# The Physics of Railmeat



## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

So...in thinking about the huge forces acting on a sailboat in higher winds, I began to wonder what the real effectiveness of railmeat is. You've got maybe 1500 pounds on the rail at a pretty weak lever point - trying to counter acts TONS of force on the sail area and keel. Are these guys really making an appreciable difference? Or is this just more tradition than necessity?

What do you think?


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## imagine2frolic (Aug 7, 2008)

Even if the boat stands up another degree it will sail faster. Racers don't doo anything for nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!........*i2f*


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## jackdale (Dec 1, 2008)

I raced with a UK sailmaker. He would move crew around regularly, inlcuding keeping some on the centreline.

In really light wind you want crew to leeward to heel the boat. That will help keep the boom over and when going to weather a heeled boat is slightly faster. 

When going downwind the crew is moved aft to facilitate planning and maintain the boats balance. I have seen fore/aft inclinometers in use.


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## MSN2Travelers (Sep 12, 2006)

*Not just side-to-side trim ...*

Yup, have to second what jackdale said. Paying close attention to weight distribution does play a huge roll in overall boat speed. We constantly move crew around as conditions and point of sail changes. 
Using advice obtained here last winter, our overall performance this last season was much improved.  Especially noticed during distance races.


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## AdamLein (Nov 6, 2007)

I have definitely found that shifting everybody to leeward in light winds helps keep the boat moving.

I think another question about people on the weather rail is: does the benefit from keeping the boat slightly more upright exceed the drag due to extra windage?


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## CapnBilll (Sep 9, 2006)

Your not counteracting those forces, just keeping a small percentage from being lost. If you add just 1 inch per second to the boats overall speed that can add up to several boat lengths over the course of the race.


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## GeorgeB (Dec 30, 2004)

Smack, rail crew play a critical role in balancing a boat going to windward. They make a big difference. On windy days, we will collect extra guys whose only function is to sit on the boat (and drink beer and eat free sandwiches.) Fleets like the Farr 40 and some of the J’s have restrictions on number of crew members or max crew weights in order to eliminate the advantage of extra crew members. Cruising or sailing shorthanded is at a disadvantage insomuch as they can’t trim for speed like a boat with a full crew.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

GeorgeB said:


> On windy days, we will collect extra guys whose only function is to sit on the boat (and drink beer and eat free sandwiches.)


You do have my number, right?


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## AdamLein (Nov 6, 2007)

CapnBilll said:


> If you add just 1 inch per second to the boats overall speed that can add up to several boat lengths


That's 30 feet every six minutes, as a matter of fact.


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## padean (Jul 5, 2001)

GeorgeB said:


> Smack, rail crew play a critical role in balancing a boat going to windward. They make a big difference. On windy days, we will collect extra guys whose only function is to sit on the boat (and drink beer and eat free sandwiches.) Fleets like the Farr 40 and some of the J's have restrictions on number of crew members or max crew weights in order to eliminate the advantage of extra crew members. Cruising or sailing shorthanded is at a disadvantage insomuch as they can't trim for speed like a boat with a full crew.


Besides.... It gives us fat guys something to do and makes us feel important!!!


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Okay, but....next stupid question...this technique essentially means you're counteracting the forces on the sails...correct? Couldn't you gain that same advantage (flattening the boat) with trim?

I can definitely see the need on smaller boats...but it just seems like a miniscule counteraction force on a big boat.


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## AE28 (Jun 20, 2008)

smack...
Bump your Rep Power and give you another little green box and you go techie on us???


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## speciald (Mar 27, 2007)

I guess it depends on the boat. My current boat's keel weighs more than my C&C 37+ did. The boat doesn't move reguarless of where the crew sit. I went out to watch the boats in the St. Barth's Bucket race last year (must be 100+ feet to enter) and those megayachts had crew on the rail - maybe because it made for better photos.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

I'm just trying to get AdamLein to throw down some equations! That dude has the mathematical goods.

I'm convinced there's more to the story here - and I think speciald is right that it's more about the photo than the physics.


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## AdamLein (Nov 6, 2007)

Later, smack, I'm at work right now and I can only get so distracted by sailing before I feel like I'm not doing right by my company


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## pdqaltair (Nov 14, 2008)

Ofcourse, meat resting on a windward bunk would do the same with less windage.

And of course, this is minor compared to small boats. On my first cat we carried two on the trapeeze, on hiking racks. The "rail meat" represented almost 80% of the righting moment. Failure of the rail meat to offset the forces involved were fun.


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## jackdale (Dec 1, 2008)

smackdaddy said:


> Okay, but....next stupid question...this technique essentially means you're counteracting the forces on the sails...correct? Couldn't you gain that same advantage (flattening the boat) with trim?
> 
> I can definitely see the need on smaller boats...but it just seems like a miniscule counteraction force on a big boat.


Weather helm is also a function of heel angle. Flattening the boat with railmeat to the optimum heel angle will reduce weather helm when going to weather, without reducing sail area.

When racers do reduce sail area they generally reduce the foresail first rather than reefing the main. That also reduces heel angle and weather helm.

Downwind the boat should be flat.


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## Sailormon6 (May 9, 2002)

smackdaddy said:


> Okay, but....next stupid question...this technique essentially means you're counteracting the forces on the sails...correct? Couldn't you gain that same advantage (flattening the boat) with trim?
> 
> I can definitely see the need on smaller boats...but it just seems like a miniscule counteraction force on a big boat.


You can reduce heeling by trimming the sails, or by reducing sail area, but both of those methods reduces the amount of power being generated by the sails. The racer's preference is to keep the sails as powerful as possible, while maximizing the efficiency of the hull and keel. When you use rail meat to flatten the boat, you're improving the efficiency of the hull shape without reducing the power of the sails.

Rail meat accomplishes the same purpose on big boats as on smaller boats. It just takes more bodies on bigger boats. If the boat is heeling excessively when I'm racing, I'll put as many people on the rail as are available, even though they might not be enough. Every little bit helps.

If you have flattened the sails as much as possible, and put all your crew on the rail, and the boat is still heeling too much, then you have to start thinking about reducing sail area.


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## Sabreman (Sep 23, 2006)

No offense to anyone, but all the answers are speculative and not quantitative. Sitting on the rail is really doesn't give you much advantage on a large vessel BUT where else should people be? On a properly run boat, people should not be all over the place.... just like on a football field, or basketball court. People have positions and should be there unless they need to be somewhere else. Since the weight has the potential to help, crew and gear should be positioned to keep the boat as flat as possible, if that is how the boat sails best. Like all the other answers, this is speculation without empirical evidence which I'd be really interested in seeing.

On small boats, I see the advantage to keeping the boat heeled in light air - to keep the boom in one place and to keep it from flopping back and forth. Ignoring the mechanics of keeping the boom in place, without exception, everyone that I've asked has not had an answer why the boat should be heeled. It makes no sense, less sail area is exposed to the wind when it's needed most. I'd really like to see a real answer to this since it's puzzled me for years.  

On the same note, I question the radical elimination of gear to save weight. I once had crew get on me for carrying 20 gallons of water on an overnight race. One gal of water weighs 8.3 lbs. Then I looked at the guts on my crew......... Hmmmmmmm :laugher


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## JKCatalina310 (Nov 18, 2010)

There are other ways to flatten the boat then the use of rail meat. One of our friends at the marina has a real sweat racing boat. It's a 30' open with running back stays, full roach main and little to no comforts (doesn't even carry a cooler big enough for more then a six pack). But the boat moves, one day we were making 5.5-6 knots in 7-8 knots of breeze. Just don't take it out in over 12 knots of breeze with out 3-4 people that know what they are doing.

That boat has built in ballast tanks on the under side of the rails that can be filled for short handed sailing. There is a valve system that, with a pull of a line, will gravity dump the water from one tank to the other. It is tricky though. You have to be very quick and precise with tacking or you could knock yourself down and put the rail in the water.

Real fun to sail on that boat for an afternoon, but I'll take our cruiser for the long haul.


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## Sailormon6 (May 9, 2002)

Sabreman said:


> On small boats, I see the advantage to keeping the boat heeled in light air - to keep the boom in one place and to keep it from flopping back and forth. Ignoring the mechanics of keeping the boom in place, without exception, everyone that I've asked has not had an answer why the boat should be heeled. It makes no sense, less sail area is exposed to the wind when it's needed most. I'd really like to see a real answer to this since it's puzzled me for years.


 On most sailboats, heeling them to leeward and slightly bow-down in light air usually reduces the amount of wetted surface, which reduces the amount of drag. When the boat is oriented slightly bow-down, that raises the fat stern, which decreases wetted surface.


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## Sabreman (Sep 23, 2006)

> On most sailboats, heeling them to leeward and slightly bow-down in light air usually reduces the amount of wetted surface, which reduces the amount of drag. When the boat is oriented slightly bow-down, that raises the fat stern, which decreases wetted surface.


I'll buy that! Makes sense, but in the way of a followup question, I've always been schooled to stay aft to keep from burying the bow and creating more drag. Was I schooled wrong? As an aside, we're slightly bow-down (1") at the dock, without crew. So maybe I'm all set up!

On flat bottomed sleds, does the same hold true?


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## Sailormon6 (May 9, 2002)

Sabreman, my last comments applied only to sailing to windward in light air.

With regard to a flat bottomed sled, it depends on whether tipping it in any given direction has the effect of reducing wetted surface. As I imagine a flat bottomed sled, tipping it one way or another probably wouldn't help.


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## Sabreman (Sep 23, 2006)

understood


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## GeorgeB (Dec 30, 2004)

Smack, If you are looking for some simple formula that says for a given windspeed and AWA, put X pounds on the rail, you are not going to find it. Too many variables. Optimum sail selection, trim, heel and rudder angles are all part of the dialing in process when preparing for the racing season. For example, when I went to a tapedrive main, I had to readjust my whole game plan especially for stiffer wind conditions. You can certainly flatten the sails in order to depower them, but you will bleed speed when you do. You trim for maximum power and use your rail crew to flatten the boat and reduce weather helm. As a helmsman, I want to start putting guys on the rail when I start seeing a rudder angle in excess of ten degrees. When the wind is blowing twenty-twentyfive plus, I will have everyone on the rail and use only one guy to do all the trimming. I will also sit on the rail. I even do this when doublehanding. Read the RRS' pronouncements and you will see that a lot of appeals have centered around the use of "moveable ballast". It has a big impact even it you can't distill it into a single, simple formula.

In regards to light air conditions, inducing a heel will generate weather helm which will get the boat pointing more efficiently and increasing VMG. The big difference between a cruiser and a sportboat, is you can induce heel with only the forepeak and mastman on the lower side (and hidden behind the genoa, he, he.) on the sportboat.








<O


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

While you are right that at some point heel angles need to be controlled with sail choice and trim, rail weight figures prominently in how much drive and how much drag the boat produces. While there is an optimum drive and optimum heel angle for any wind, how you attempt to achieve these ideals is a balancing act of sail trim and crew weight. 

When you talk about the impact of rail meat, you really need to look at the whole equation and not just crew weight. Righting moment is the center of that weight times the righting arm. The righting arm is the dimension between the center of the weight of crew and the center of buoyancy. In most boats as a boat heels the center of buoyuancy moves to leeward. 

So If we use the boat in your picture as an illustration, it would appear that the boat is heeled approximately 25 or so degrees (measured with a protactor rotated so that the measurement is adjusted for the focal point of the picture appearing to be off axis with the boat), (which, BTW 25 degrees is probably too high a heel angle for optimum speed. They seem to know that onboard since you can see that the mainsail trimmer has dropped the traveler and is vang-sheeting the boom to leeward in an attempt to flatten the boat and compensate for the weigh of two crewmen who are off the rail and up on the bow) 

In the picture, the center of the crew weight is probably something like 5 feet off the center line of the boat. I'm seeing 9 guys on the rail and two on the bow. Assuming, all of the 11 guys are on the rail that is probably something approaching 2,500 lbs as they are dressed. <O</O
<O</O
Again, eyeing the picture, the center of buoyancy at that heel angle has shifted approximately two feet to leeward. So that means a lever arm of roughly 7 feet, which when multiplied by the crew weight results in a righting moment that crudely would be somewhere around 17500 foot pounds (7 feet x 2500 lbs=17,500 foot-pounds). <O</O
<O</O
To put this in perspective, lets assume that the boat in question has a 4500 lb bulb on its keel and that bulb is 8 feet below its center of buoyancy. At a 25 degree heel angle that bulb would be approximately 3.4 feet to windward of the centerline of the boat, which when you add the 2 feet that the center of buoyancy has shifted to leeward, results in a righting arm of 5'-4" and a righting moment around 24,000 foot-lbs. <O</O
<O</O
In other words, the crew has achieved roughly 75% of the righting moment of the keel bulb with only 55% of the weight. That is pretty efficient, especially since the boat is not being penalized in their rating for the crew weight. <O</O
<O</O
To touch on a couple of the fine points raised above. These days virtually all racing rules limit crew number and/or crew weight to prevent people from putting together a 'beef trust' and kicking butt in heavy going and from going too light in light air. <O</O
<O</O
As has been pointed out, on crack race boats, this crew weight is used very strategically. In light air race-boats are often heeled to leeward and trimmed slightly bow down. This does a number of things. One of the big ones is that heeling a modern boat perhaps 10 degrees moves the wetted surface to the round of the chine and away from the flat of the bottom (a cylindar has less wetted surface per capacity, than an flattened oval) which reduces wetted surface pretty dramatically. Bow down also reduces wetted surface pretty dramatically by moving more of the wetted sruface to the cylindrial bow sections and away from the flatter stern sections. 
Trimming to leeward and bow down trims some 'feel' into the helm and a bit of lift, so that the helmsperson can use a minimum amount of helm and yet hold a course. <O</O
<O</O
Another advantage is that when a boat is heeled over gravity pulls the sails into a more proper shape so that any wind that encounters the sail is encountering a foil shaped object. Lastly, very often in light air the wind has a vertical component, falling slightly downward, and the heel angle exposes the sail more perpendicular to the wind. <O</O
<O</O
Normally larger heel angles mean more leeway, but in light air, there rarely is enough side force that leeway is as much of a problem as simply maintaining forward motion and building apparent wind speed. <O</O
<O</O

Jeff <O</O
<O</O


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## Sabreman (Sep 23, 2006)

Jeff - I'm not sure if you're referring to my Avatar...

In that photo, you are correct that we are at about 25 degrees. I agree that we're heeled a bit much. Conditions were fluky in the St. Mary's River at the end of Gov Cup this August. About 10-18 kts depending on where you were.

We carried 8 crew this year. I was driving and had one trimmer (in black). we were preparing to tack and he'd just eased the genoa slightly (a little early). They guy in orange was tucking under the boom and the rest of the crew (5) were moments from switching sides. The main was centered but extremely tight with a stretched leech. Not sure that I liked that, but the sail was flatter.

At the time, we had too much weatherhelm. Since then, we've replaced the genoa and a new main is coming in a couple of months. The sails in the photo (especially the main) are nearly dead. The genoa delaminated about a month after the photo was taken. We hope to see significant improvement next year.

BTW - Great assessment.


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

I was actually referring to the photo in Smack's opening post. It was a little larger picture and so easier to see and measure. I must admit that I have enjoyed your avatar which is a great shot of your boat doing what a sailboat is meant to do.

Jeff


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## puddinlegs (Jul 5, 2006)

Sabreman said:


> I'll buy that! Makes sense, but in the way of a followup question, I've always been schooled to stay aft to keep from burying the bow and creating more drag. Was I schooled wrong? As an aside, we're slightly bow-down (1") at the dock, without crew. So maybe I'm all set up!
> 
> On flat bottomed sleds, does the same hold true?


All race boats benefit from keeping weight in the right place for the given conditions. The downhill weight to the rear you describe is for higher winds and waves when keeping the rudder in the water is job #1. In light air as someone else mentioned, many boats like weight at the mast and out of the stern to get the 'rear' out of the water. Hiking to windward makes a very large difference on most boats. It makes a huge difference in being able to power up the headsail to get through chop, keeps the boat flatter and measurably faster, and allows more sail area, and until you're at theoretical hull speed upwind, every little bit helps. Weight to leeward in light air upwind is equally important, as is using crew weight to help gybe and tack the boat with as little rudder movement as possible. It's faster. If a boat length or two doesn't matter to the skipper, then he/she's a rock star with blazing boat speed, or heading a program that just isn't going to be very competitive in a good fleet. Good preparation, good starts, good trim/sail handling, good driving, quick gear changes (including getting crew weight in the right place), and good tactics win races. When any of the above are lacking, at the best, you'll be wildly inconsistent in your results, but most likely, you're not going to in the running for the pickle pickle dishes at all.


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## Fiasco1 (Dec 4, 2010)

Weight plays a huge part in racing, So much that with my Olson 30 the class is limited to 1100 lbs of crew weight on the boat. They move that down to 1000lbs for the nationals.
By moving the weight around depending on conditions can gain you up to a knot easy.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

By moving them all to the windward rail, you've increased the ballast significantly over having them scattered all over the boat. * The ones that were would have been on the leeward side of the boat may be contributing almost twice their mass to the effort, since they've removed that much mass from the leeward side and added it the windward side. 
*

Also, the average weight of an American male is over 180 lbs. IIRC, so you're looking at 1800+ lbs, not 1500....



smackdaddy said:


> So...in thinking about the huge forces acting on a sailboat in higher winds, I began to wonder what the real effectiveness of railmeat is. You've got maybe 1500 pounds on the rail at a pretty weak lever point - trying to counter acts TONS of force on the sail area and keel. Are these guys really making an appreciable difference? Or is this just more tradition than necessity?
> 
> What do you think?


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## CapnBilll (Sep 9, 2006)

I remember reading about an America's cup race where one boat had all of its ballast on two feet. Later this tactic was outlawed.


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## tweitz (Apr 5, 2007)

Boats do differ, but another reason I have always heard for maintaining exactly the right heeling angle is that the waterline length is optimized. In the older IRC boats with big overhangs, LWL was maximized with considerable heel. I understand that is less true in the more modern boats with plumb bows, but every boat has an optimum angle of heel for maximum LWL. Experts please correct me if I am wrong.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Okay, so GeorgeB's and Jeff's responses are really good explanations. Jeff, you're saying that despite the fact that you're losing righting torque force due to a decreased moment arm...something like this?










You still essentially get 75% efficiency from the keel with only 55% of the weight (I think) with the railmeat.

I know that something is better than nothing, but it seems that at some point (size of boat, sail area, etc.) you lose any advantage of the meat. I'm just curious where that is.

Or is this, in larger boats, the equivalent of swimmers wearing the shark-skin onesies to get that millisecond advantage?


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

Your drawing is sort of right, but because the center of buoyancy is moving to leeward with the heel angle, the righting arm may actually be the same or greater with the boat heeled vs standing up straight. 

And to address part two; typically the larger the boat, the larger the crew, but at some point, the crew weight does have a reduced impact on righting relative to everthing else. 

Jeff


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Ah, I see what you mean. So where I drew the centerline of the boat, you're saying the center of buoyancy moves to leeward of that line as the boat heels, meaning that X actually increases and creates even more of righting lever....



> In the picture, the center of the crew weight is probably something like 5 feet off the center line of the boat. I'm seeing 9 guys on the rail and two on the bow. Assuming, all of the 11 guys are on the rail that is probably something approaching 2,500 lbs as they are dressed.
> 
> Again, eyeing the picture, the center of buoyancy at that heel angle has shifted approximately two feet to leeward. So that means a lever arm of roughly 7 feet, which when multiplied by the crew weight results in a righting moment that crudely would be somewhere around 17500 foot pounds (7 feet x 2500 lbs=17,500 foot-pounds).


And that's what creates the efficiency you mention?

Very cool. Thanks dude.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Here's a great article someone over at Sailing World turned me onto...

| Sailing World


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## Omatako (Sep 14, 2003)

Of course the boat in Smack's picture would also get some advantage from not having a sail in the water. 

A swing keel is essentially railmeat underwater.


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## jackdale (Dec 1, 2008)

Andre

Do you mean _canting_ keel?


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## zz4gta (Aug 15, 2007)

It comes down to all the little things. Why do people strip the covers off their halyards? Does that 3 lbs (on a big boat) make any difference? Does the 2 oz. saved by using soft shackles make a difference? 

If 2 cars are racing and they're exactly the same, but one has 300 hp and the other has 300.001 hp. Which one will win? No matter how small, everything else being equal, the 300.001 hp car will win. 

I have a few issues with the photo, but lets stay on the railmeat topic. The first 2 guys are hiking hard, the others are sitting straight up and looking at the foredeck crew. If your butt is on the deck, you're not hiking hard. The difference between sitting on the high side, and hiking is worth the effort by itself. The difference between being on the low side vs. the high side, is HUGE. That's all you have to worry about. And if the other crew in your photo wanted to help the foredeck guys, they should hike hard and flatten the boat. They should've also been calling puffs so the main trimmer wouldn't be caught with the traveler on center or to windward.


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## Omatako (Sep 14, 2003)

jackdale said:


> Andre
> 
> Do you mean _canting_ keel?


If that's what you prefer, yes.


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## jackdale (Dec 1, 2008)

Omatako said:


> If that's what you prefer, yes.


I am not much of a swinger.


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## L124C (Oct 4, 2007)

smackdaddy said:


> You do have my number, right?


You crack me (and apparently, your glasses) up Smackdaddy! And "railmeat" is still two words bytheway!
On a serious note - nice response Jeff. 
Why does the AC crew in my Avatar have their legs inboard (click on it to enlarge). Is hiking not allowed in AC? Not that it matters now that they are going to 73 foot cats in *SAN FRANCISCO*...YIPPEEE! 
Sorry...I digress. Why no hiking?


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

L124C said:


> You crack me (and apparently, your glasses) up Smackdaddy! And "railmeat" is still two words bytheway!
> On a serious note - nice response Jeff.
> Why does the AC crew in my Avatar have their legs inboard (click on it to enlarge). Is hiking not allowed in AC? Not that it matters now that they are going to 73 foot cats in *SAN FRANCISCO*...YIPPEEE!
> Sorry...I digress. Why no hiking?


Hiking comes off as a bit too desperate for true gentlemen.


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## L124C (Oct 4, 2007)

smackdaddy said:


> Hiking comes off as a bit too desperate for true gentlemen.


So does duking it out in court...but that never seems to stop them!


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

L124C said:


> So does duking it out in court...but that never seems to stop them!


Touché!

I'd have a little respect for those chumps had they raced in whatever conditions there were at race time.

That's why I'm a VOR man. THAT'S freakin' yacht racing.


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

Isn't it fair to say that crew placed to windward are having less of a negative impact on heel than crew placed to leeward. Crew placed to leeward would have a greater lever, but working against you? They may or may not have a positive affect to windward, but ultimately, you are eliminating as much of the negative affect as you can.


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## zz4gta (Aug 15, 2007)

L124C said:


> Why does the AC crew in my Avatar have their legs inboard (click on it to enlarge). Is hiking not allowed in AC? Why no hiking?


Could be a rule, but those AC boats also didn't have life lines, just a grab rail foreward for the bowman. I still remember seeing people hike, but they would lay lengthwise on the edge with one leg in one leg out to hike.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Okay, I may have to call BS on Jeff. Here's an article I was turned onto at SailingWorld by a really cool dude that was banned here:

Harder Hiking for Better Results

And here's a section that basically says I'm a freakin' genius:



> Many people overlook the importance of hiking when a boat is almost flat; however, this, we discovered, is when the hiking action is most effective. As heel increases, a smaller percentage of a sailor's weight is directed perpendicular to the lever arm, which decreases the sailor's effect on the boat's righting moment. In other words, it may be more effective to depower the sails to flatten the boat than to have the entire crew exhausting themselves.


So, Jeff, I think you need to duke it out with John Loe And Val Smith. I'll hold your jacket while you work your abacus. Heh-heh.


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

Taking Sailing World's comments in the context of the article, and my comments in the context of this discussion, I would suggest that we actually are more in agreement than not. I would also suggest that any apparent discrepancy between the Sailing World quote and the discussion above is a more about these not being nuanced discussions than being any disagreement.

As I read the quote from Sailing World, it is saying that as a boat heels the center of gravity of the crews weight shifts closer to the center line of the boat, and therefore is less effective than when the boat is flat. If I consider that point taken isolation, I have no disagreement with that. What it does not discuss, and which is outside the scope of the article, is that as most modern boats heel, the center of buoyancy moves to leeward and so although the center of gravity of the crew weight moves toward the centerline, the impact on righting moment may actually stay the same or increase up to some point of heeling angle.

At some angle of heel, the center of buoyancy begins moving back toward the center of gravity of the crew and so the crew's impact drops considerably.

I also completely agree with their statement, _"In other words, it *may* be more effective to depower the sails to flatten the boat than to have the entire crew exhausting themselves."_

Allowing a boat to heel potentially has a series of negative effects on performance (increased leeway, increased weather helm (and so more drag from steering to counter act), larger tip vortexes on the underwater foils and so on.). To some extent, these negatives are at least in part offset by having more drive from the sails. Up to a point, this greater drive results in better performance by overcoming the greater drag and leeway from heeling. But after that point, performance drops off as the amount of drive ceases to increase but drag continues to increase.

What the Sailing World sentence is saying is that instead of over-powering-up the boat and having your crew wear themselves out hiking, you may actually have better performance by depowering some and sailing flatter. The key word in the Sailing World quote is the word "may", which I marked in bold for emphasis, since it will be up to the skipper and crew to find that point and stay at or near it as much of the time as they can. If the boat spends a bunch of time way above or below that heel angle relative to their competition, they will end up reading a whole bunch of hailing ports.

It does not take a genius to see that, but somehow you missed it.

Jeff


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Jeff_H said:


> It does not take a genius to see that, but somehow you missed it.
> 
> Jeff


Hey, did I just get punched?










Heh-heh.

Dude, you really need to work for the State Department. You're good!


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