Sail it Flat?

Esteroali

Member
In terms of racing upwind, coventional wisdom is sail it flat. Today, during the upwind leg of our local races, (yes, it was 10 knots, 80 degrees, and sunny):D , I was studying the sterns of the boats ahead of me. None seemed to be flat and all seemed to be heeled to leeward. Comments???
 
Sailing it flat is a relative term. Most boats go to weather with a little heel (5 to 10 deg.) If their rudders were straight they had it right. Any helm is a indication something is wrong.
 
If you flip a fish over and look at the hull it has the keel and two angled surfaces. Sail it flat actually means keeping one of them flat to the water. That gives you a couple of degrees to leeward for the mast. This gives less "wetted surface" and lower drag and allows the sail especially in low wind/drifting conditions to form and not flap so any breeze generates power and not used up in forming the sail shape.
 
"Flat doesn't mean with the mast straight up, however. Most Sunfish sailors allow enough heel so that the leeward half of the bottom is flat, allowing the chine to dig in for more lateral resistance ... About the only exception to that is when you're coming into a really big wave... some sailors heel as much as 45 degrees, letting the boat slice through the wave. If you take such a wave flat... it will stop you practically dead in the water."
-- The Sunfish Book, Will White

"Heel should be increased in chop to prevent waves from coming over the deck and to allow the hull to knife through the water... Light air, eight knots or less, 10 degree heel; medium to heavy air, sail it flat in flat water, slight heel in rough water."
-- Successful Sunfish Racing, Derrick Fries

"There is only one way to go upwind -- flat. The Sunfish must be sailed level. Only in very light winds you may permit the boat to heel in either direction and that is only to improve the sail shape and should not be done in flat seas."
-- Sail it Flat, Larry Lewis
 
I am a relitivly new sailor, and I have never sailed in a major event, but I know that I used to sail flat, and came in 6th or 7th in our local club events, I jumped to second place in the club when I started healing the boat a little!!!
 
Derrick has it right. Go to a major regatta and that is how the leaders sail. When Derrick says "flat" in flat water, he means totally flat, not with the leeward side of the hull flat - he means daggerboard vertical! BB
 

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