- This topic has 3 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 18 hours, 13 minutes ago by
PETER ABRAHAMS.
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November 11, 2025 at 4:48 pm #51364
PETER ABRAHAMS
ParticipantMy sailing partner likes to heel the boat when he’s helm and when I’m helm I never want to do that, I always try and sail level.
After a discussion or two with him I started to think mmm maybe there are some things to consider.I’ll set some thoughts down and hope for some useful comments.
1. Is the aerodynamic assistance of the jib when heeling greater than the drag caused by the turning effect of the hull and the rudder adjustment to keep boat straight? Is it 50/50 or very bad one way or the other?
2. Under what sailing conditions, e.g light winds, running, beating, would heeling the boat be either a good thing or a bad thing?
3. Sorry to say that although I’m long in the tooth I’m not very good at reading wind conditions and hence do not have much of a feel for these matters, hence my questions.
thank you in advance to all you experts out there.
Peter. -
November 12, 2025 at 12:42 pm #51369
Oliver Shaw
ModeratorFor what it is worth, my understanding is that in everything except ghosting conditions the traditional dinghy mantra has it right; “Flat is fast and safe”.
Unlike some yacht hulls, dinghy hulls are not generally designed to produce a balanced helm when heeled; some yachts, by contrast, are designed to have neutral helm when heeled – but they have radically different hull shapes from dinghies. Most dinghies, and certainly the G14, tend to produce weather helm when heeled, so you need to apply rudder correction to keep her on course; and this slows the boat down, as inevitably the rudder is then partially acting as a brake.
It also seems to be the accepted view that, quite apart from generating weather helm, the hull shape is itself less efficient when heeled. Purely intuitively that seems to me to be right, although I don’t have the very specialised mathematical knowledge to be able to absolutely confirm it.
Then the sails are also less efficient. At the very simplest and crudest level, when heeled the sail plan presents a reduced height to the wind (proportional to the cosine of the angle of heel), and thus also a reduced aspect ratio. Additionally there is now at least some tendency for the wind striking the sails to be deflected upwards (instead of aft), so part of the potential wind force is being wasted.
The one exception is in ghosting conditions, i.e. almost zero wind force. In those very special conditions, heeling the boat allows the sails to sag slightly to leeward, and thus imparts some artificial curvature in a helpful direction. It has also been argued that heeling the boat reduces the wetted surface area, and so reduces hull friction; that may perhaps be the case, but I suspect that this may be boat-specific. Certainly in my youth, getting on for 65 years ago, racing Fireflies at University this seemed to help; in such conditions we heeled them until the lee gunwale was kissing the water amidships. But I am less convinced that it helps in GP14s.
Oliver
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November 12, 2025 at 12:48 pm #51370
PETER ABRAHAMS
ParticipantOliver, thank you for your very clear opinion, much appreciated, Peter
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November 12, 2025 at 12:50 pm #51371
PETER ABRAHAMS
Participant. I’m no good at these posts 🙂
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