Sailing To Win Blog!

Steering a sailboat fast is the responsibility of the helmsperson.

The rest of the crew takes care of tactics, strategy and sail trim, with the helmsperson concentrating on telltales, instruments and “feel.”

The role of steering is easier when the trimmers communicate with the helmsperson about sail trim, target speeds and so on.

Communication must go both ways. The helmsperson knows how the boat feels, and must constantly let the trimmers know whether the boat feels sluggish, overpowered or “in the groove.”

To steer, you have to turn the boat continually. Some of these course changes are very small, such as when you want to pinch slightly upwind. Other times, like tacking, you have to turn the boat through a large change of course.

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There are three ways to make a boat turn:

1. Rudder — The disadvantage of the rudder is that it functions as a brake. As soon as you turn it more than a little bit, the water flow separates and the rudder stalls.
2. Sails — Using the sails to turn: If you want the bow to head up, trim the main and ease the jib. If you want the bow to head away from the wind, trim the jib and ease the main.
3. Heel — When your boat is upright, the underwater profile is symmetrical, and it will go straight. When the boat heels to leeward, the underwater profile becomes asymmetrical, and the water flow makes it head up, producing windward helm. Conversely, windward heel makes the boat head down and produces lee helm.

When you are steering, you should use all three methods no matter how slight your course change, and this will keep the boat going as fast as possible.

Take Account Of the Conditions:

Keep track of everything that’s going on around the boat

• What the waves are doing,
• How fast is the boat going,
• How close to the wind are you heading,
• Your performance compared to other boats,
• Approaching puffs and lulls.

You can’t afford to look at any one of these things alone and have to watch them all at the same time.

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Things the helmsperson needs to know:

• Approaching waves and flat spots, and how severe they are.
• Puffs and lulls, and how soon they will hit.
• Changes in wind direction (predicted by using ripples on the water or other boats).
• Pointing and speed relative to other boats
• Meeting with other boats that may require a steering change
• Continual update on genoa and mainsail trim.

Depending on the number in the crew and relevant skill levels, jobs should be given to different crew members. This keeps them involved and spreads the load.

Helm Load

About 3-5 degrees of rudder angle is fastest when sailing to windward.

If there’s too much weather helm, the rudder will create excess drag. Not enough weather helm means that you will lose some or all of your “feel.”

To decrease Helm – flatten the main (and genoa) by tensioning the backstay and outhaul. Move the crew weight outboard and aft and flatten the boat by pinching more and easing the traveller.

To increase Helm – move crew weight to leeward and forward to increase heel. Make the main and genoa more powerful by easing the backstay and outhaul, and add rake to move the sail plan aft.

The lift generated by the rudder helps the keel prevent the boat from sliding to leeward and reduces the leeway angle as well.

The Groove

Being “in the groove” is where the boat feels good and performs well. The goal of the helmsperson is to keep the boat in this groove as much of the time as possible.

You can make the groove wider and easier to find by giving the genoa a wider leading-edge angle and a more draft-forward shape. The disadvantage is that you won’t point as high as possible, and sometimes the windward telltale will seem insensitive to steering changes.

Reduce headstay sag to make a narrower, higher-pointing groove. Remember that the more you flatten out the front of the jib, the more “critical” the sail will become, and the harder it will be to stay in the groove.

Other Steering Tips

• Chop vs. waves – Bear off and power through chop, but steer around waves – up the face and down the back side.
• Light air – Keep the boat moving, or you will lose apparent wind and will have to accelerate again from scratch. The trimmer should communicate with the helmsperson to avoid stalling the boat.
• Medium air – Concentrate on pointing, especially in flat water.
• Heavy air – Note the angle of heel, steer and trim to keep the boat from excessive heel.  Take a bite to windward when overpowered. Bear off to sail through big waves and head up in flat spots.
• Tacking – Use weather helm plus crew weight and sail trim in lighter air to let the boat head up slowly into the wind. As soon as the boat is head to wind, give the rudder a harder push to accelerate the turn.

Tips on how to Point Higher

“The best teams in each fleet I sail in all seem to be able to point higher than me”. This is a statement that can be heard at every regatta.

Flow over the foils is key and you can’t start pointing higher until you have enough flow.

Many factors affect pointing ability, but I’ll talk about the main ones. For the sake of this exercise let’s say that the breeze is about 9-12 knots and the boat is not overpowered.

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VMG and pointing

Let’s focus on pointing higher than VMG (Velocity Made Good).  VMG = optimum height/ speed angle for making progress upwind. The range between VMG and pointing artificially high is maybe 4 degrees any higher than that and the speed drops off drastically.

Ease into pointing by gaining speed first. If someone is right below you (like at a start), you still can’t stick it high too quickly because until flow gets going over your foils you will slide sideways.

The Jib and Pointing

Many sailors try to point by trimming in their jib hard and although tempting, over-trimming the jib is not the way to point.

When pointing considerably higher, especially in lighter winds, the pressure on the jib will decrease and the jib may get tighter in the leech so you may actually need to ease it.

If trying to point higher by heading up, and your jib leech telltale stalls, you need to ease.

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The Main and Pointing

You get height by over-trimming the main and thus hooking leech. Look at the top leech telltale and see what % it is flowing. If in VMG mode, have it stall 50% of the time.

In point mode, trim it in so it is stalling 70-80% of the time.

Over-trimming the main will give you more hook. If the hook is hard to achieve, ease the backstay and vang. Each will straighten the mast and that makes the leech tighter.

Easing Cunningham and outhaul also add some hook and thus leech tension.

Jib and Mainsail Leech Telltales

Spend most of your time looking at the jib tales and just glance up and read the % stall on the main. That leech telltale will alternate between flowing and stalling over a few seconds.

Adjust the main trim whenever there is a windspeed change.

If your target is 70% stall, but then get a lull, ease main and then look up and fine-tune to get it back to 70%. To relate this to pointing high, do this regardless of pointing, VMG, or footing, but the target stall time is what changes.

Other Controls to aid pointing

Traveller – pull the traveller up so the boom is just above the centreline.

Heel – Over-flatten the boat. You need the foils more vertical than usual to get the most lift off them. It’s just a few degrees more than normal for those conditions. A flat boat moves sails to windward.

Ease the jib halyard and mainsail Cunningham

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Pointing when Overpowered

When you are overpowered, it’s more about sailing flat. In overpowered conditions, the main is already eased so the top telltale is always flowing.

You still need to trim in your main, but instead of trimming to the main leech telltale, trim to keep the boat at the correct heel. Focus on the heel, puffs, lulls and waves.

Steering a little high say 1-4 deg is OK, but pointing any higher than that is unsustainable.

In all conditions, over-trim and pinch until you feel the boat start to slow then put the bow down and get speed again.

By David Dellenbaugh – https://www.speedandsmarts.com/ 

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Dave will be leading three new webinars during the US winter and spring of 2024/2025. Each of these will include four live sessions geared toward a wide range of racing boats and sailors. For more info or to register click here.

Getting a Feel For Steering

The beauty of a hand on the helm is the control and the unmistakable power of feel. When it feels right, it feels fast.   

Telltales are an excellent guide for steering in the groove upwind. You can shift gears within the groove by subtly varying the position of the windward telltales.

I had a chance to go iceboating for the first time a couple of months ago but I didn’t understand how anyone could sail without seeing wind on the water.

After two days of scooting around in Nites and Skeeters on Wisconsin’s Lake Geneva, I learned that “feel” is everything. The only way to tell how high or low you can steer is by feeling the wind pressure on the rig and the speed of the boat going over the ice.

It’s amazing how sensitive you become to these when you can’t rely on normal visual clues.

In many ways, steering a “water” boat is like steering an iceboat. It requires a sensitive touch. Steering is, by definition, the technique of guiding a boat from one point to another. It’s a fine art that requires practice, concentration, and the ability to experience a boat almost as an extension of yourself.

In order to go fast, you have to use a combination of rudder, weight and sail trim whenever you deviate from a straight line.

Steering Upwind

Steering a boat upwind has always been one of my favourite parts of sailing. One important thing is to sit (or stand) in a good place. Position yourself as high off the water, as far forward, and as far outboard as possible. This will give you the best view of your sails, the waves in front of your boat, and the rest of the racecourse.

Be sure you are comfortable, so you minimize distractions and maximize your attention span.

Once you’ve settled into a “batting stance,” you’re ready to start looking around and driving. To steer fast, you must assimilate information from several sources. Let’s discuss some of the guides you can use:

Jib telltales:

This is where I look most often when steering upwind. Like a lot of helmsmen, I probably depend too much on this single source of information. But telltales are a very good indication of how close I am sailing to the wind.

By watching the exact position of the windward telltales, I have a clear idea of whether I am slightly pinching, slightly footing, or sailing a normal upwind angle (see diagram).

Remember that easing or trimming the jib will affect the telltales; also, if you’re watching only the lower telltales, you may be misled if they are breaking differently from those at the top part of the sail.

The angle of heel:

A lot of good sailors steer by watching and feeling how much the boat heels. They find a heel angle that feels fast, then steer to maintain that angle (and the corresponding amount of weather helm).

The easiest way to keep track of the heel is by watching the angle that your forestay makes with the horizon. Using heel angle is actually another way to gauge how close you are sailing to the wind; the higher you head, the less you heel, and vice versa.

Instruments: Get a feel for steering

If your boat has instruments, one of your priorities should be to post target speeds for each wind velocity within easy sight of the helmsperson or tactician. These are helpful for knowing whether you should steer the boat faster or slower or lower or higher) at any given time.

Be sure to mount your boat speed readout (and other important instruments) on the mast or in a location where it is easy to read while looking forward. That way you can simultaneously watch the instruments, telltales, waves and angle of heel without looking away.

Look outside the boat:

It’s a good idea to make sure someone is always assigned to watch for puffs, lulls, waves and flat spots. Anticipating a change in conditions is key for steering. It lets you know whether you will have to head up for a puff or head off to punch through waves.

On small boats, the lookout is usually the skipper; on larger boats, it might be the tactician. Communication should include comments like, “There’s a puff coming in 20 seconds” or “Two steep waves in a boat length.”

Make sure these are loud enough for both the helmsperson and sail trimmers to hear.

Steering technique depends a good deal on how you’re moving relative to other boats. I like to have one crewmember (it could be the lookout) give me continuous readouts on our speed and height compared to our “neighbors.”

This helps me know whether I should steer higher or lower. If we’re having a problem, I’ll ask for feedback on what the other boat is doing. Often a slight change in my steering technique will make a difference.

Practice and experience:

Time in the boat is often the best way to learn how to steer fast.

The first time we sailed Heart of America in Fremantle, for example, Buddy Melges tried to steer the waves as if we were in a Soling.

Unfortunately, this didn’t work for a 12-metre. It took us at least a month of sailing every day to figure out how to get through those seas quickly.

Steering Downwind

Steering downwind seems easy at first. After all, you just head for the mark and trim your sails. But it’s not so simple if you want to go fast.

Finding a groove downwind is usually much harder than upwind. You don’t have the positive feel of weather helm, and it’s tough to settle in on a heading where the boat feels like it is effortlessly making its best VMG downwind. Fortunately, there are a few guides you can use.

Course to the mark:

The shortest distance between any two points is a straight line, so you can often steer straight for the next mark, and trim your sails to match. This is especially true on a reach.

I’ve used a point on shore, a compass heading, a light on shore, the stern light of a boat ahead, and even a star to help me steer a steady course.

Just be careful not to get so fixed on one heading that you ignore changes in the wind and other variables.

Polars and Target speeds:

These are just as important for steering on a run as they are on a beat.

What you need is a chart that gives your optimal wind angle and boatspeed for each true wind speed. When you find the angle your boat likes, set your pole position and steer up and down to maintain good pressure in the sail.

Spinnaker trimmer:

If you don’t have polars (and even if you do), one of the tricks to steering fast downwind is communication between the spinnaker trimmer and helmsperson.

When I’m steering on a run, I key almost entirely off the spinnaker. I look for changes in the shape of the chute, which indicate there has been a change in either wind direction or velocity.

I also listen carefully to my trimmer who continuously tells me what kind of pressure is on the sheet and whether we should head lower to burn speed or head up to build speed.

Feel: Get a feel for steering

Sensitivity is especially important downwind for several reasons.

First, the downwind groove is usually “mushy,” so it takes extra awareness to know when you are there.

Second, you can’t read the wind on the water as easily because you are facing away from the wind.

Third, the wind you feel (apparent wind) is less when you’re sailing down the wind, so it’s harder to feel on your body.

I usually try to sense changes in the breeze on my ears and the back of my neck. I’ve heard stories that Dennis Conner actually gets his hair cut before major regattas so he can feel the wind better.

This may not be necessary for most people, but it’s a good argument for not hiding your head under bulky clothing.

One final suggestion

Keep your rudder as still as possible when steering downwind. This is a change from going upwind, where the rudder actually provides lift and can help you wiggle around waves.

When you’re going downwind, however, the main result of rudder movement is increased turbulence and drag (except when steering to catch waves in surfing conditions), so use your weight and sails to neutralize the helm.