How can I cure my fear of heeling? Any ideas please?

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mickyp168

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Hi
I hope the title doesn't sound stupid but I need to fix this problem. I have come into sailing a 23' cruiser I now own from dinghy sailing. I'm a big bloke so I was always capsizing the dinghy which was ok because it was on a river and I could manage. Now I am sailing in the sea. I have reasonable experience and know more or less what I am doing ,I am safe and I dont go out if the weather is bad etc. However it being a small boat a F3 or maybe a 4 ( I wouldn't go out over that in the first place) has the boat heeling quite a lot and I can't help getting alarmed. I know about reefing and easy the main etc which is what I do. If I am sailing with a buddy who I know is highly qualified and experienced I'm fine ,because I am confident all will be well. But when its just me and SWMBO I get nervous. I wonder if its a common problem , if anyone else has experienced it and what to do about it
Thanks
Mick
 
Heeling is normal so you will get used to it in the meatime just ease the main down a bit and the boat will stand up a bit, the more you ease it the less heel there will be but you will sail slower. Keep doing until you are happy with the amount of heel. If it's any help Jane and I sailed 12,000nms and on leaving on every passage we got nervous before casting off. Once cast off it went.
 
Perfectly normal and it's a problem which you should find eases with time. Go sailing lots with SWMBO and with others who have more experience. Build up your own confidence and your confidence in your boat.

One other thing that might help is using the mainsheet track if you have one. In stronger conditions ease the mainsheet down the track to leeward. This should help to reduce the effects of gusts in particular. Remember to adjust it each time you tack. Don't just leave it free to move across itself in case it hits something - you, for example - on its way.

Enjoy your sailing!
 
Just sail lots and over time you will come to accept that heeling is normal, and keep inviting your friend along to boost your confidence.
 
I'm not even much of an amateur psychologist, but I'll have a stab at it.

You've sailed dinghies so you know the basic physics and what you need to know is how that transfers to keelboats. One thing that may surprise you is that maximum heel happens at around about the optimum sail angle to the wind. A lot of people think that it gets worse when you turn away from the wind but the reverse is true - the boat becomes more upright (and slows down because the sails are stalled).

My suggestion would be to actually try and get the boat to heel as far as you can, and sail it like that for a while. The rudder may come out of the water and it'll spin into the wind, but it won't capsize and you just need to prove that to yourself. Do it where there's plenty of empty space, and possibly where nobody is watching! Once you've done that, sail to windward as much as you can while experimenting with being too close to the wind and then too far off it. You will neither break nor sink the boat, and it's good practise for when you get gusty wind shifts.
 
Go racing. You'll be with a bunch of others and will see that they are unpertubed by it. You'll soon get used to it. Crusing at an angle will then seem much more relaxed.
 
have a decent traveller - let the most nervous person control that - ease the traveller in the gusts and she will come up a bit. Make sure of course that the boat is reefed enough to be safe anyway.

You could also research the Angle of Vanishing stability for your boat - that's the point at which it will continue to roll and will go right over 180 degrees. SOmetimes knowing that the boat can shove her mast head under water and still come up is big re-assurance.
 
Thanks for all the advice which I will take on board as they say. Recently I was crewing on a 30' boat on a broad reach in a F6 so the toe rail was in the water. I was having the preverbal kittens as I was driving and the skipper was sitting in the cockpit with me playing Sudoku on his phone.! Maybe I am just a woos!
 
When taking the boat out have the sails reefed and then let a bit more sail out as you get used to it. You will also be able to have very good control at all times.
Maurice
 
JumbleDuck said:
However, during the turn the boat will almost certainly heel a lot more, mainly due to centrifugal force on the rig and keel. This can be disconcerting.
Click to expand...

I was the same. A good mate who I trusted and who has sailed all his life took me out on his boat on a blowy day, got me a bit tiddly (Dutch courage can be a serious learning aid), then we tried to tip the boat over. Couldn't do it. Just kept rounding up. Works the same for my and I suspect most keel boats. I now get nagged because I refuse to reef often until quite a bit later than I should :D
 
It's simply lack of exposure to a new experience, I sailed dinghies for donkeys, and also got a few rides on cruisers which I found unnerving for exactly the same reason you did. I now don't notice it. Having had Gladys for 11 years, I quickly discovered that she has a point of heel beyond which the sails will not make her go (well not yet anyway). WHat does happen is that the weather helm increases. SHe can go from say 20 degrees of wheel on when sailing just past the "sweet spot", up to having all the wheel on apart from maybe the last 20 degrees (2.5 turns lock to lock). It's taught me to reef appropriately, a roll in the genny at about 17 knots, first reef about 20 etc, etc... The most instructional thing I did was to stick both reefs in the main and roll the jib up for three reefs, and had a very comfy sail in 28-30 knots...

On the other hand, I also raced a Sonata in the 70's as a crew, and on two occasions saw the spreaders touch the water...
 
JumbleDuck said:
However, during the turn the boat will almost certainly heel a lot more, mainly due to centrifugal force on the rig and keel. This can be disconcerting.
Click to expand...

Agree. Provided we are talking about gusts above a moderate wind and not a sustained strong wind, turning the boat onto a broad reach during a gust will bring her upright without the alarming tilt and clatter (not to mention apparent wind in your face) associated with luffing up.

This, and giving the sufferer the main sheet to dump, is how I try to cure fear of heeling (which is quite commons d natural).
 
mickyp168 said:
I know about reefing and easy the main etc which is what I do.
Click to expand...

Despite what you've written here...maybe you don't reef early or enough. There seems to be a lot of machismo around heeling. Boats don't generally sail at their best tipped right over. If you're fighting the helm then putting in another reef will often reduce rudder drag and end up making you go faster as well as more comfortably. If you delay reefing because with just the two of you the procedure is a bit of a faff then practice, practice practice until it goes like clockwork. Not only will you not hesitate to reef you know it'll be easy to unreef if the wind drops. If you end up going a bit slower than others because you're got less sail up, so what? Sail the way that feels enjoyable to you.
 
It's pretty natural for a dinghy sailor to feel that way. It's fun when we go out on ours with dinghy sailors who haven't been out on a keel oat before and watching them scrambling up to windward each time we tack, to keep it upright! Our keel weighs as much as my car. That's a comfort to me when I think about it! Sometimes, I seit on the leeward side of the cockpit when beating, so that I can see under the sail. Not having my (not inconsiderable!) weight make any appreciable difference to how the boat heels, is reassuring.

We used to have an Evolution 22. Not much ballast stability, but plenty of beam. That was never a reassuring boat in a gust. Although it never capsized, the rate of change of heel seemed to increase. I could never "trust" that boat. We now have a long keeler where everything not only happens more slowly, but also more "reassuringly". Hard to describe, but although the boat heels quite quickly initially, it stiffens up more as the angle of heel increases. The other thing I tell myself is that the thing that makes the boat heel is the surface area of canvas exposed to the wind from the side. As the boat heels, this naturally decreases (it would be zero if the boat was knocked flat). So the very thing that causes you to heel in the first place, REDUCES, the more you heel!
 
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