faster than tiller movement, but the idea of bearing away by heeling to windward and paying out sheet at the same time seems, in theory at least, to be suicidal. Can anyone put me right please?
I have sailed fairly successfully by going by the lee downwind in light air. However, attempts at BTL during racing in heavier winds have been dramatically costly - I ease out the sail, wobble, boat rolls on top of me and . . . . capsize to windward.
When going from a normal run to BTL - Should you ease out the main and bear away simultaneously or do one before the other to get to BTL safely?
BTL seems to be stable when you get there, as is a very broad reach, but there seems to be a very unstable zone in between.
Tiller or heel? - I understand using boat heal to steer is faster than tiller movement, but the idea of bearing away by heeling to windward and paying out sheet at the same time seems, in theory at least, to be suicidal. Can anyone put me right please?