Motorsailing

[meboater]

Tanzer 22, cb, 8hp outboard.

When does it make sense to use a sail while motoring? It's rare for us to use the motor when we can do 2 knots or better. Generally, if the motor is on, wind is pretty dead. In what conditions is there an advantage to the sail?

Also- when might it make sense to have the cb up versus down?

As always, any input appreciated.

[PCP]

It depends of what you are doing. If you are sailing just for the pleasure of sailing around your home port, 2k will be fine. But if you are travelling and want to arrive at day light at your destination.... that's a completely different story.

When I am travelling I motorsail if the speed falls to 5K or less. If you have not the wind behind, if you motorsail you create more wind and the boat can use that wind to sail, so you just need a little bit of RPM to sail faster, specially if you use a propeller like the autoprop or the gori overdrive.

Regards

Paulo

[GraemeInCanada]

I try not to motorsail but you can get a lot more speed out of just above idle if you also have a bit of wind. It's surprising actually. Essentially you make your own wind as PCP has said there and the motor just encourages the boat to do a bit better than it currently is. Worth it if you need to be somewhere, other than that I don't bother.

[TQA]

It can reduce the amount you roll.

[BarryL]

Hello,

If I am trying to get somewhere, and there is no wind, I will usually put the mainsail up and motorsail at cruising rpm. The main seems to add a little speed, and it also seems to make the boat more steady. I will roll up the headsail because it otherwise would just slat around.

Barry

[FSMike]

Originally Posted by meboater

--

Also- when might it make sense to have the cb up versus down? --

Going upwind (or reaching), centerboard down to reduce leeway and increase pointing ability.
Going downwind, centerboard up to reduce drag.
Caveat: In some wind/wave conditions going downwind, centerboard down can improve control.
Boats vary, so experiment. You may also possibly find advantages to partially up/down.

[meboater]

Mike-
I was referring to cb up/down while motoring or motor sailing. Thanks.