Sailing Upwind

wotayottie said:
Cant answer for the two boats you quote but the difference between my last bilge keeler ( Moody 336 and a very good performer for a bilgie) and my present fin is somewhere between 5 and 10 degrees. But part of this is leeway and in terms of sheer pointing its probably only about 5 degrees. Very noticeable when racing nevertheless.

In cruising ? I wouldnt bother. The inconvenience of a deep fin outweighs the gain in pointing IMO
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I made the this exact change just over 10 years back, the First's better sailing and motoring performance made a dramatic difference to our cruising range and we arrived at our usuall haunts a whole lot quicker!

Occasionally we would miss the added flexibly of having a shallow draft twin Keeler but making the change was not something we ever regretted.
 
I had the same thought.

To say "I wouldn't bother if cruising" assumes that you don't care how slow you go or how long it takes you to get there.

I only cruise these days (when I want to race, I do dinghies), but it's important to me that the boat goes well and get covers the ground. It can have quite a dramatic effect on your cruising grounds.
 
Boats are very different in their abilities - and sail set and sailing ability makes a difference also.

PS. We set a bizarre new record this weekend. After a great fun beat down East Kyle, we overtook a larger boat "beating" to windward just before Rothesay. We dropped sails and stopped for lunch for over an hour, then lazily rehoisted and set off - and soon overtook the same boat a few minutes later. It had only covered 4 or 5 miles in 2 plus hours, with no significant tide and good powered up breeze. A different boat was able to do nearly 3 times the "velocity made good" to windward.
As long as they were happy then great for them - and good for perseverance. But they soon resorted to diesel whilst we were able to complete the journey under sail only and still get there quicker.
 
As a cruising sailor,I am more interested in the track through the water rather than the apparent wind angle. What is reasonable to expect? I suspect my racing friends lie about it.
 
john newton said:
As a cruising sailor,I am more interested in the track through the water rather than the apparent wind angle. What is reasonable to expect? I suspect my racing friends lie about it.
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But your track through the water is affected by the apparent wind generated by boat speed, and also by the lift from the underwater foils.
 
On the skiff (see fast dinghy), we actually have to conciously slow the boat down when sailing to windward by pinching every few seconds, otherwise we find ourselves gradually being knocked by the apparent to the point where we're on a beam reach with everything pinned-in and all the tell-tales flying properly.
 
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