Comments on: To heel or not to heel http://www.lifestylesailingblog.com/women-on-sailing/to-heel-or-not-to-heel/ researching live-aboard sailing yachts Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:25:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3 By: John http://www.lifestylesailingblog.com/women-on-sailing/to-heel-or-not-to-heel/#comment-126 John Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:25:29 +0000 http://www.lifestylesailingblog.com/women-on-sailing/to-heel-or-not-to-heel/#comment-126 @ 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. @ 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.

]]> By: Michael http://www.lifestylesailingblog.com/women-on-sailing/to-heel-or-not-to-heel/#comment-125 Michael Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:14:57 +0000 http://www.lifestylesailingblog.com/women-on-sailing/to-heel-or-not-to-heel/#comment-125 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 ! 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 !

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