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Old 02-09-2003
DuaneIsing DuaneIsing is offline
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Help! How to teach someone to maintain heading

Dave,

I would suggest some practice under power with bare poles at a modest speed, say, 4 knots. If she can hold a course under usual conditions, she should be able to do OK since the rudder will have decent authority. After she is good at that speed, lower the speed a little and keep practicing.

Perhaps the more experienced sailors will disagree with me, but I see no great need to power the boat dead slow into the wind when hoisting or lowering sails. If you have a 15 knot breeze and you''re head to the wind, what''s the difference if the motor adds 1 knot or 3 to the apparent wind? If a little extra boat speed is what she needs to gain the rudder authority, that''s what I would do.

Good luck.

Duane
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