Rudderless sailing

[Esteroali]

Last weekend I was sailing with the Optimist Kids who were practicing sailing without a rudder. I tried in my Sunfish but mostly went around in circles. Can this be done? Do you have to move the gooseneck? How important is steering by heeling in a Sunfish?

 

[mike4947]

With the lateen rig on a fish it's hard to get the center of effort of the sail over the center of the boat. Look at your sail when headed directly downwind. Notice that the vast majority of it is over the side of the boat. You'll need a lot of heel to bring the center of effort back over the center of the boat. It can be done, just not as easy as with a "regular" sail rig.

 

[phish133]

Damien,
Notice when your going downwind, and everyone is heeling the boat to windward? Thats to move the center of effort of the sail towards the center of the boat.
For practice, when your going downwind, try to steer the boat without moving the tiller off center. It's good practice, because you minimize the turbulance (and loss of speed) caused by rudder movemnt. Just heel the boat more to windward to make the boat go more to leeward; and of course, the reverse holds true, if you flaten the boat out more (tilt more to leeward) the boat will want to go up to windward. If your really good at it, you can actually lift the rudder out of the water and steer by heeling the boat instead.

Phil