Bosun Higgs
N/A
You could argue that it is less of an issue in the Solent / south coast because our prevailing winds give these areas a much higher percentage of off the wind sailing that I get in the Bristol channel, but windward performance still matters.
I always reckon the only way you will ever tell is by racing - only then do you consistently try to get the best performance and only then do you get a true measure by comparing yourselves with the rest of the fleet. I have to smile when people quote angles to the nearest degree using usually un-zeroed kit with no calibration and invariably chosing the best spot reading
If you doubt that , try sailing alongside a pal with different kit and swapping wind and boat speeds over the radio.We changed our reasonably fast bilge keeler for a fin of the same LOA with slightly more sail area and weight. The reason was pointing ability and whilst I wont estimate an angle of difference, it was noticeable that boats we had raced and achieved the same track were now being passed to windward. Down wind our speed was little if any different. Overall, we sailed to a 10% smaller handicap and I'm pretty sure that was mostly down to pointing ability.
So if I can get somewhere when cruising 10% faster, I'm happy. The only disadvantage is that I'm sometimes hanging around at the other end waiting the tide to get in whilst all the bilgies go first.
