Learn to Sail Like a Pro - Three Sailing Tips to Increase Your Sailing Speed!

How would you like to pump more speed into your sailing when beating to windward? If you want to learn to sail like a pro, you'll need to use three little-known sailing tips for better windward performance.

Set Your Sail Shape for Pointing

Trim your sails for the best windward shape. Pull the mainsheet in so that the sailboat boom lies close to the boat center-line.

Look up the leech (trailing edge) of the sail. The leech should show a bit of "twist" about halfway up the sail. In other words, it should not cup from the clew to the head of the sail.

Look at the uppermost batten. In moderate air, it should be parallel to the boom. In super-light air, allow the uppermost batten to cock to leeward a few degrees. In heavy-air, slide the mainsheet car to leeward and ease the mainsheet to allow more twist in the upper part of your mainsail.

Set your Genoa of jib so that the leech lies about 2" to 3" off of the tips of the spreaders. This will give a good basic shape with good drive.

Move the headsail sheet block a bit forward in light air to give a more powerful shape. Move it aft in heavy air to open the leech and keep the boat more balanced.

Learn to Sail in Light Air by Footing

Sailing in super-light air means you will be unable to point as high as you would like. Most sailboats start to point their best when the apparent wind reaches 6 knots or more. Less than 6 knots means you will start to lose pointing ability--and that means you will sail slower.

Enter the little known-art of "footing". To foot, you fall off to a close reach to build up speed. As soon as you have acceleration, return to sailing "on the edge" on a beat (close hauled). When you start to lose speed again, fall off again to a close reach, build up speed, and then point up to a beat. Continue this sequence to keep forward momentum maximized.

Check Your Progress with the Shoreline

Any time you make an adjustment to sail trim, check your progress with a reference point. You can use a speed measuring device, but sailors near land should use their eyes. Check the shoreline and watch the movement of a pier or house relative to the boat.

In super light air, look at the wake-bubbles behind the boat. Any of these references will tell you at a glance if your last action accelerated or decelerated the boat.

If you decelerated, try 1/2 of the sail trim action you just took. For example, if you pulled in the sailboat boom six inches, let it out 3 inches (1/2 of the previous action). Check the shoreline or water reference again. You'll be surprised how often an inch or two will make a big difference in boat speed and performance.

Use these three little-known sailing tips to make faster passages in a cruising sailboat or beat the competition in a racing sailboat. You will learn to sail with more power, performance, and speed--wherever in the world you choose to cruise!


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