UFO 31 Heel angle?

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Mings74

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Hi all,
New to sailing, loads of questions, just bought my first yacht a 1979 UFO31. Been out about five times, a couple of times by myself, loving it and doing okay I think. Learnt a major lesson the other day "If your thinking about reefing then it's already to late" 8 very pleasant knots of wind became 20 in the blink of an eye!. I was caught out with full mainsail, and all of my 135% genoa out, eek!.
Had some scary extreme (to me!) heeling moments before I remebered to dump the main and compose myself. Conditions had changed so much that I was able to do 5.5knots with a scrap of genoa rolled out.
Anyway I'm rambling, bearing in mind I'm pretty in-experienced how much can my yacht safely heel?, at what point would it capsize?. Ten degrees of heel feels comfortable, a bit more and I'm out of my comfort zone, am I concerned for no reason?. Any answers or info about the boat welcome. Cheers Ming
 
Your yacht should not capsize due to wind induced heel. Over a certain angle less sail area is presented to the wind due to the angle (unless you are sailing down a fjord in Norway!) and the righting moment of the keel takes over.

The times that yachts 'capsize' are ususlly due to the rolling action of waves, but you would have to be in very unpleasant circumstances to get to this point, and is pretty rare.

10 degree in time will be well within your comfort zone, and getting her over to 40 degrees your desire will be more in keeping the boat managable than worrying about tipping her all the way.
 
brill some one with a 31 ufo, iv got one iv had it 3 weeks now.
it has been on the water for 4 years un used and in a bad way but im winning the clean up opp.
its called sola logus II and is in shotly at the moment.
you say you have been sailing yours for a while, how is it under sail.
 
Don't be afraid of heel at all. Once it gets to 90 degrees then it starts to become iffy. Most yachts can pick themselves up from around 110 - 120 degrees in theory. A decent yacht can pick herself up from around 150 degrees of heel /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif The more a yacht heels, the more wind it spills from the sails, so it starts to come up again. You cannot capsize a yacht using the wind, even in very strong winds. That is only possible with breaking waves in very serious conditions. Then it is the waves that cause the capsize rather than the wind.

So relax completely about the angle of heel, and enjoy your sailing.

For other reasons it's best not to heel much beyond 20 - 25 degrees - the yacht sails inefficiently like that. But it's not a safety issue except for the danger of falling out of the cockpit...
 
Thanks for all your quick replys. Shaun, it sails brilliantly, the last owner was well into racing and has set the boat up very well. In about 8 knots of wind she is making 5 odd knots, and in 10-12 knots of wind around 6 knots or just a smidge over. None of this is down to any skill on my part, it's a credit to the last owner and the boats builders. Cheers Ming
 
thank you for that so im in for a treet when im finished then, cant wait.
have you got any pics to show of of it, so as i can see it for my self, have you come acrosed any problems that could reflect to other 31 ufo,s.
 
Hi to Ming and Shaun, welcome to the forum and also to fellow UFO31ers!!. glad to find that I am not the only one on here, clue is in my username. I've owned one of these for 6 years now and would be happy to share what I know with you. One thing I can say to you is, no matter how badly you sail the boat IT WILL NOT SINK, I know cause I've tried so dont worry.

Ted
 
ow hell you had to say the sink word lol already dun that one on a diffrent boat,
mind you this is the best one iv had and the only one made of grp.
thanks for the welcome, so theres more of us then COOL.
as soon as im aloud to put my web page up as a sig you will see it in all of it glory. god i cant wait to sail it.
 
If you read the third paragraph down on This Site you may see that a smaller and more lively boat than yours seems reasonably safe at 90 degrees of heel. Well, it didn't sink anyway.
 
This was really zinging along in my little 18ft boat

Boxing%20Day%20sail.jpg


and this guy was having fun in a 31 ft boat.

DayonLakeJuly2007_9.jpg


and this couple were having a great time

DayonLakeJuly2007_3.jpg



And the Windermere Class boats are designed to sail this way

classboat_9.jpg



So as long as it still feels like it's going in the direction you want, you're still OK. Some of the modern boats seem to round up a bit soon, but a UFO is a bit more sturdy I think.
 
Welcome new UFO owner. What good judgement you have.
I find my boat is at her best when the rail is just clear of the water, although we have oftened sailed with the decks under. I'm not sure what angle that is, probably about 30 degrees. The boat will take far more punishment than you will want to.
You've probably noticed that there is a big chunk of lead hanging on the bottom to stop you falling over.
Do you have a roller headsail? The genoa is such a big percentage of the total sail area, that it's helpful to be able to reduce that, before you worry about reefing the main. Having said that, we often sail on headsail only, 'cos we're lazy.
There does seem to be a number of UFOers on here, shows a bit of class I reckon!

Greetings to all UFO 31 ers here.
Dan
 
im after as much info as i can get as all iv got is a old sales paper with a line drewing of the shape, no sail plan no wait specs nuthing. i got the boat by chance as the old owner did no want it any more and needed a caravan and other stuff that i had lying around.
i got a very good deel. twin yanmar as well.
i know it a good baot as its been to the channel isies and holland, lodes of times.
 
Re: Heel, what heel?

Normal angle of heel in a fresh breeze is something like this:
Douguet2.jpg


but in strong winds you'll find you may go over considerably further.
 
In fact probably the main reason for reducing the angle of heel is the "ooooeerrrr" sounds coming from the (SWMBO) crew. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
I have a sail plan drawing which I bought from the designer,
Holman & Pye, 62 East Rd. Mersea, CO5 8HD. David Cooper. 01206 382478.
I'm not sure if they are still trading, but try them first.
If you have no luck I can let you have a scanned copy, but we may have to pay a small copyright fee.
I also have a photostat of the original press adverts from Colvic but you probably already have them.
Dan
 
no i dont have a thing on this boat, i do have papers on colvic /watson mk 2' 4,5 burth and the 6,8 birthmotor sailer/victor 50/38 trawler 6/8 birth.
with al the sale prises of the day infact iv got sale prise for all the range that there was in them days1984...

iv got papers on tyler boats as well. sailing and gen plan for the tufglas 30.s, and advert sheets for the 31/sailer 37 endurance/ sun 27/duellist sailing review and plan layout/ nelson 34/34 mkIV/hornet/wasp /nelson 18/victory 40 41/tufglas 38/35neptunian/and the 28.
with the pris list of the day for all the parts if it was a kit and compleat. if this helps some one let me know with a pm
 
I had the great pleasure of sailing one of these for a while and I hope I will get to sail some more. They are wonderful to sail and very powerful. Doesn't take much to heel them over and I suspect they sail best with 5 or 6 pairs of wellies over the side. But that's not to say she shouldn't be short handed, just don't put all the canvas up.
 
I sailed in a SOnata once and we got a riding turn on the jib winch during a tack, so that the jib didn't ease. It was blowing 4-5, I was getting ready to sheet in on the new tack, and whilst leaning on the coaming went up to my elbows in water... And the spreader ends went in as well... I reckon that was more than 90 deg.
 
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