Sailing Clinic Part 1 – Speed and Tacking

This is a continuation and expansion of my earlier post on sailing lessons, so I can get things straight and get ready to take a solo exam at some point in the next few weeks. If you’re not interested, skip it.

I’m still not going to expound on the rigging or anything; that’s information that’s easily found on other sites and it’s not that interesting. The boat is a Mercury, maybe 14 feet long, with a nice deep centerboard which is awesome for letting the boat lean really far over when you have a lot of speed, and really horrible when you’re sailing in a low-tide situation with lots of sandbars. In low wind conditions, it helps to have a jib or jibsheet up, which is a smaller sail in front of the mast that basically exists to direct more apparent wind at the mainsheet, and to catch wind when you’re running (sailing directly before the wind). For all examples, assume that the wind is blowing due north, and there is no jib.

As a side note, that word “jib” rhymes with “rib” and has no relationship with the verb “to jibe” or “to gybe.” That word rhymes with “imbibe” and means to change course across the wind’s heading while moving downwind.

So. Principle 1 is that speed equals control. This is because maneuvering requires use of the rudder, and the rudder changes your course by directing the flow of the water to one side or another. If you’re not moving, the water isn’t flowing, so the only maneuvering ability you have involves “swimming” or “sculling” with the rudder…basically, you move the rudder like a fish’s tail to get some slight forward momentum. Your sail controls your speed and attitude (how far over your boat leans), and your rudder controls your course. Evolutions like docking, where you may not have the luxury of moving with the wind, generally require a lot of well-managed momentum so you don’t end up facing straight into the wind with no speed (this point of sail is called “in irons”).

Principle 2 is that speed, in and of itself, is not always the most important thing. Generally when you’re sailing you’re trying to go somewhere, and that somewhere may not have anything to do with where the wind is blowing that day. You want speed, but you want to be moving towards where you need to go. Sailing races require a lot of instinct and calculation for figuring out how to get the most “velocity made good,” i.e. to choose the most efficient way of getting to the end point. If this point is straight upwind, you’re going to have to do a lot of “tacking” – moving in a zig-zag pattern, across the direction of the wind.

So remember that the wind is blowing north. We want to move south. We can find an efficient point of sail by setting a southwest course, at a “close haul” – that is, with your sail kept at very tiny angle relative to your boat’s keel (the line between the front and the back) – and then performing a tack.

The first thing you do when you tack is to make sure that you have enough speed and (obviously) you’re not in danger of hitting anything, and that your sail is, indeed, fairly close to the keel and under control. Then you slam the rudder all the way over in order to turn as fast as possible. Your course should pass through the direction of the wind at the same time as your boom (the big heavy thing with the sail’s foot attached to it that makes an L-shape with the mast) swings over to the other side of the boat.

Here’s the tricky thing – there are two separate things that you need to concentrate on. First, you (and anyone else) need to be very conscious about how your weight is distributed. Since you’re in control, you must be on the opposite side of the boat from the sail, so you need to quickly move to the other side of the boat and switch which of your hands are holding the tiller/rudder and the line that controls the sail. If you do not move to the opposite side from where the sail is, in a strong wind the boat may capsize. The weight of you, your passengers or crew, and your cargo works to counterbalance the force that wind exerts on your sail and hence your boat. If you believe you are going over, ease your sail so that less of it is exposed to the wind. You will sacrifice speed and control, but it’s better than unexpectedly going swimming.

(Because of its deep centerboard, the Mercury can heel over incredibly far – about 60 degrees – and remain stable. I am told that you can sail a Mercury with perfect stability even while it’s heeled so far over that water is coming in over the leeward (downwind) side. Ask around or do some research to determine how far over your boat can lean while retaining stability, and practice because your weight and how you manage your weight in the boat make a huge difference. I have to remind myself of this stuff whenever I go sailing, since my first boats were canoes and kayaks, and if you’re leaned over more than about 30 degrees in one of those boats you are boned.)

Second, straighten out your rudder just as you and the boom switch sides. This prevents you from oversteering and simply heading straight back 180 degrees from where you were going before. If this maneuver was performed correctly, you should now be at about a 90 degree angle from where you were before, or heading approximately southeast, still at a close haul but on the opposite side. You can do this as many times as you like in order to “beat” upwind, but remember to get up enough speed each time that you can complete the tack.

This concludes the introductory sailing lesson on speed and tacking. Next (i.e. whenever I feel like it), jibing and points of sail.