To heel or not to heel
Although I have seen numerous pictures of sailing boats with people sitting on one side that looked higher out of the water than the other side, I never gave it a thought why that was and how that would feel and I thought only in races that would happen.
So my first experience of heeling was quite a shock.
While motoring out of the marina in a ‘normal’ upright position I made myself comfortable on one side of the cockpit, staying as far away from that dangerous tiller as possible. Once out in the open a flurry of activity resulted in the sails being hoisted AND the boat flipping on its side.
Luckily I am not the type that starts shouting so I readjusted my seating as quickly as possible silently muttering under my breath and hanging tightly onto the railing behind me, wondering if anybody else noticed this weird position of the boat leaning dangerously over to one side.
When I finally located John on the boat I carefully made my way towards him to anxiously whisper; “Is this boat having a problem, like a flat tyre or something, do we all have to sit on the other side and make it straight again?”
Since then I have been wizened up and learnt that heeling is ‘normal’ and most sailing boats do that.
I got to believe that heeling is inevitable and that it is the best position for the boat under sail.
However I still don’t like heeling and I have found out most other women don’t like heeling either.
So why don’t I like heeling?
I think I have learnt to mistrust any lean of any kind.
As a parent I have anxiously watched kids going over the balance point and topple over when they lean over too far on their chairs, when they stand up in a supermarket trolley, when they ride their bikes, when they climb a jungle gym etc and you have to deal with the consequences.
You see the disaster unfolding and you know when something leans over drama is not far away.
So no wonder most women don’t trust anything that leans and it will take some doing to unlearn anxiety about a lean.
Another point about heeling is the discomfort it causes.
I cannot move freely as the floor is not straight and I cannot sit easily as everything is off balance. Doing things in the galley when it heels dramatically is a curse as well. Everything falls out of everything and moves to where it doesn’t belong.
So if a live aboard boat can be a boat the heels in the least possible way I would like that a lot better for all the above mentioned reasons.
Yachts like Steadfast don’t even need sails up to heel in a blow, they are designed that way.
Yes, both me and my partner agree with you, we don’t like leaning boats either, our really nice ketch we have is great, but it leans over too much in a blow, even without sails up, and it means we are less keen to go out in the boat than we are say, a drive somewhere. We may even get a catermaran !
@ Michael, lovely to hear from you again.
Catamarans are certainly one solution and they are deservedly popular because they sail more or less upright.
But it is also possible to have keelers that sail more upright than traditional narrow hull designs. Modern design does support the idea that you can have beamy hulls that are both easily driven (fast) and less inclined to heel.
However, even with a beamy hull or a catamaran, you can still have an uncomfortable ride; if you have a skipper who always wants to race and drive their boat hard and fast. So whatever the boat, the first thing to consider is how can I sail this boat more gently and still get where I want to go.
On a related topic; an interesting feature of the Chinese Junk rig, which I have had a lot of sailing experience with, is that that rig is best sailed upright and you are better easing the sheet and setting the sails at less of an angle to the wind than you would do with a typical marconi rig. With the Junk rig you win on both counts; it sails more efficiently when the boat is upright.
I hate feeling off balance so I completely agree with you on the fact that heeling is not fun. It is uncomfortable and everything falls all over the place and makes a mess.