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Sunfish Sailing Techniques Revisited

As a follow-up to my shared notes from an Eduardo Cordero Racing Clinic, I thought I would elaborate on a few sailing concepts and techniques to answer some of the questions I have been asked over the past 2 years.

Part I: Understanding the basic forces in sailing

This section covers the very foundation of boathandling, by detailing how body weight and sail trim can create forces that are able to steer a sailboat without the need of a rudder. In a nutshell, here are the 4 most relevant forces:

  • weight in: leaning in, boat heads toward the wind (upwind)
  • weight out: leaning or hiking out, boat heads away from the wind (downwind)
  • sail trim in: boat heads toward the wind (upwind)
  • sail trim out: boat heads away from the wind (downwind)

As you see, there are 2 upwind and 2 downwind forces that can be created without the use of a rudder. The next step is to figure out how to maximize the forces to your advantage during during boat handling maneuvers. In addition, the ability to maximize opposing forces at key times during boat handling maneuvers will enhance your sailing with better forward acceleration coming out of maneuvers, for example.

Part II: Coordinating weight movement and sail trim during maneuvers

This section puts the forces discussed in Part I into real sailing perspective. Here are the 4 coordinated weight movements with sail trim:

  • sail trim in, weight in: move sharply towards the wind
  • sail trim out, weight out: move sharply away from the wind
  • sail trim in, weight out: maximizes opposing forces, can achieve great acceleration forward
  • sail trim out, weight in: maximizes opposing forces, but in a negative way, these actions done together act to cancel out each other in terms of maneuverability

As you can see, one would want to do the sail trim in, weight in technique upon entrance into a tacking maneuver, and to choose the sail trim out, weight out technique upon entrance into a gybing maneuver. The sail trim in, weight out is usually the best solution for exiting a boat handling maneuver.

Part III: how to park the boat at one spot on the line, without drifting over, away or down the line.

  • board slide sideways - take advantage of free space to leeward, and create some space between yourself and the windward boat
  • turn downwind, sheet out, ready to defend - protect from leeward boats
  • head to wind option - keep the windward boat honest
  • weight back-in-the-boat option - acts like a giant brake

Posted by BrianMcGinnis, February 20, 2006 07:18 PM