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Sail Trim: Minimizing rolling in sloppy seas

3K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  paul323 
#1 ·
I could use some advice on sail trim, specifically, how should I set my rig for broad reaching in light-to-medium wind and sloppy seas? When seas are flat, my 38' full-keel sailboat sails nicely to about 150 degrees apparent. But when seas pick up it begins rolling, and I start sailing higher and higher trying to protect the rig from pounding as the rolling of the boat knocks the wind in and out of the sails.

How do you set your rig and course for such conditions: sloppy/choppy seas and light-to-medium winds? I'm a cruiser, not a racer obviously, so comfort and care of rig and sails is paramount to speed.
 
#2 · (Edited)
There is not much that you can do in these conditions to minimize roll and slating since this is a product of the wave shape, frequency, and your boats. Heavier round bottom boats tend to roll worse than more moderate designs. Full keels generally are not as effective at dampening roll as a deeper fin. Heavier cruising rigs promote larger roll angles but slower rolling rates which can take a boat out of phase with the wave train making matters worse. About all you can do is rig a preventer to keep your boom from slatting and you can head up a little changing the wave angle, apparent frequency, and dampening from wind in your sails.
 
#3 ·
keep your speed up. beam-reach to a broad reach (90 to 150 degrees relative wind) (Remember a beam-reach is _still_ going to take you down-wind) and keep the sails drawing. chance course to mis-match the boat's natural frequency in pitch or roll versus the frequency that it receives the waves.

Sometimes, I can find an angle at which the boat just rides over a wake (or wave) with not much pitch or roll. This is usually about 15 to 20 degrees from parallel to the wave.

If the wind is very-very light, you can also try forcing the boat to heel (use the crew for rail-meat) so the sails will tend to hang in a better shape and be ready for the next breath of wind. If it won't continuously fly, douse the spinnaker & put up a headsail, maybe a #2 instead of the Genoa as it will be easier to get it to the correct shape.

If you _are_ moving downwind, remember steer up in the lulls and down in the puffs.
 
#7 ·
Technically by definition beam reaching is sailing perpendicular to the true wind and therefore neither going upwind or downwind. Now then a fast boat will show its apparent wind forward of abeam even when sailing on a deep broad reach. But that has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
 
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#9 ·
If your boat has a centerboard you can drop that. As Jeff said fin keels have less roll in general. Changing you sailing angle will help and make it easier to time the rudder movement as stated above
 
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