Many of you, like me, probably started their sailing adventures in small dinghies. The purity of just you, the wind and some canvas. It’s where we honed our skills of wind awareness and sail set. Finding the groove and powering along with just the force of nature, and, of course when we got it wrong, we were unceremoniously dumped into the water to perfect our capsize drill.

Put simply, we learnt to sail through feel, touch, sight and sound. No engines and no electronic instruments to distract us.

Like many, I soon progressed onto bigger and more complicated vessels. Much more forgiving, but at the same time, much more complex to handle. To help us, we had an array of electronic instruments. You won’t find many 30-footers today without wind direction, wind speed, depth, and boat speed.

In these early days of ‘big boat’ sailing, these instruments proved invaluable, but very quickly, we lost the ‘seat of the pants’ sailing. Instead of feeling the wind, we were guided by our electronic wind indicators and anemometer readouts.

As a sailing instructor, I see this more and more. Day Skipper and Yachtmaster candidates can park their boat in the tightest of marina berths, their navigation is impeccable, and their knowledge of the Colregs is top-notch, it’s just that they can’t actually sail very well.

Sure, they can read the instruments, but the actual feel of the boat, sea conditions and spatial awareness seems lost. With such a reliance on their electronics, the natural skippering process seems lost. So, how do we get our sailing mojo back?

Listening to the rudder

Let’s start with the helm, as this is the best feedback mechanism we have on board. If you are lucky enough to have a boat with a tiller, then your feedback is instant. If you have a wheel, then most small yachts use some form of mechanical steering, either a quadrant or rack and pinion. On larger boats, it may well be hydraulic, which though immensely powerful, lacks any feedback and is a poor system for receiving response.

Your tiller and mechanical wheel will give you direct feedback about the pressure on the rudder, and this is caused by a combination of hull and rudder shape, sail balance and heel. Very simply, how heavy is the helm and how easy is it to keep her course?

Though long-keel boats tend to track well, often able to sail themselves once the sailplan is balanced, they are often hard work to steer due to the length of the underwater profile and a typical unbalanced, aft-hung or skeg-hung rudder.

With this configuration, a small increase in wind will increase weather helm. This can be both physically challenging, especially on larger boats, and the stresses on the rudder and steering equipment can be high.

Spin up in gusts

A modern fin keel will feel different. With her short-cord, narrow keel and a balanced rudder, the helm may still feel light, but in the gusts, she will spin up to windward and the helm will have little control to bring her back, especially on high volume cruisers of a certain era. Both signs indicate she is unbalanced, and it is probably time to reduce sail.

The intuitive sailor can feel how much helm is required to keep the boat on track and will know when it’s time to reduce sail. It should be obvious that if you are fighting the boat to keep her on course, then something is wrong.

Racing sailors will tell you that 4º of rudder angle is the optimum; just enough to create some lift to windward without incurring much additional drag. If you are combatting weather helm with 30º of rudder, then it’s time to reduce the pressure.

So, how does she feel? Too much sail behind the mast and she will want to head up into the wind. We always like a little weather helm to offer some resistance to the helm, but too much will tend to make us pinch.

With too much sail forward of the mast, the head will want to drop off; lee helm can be quite alarming as the boat will then power up rather than depower in moments of inattention. If she suddenly bears away, there is also a chance of losing control and gybing.

Understand your angle of heel

What about heel? Every boat is different, and older yachts with narrower, slender shapes will be happier with more, while modern beamy boats are designed to sail at often not much more than 20º of heel. On most boats, once water is frothing over the leeward rail, it’s time to do something.

A sailing boat sails fastest when it is upright due to a number of factors. This is in part to do with the increase in wetted surface area when heeling. Allowing the boat to sail on her ear will dig more of the topsides into the water, slowing her down.

Putting the brakes on

The increasingly asymmetric curvature of the hull (especially if she has a lot of ‘tumblehome’) will want to turn her upwind, increasing weather helm and causing the helmsperson to counter this with more rudder, in effect, putting the brakes on.

In addition, excessive heel will reduce the lateral resistance of the keel, lessening its ability to grip the water, leading to increased leeway.

The hydrofoil of the keel and the aerofoil of both sails are more efficient when perpendicular to the forces acting on them, reducing the amount of lift both can generate, as well as increasing the turning moment between the driving lift of the sails and the drag of the keel and hull, further increasing weather helm.

Not to mention the reduced depth of water around the keel and rudder and increasing the chance of aeration, loss of grip and broaching. These are all signs it’s time to adjust sail.

Slow down to speed up

Apart from light winds, the main reason for the boat travelling too slowly is wave action. When beating to windward into a short sharp sea, this sea state can stop you dead in your tracks even, or especially, if you’ve got the tide with you. This is not only frustrating but uncomfortable.

If you are already reefed down, then this may be the time to power up the sails, either by taking out a reef or easing halyard and outhaul tension. This will allow you to punch through the waves. Alternatively, you may need to drop off the wind by 10º and sail a little freer to power up.

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Greater drive

Think about sail configuration – for example, you may have a full main and partially reefed headsail. It may well be better to reef the main and get out a full headsail; this will reduce weather helm and produce a less turbulent air flow between headsail and mainsail, giving you greater drive.

I’m a great believer in the phrase ‘Gentleman don’t go to windward’. I spent much of my younger sailing days beating across the English Channel, and to be honest, it can be tough. Thrashing upwind can be incredibly uncomfortable, and with a big sea running, you will be crashing into the waves that can stop you dead and inflict big strains on the rig and crew.

Regardless of actual wind speed in these conditions, common sense should tell us to slow down, reef, or ease sheets and bear away.

Keep sailing not motoring

At the other end of the spectrum, we may have light winds, and in many ways, this is harder to deal with. Unfortunately, unless racing, there is a terrible temptation to put on the ‘iron topsail’ as soon as the boat speed drops below 4 knots.

A lot will depend on sea state. In a light breeze, the boat will be easily stopped by the smallest of waves. This is the time to deploy your lightweight sails (if you have any). In these lightest of zephyrs, going upwind is our friend, as it creates more apparent wind, but conversely, if we are headed downwind, the apparent breeze drops to nothing, and we will wallow uncomfortably.

Off the wind, motoring is our only option, but if we are headed the other way, ease the sails beyond their normal close-hauled position and drop off 10º. You may well be able to sail, it might not be in precisely the direction you want, but going vaguely in the right direction under sail surely beats motoring, and the wind direction might change.

In very light winds, you want fairly flat sails to keep the airflow attached to the sails; too deep and they will stall. You can ease to a fuller, more powerful sail shape as the breeze fills in.

The power of reefing

Very often, putting in an early reef will bring the boat more upright, make her more comfortable; decrease rudder angle and she will still maintain the same speed, if not travel faster.

An old adage that rings true is that as soon as the tiny question pops into your head, ‘Should I reef?’ then it’s time to reef. Putting it off will only make it harder as the wind increases and the sea state gets worse.

For my own boat, I always reef the main first, as it counters weather helm and allows you to keep a well-shaped furling headsail. This is because she has a relatively large main and moderate headsail. The same can be said for fractional rigs.

Some more traditional boats will have large genoas with a big overlap, so changing down from your No1 genoa to a working jib, or furling away enough sail to reduce the sail area aft of the mast might be your first course of action.

Regardless of which sail you reef first, it will have the effect of moving the centre of effort forwards relative to the centre of lateral resistance, therefore improving balance on the helm. If you are working upwind, you may favour a fuller main and smaller headsail, but once freer on the breeze, especially going downwind, then a fuller headsail might work best.

Power tuning

You don’t always need to reef to adjust the balance and drive from your sails. Sail shape is important too. Consider reefing as a coarse control; it’s very effective at reducing sail area quickly, but sometimes, it may be too much. Instead, consider your fine sail controls.

Tensioning the mainsail luff, either with the halyard or the Cunningham if you have one, flattening the foot with the outhaul and using the kicker to add leach tension and in a fractional rig, mast bend, is going to flatten the sail, thereby reducing power in stronger winds. It can also have the effect of closing the leach and holding power in the main, depending on your backstay and traveller set-up.

Baggy sails will cause more heeling power, but less drive. Old sails might still work, but they will tend to stretch in strong winds (as will stretchy old lines), further adding to heel and drag, becoming harder and harder to flatten.

Halyard tension is also important, and should the halyard be at its maximum, using a Cunningham will help reduce those luff creases and move the belly of the sail forward – even a loop of line from the tack to the Cunningham cringle, or a repurposed reefing line can help to drag the belly of the sail forwards. This should be towards the mast, ideally not more than one third of the way aft.

A belly more than halfway aft of the sail is pulling you backwards.

If you have the luxury of an adjustable backstay, then you can use this to reduce any forestay sag, which is important for working to windward. On a fractional rig, it will also bend the mast, flattening the belly of the mainsail.

Conversely, easing these controls will create lots more shape, and should be used in lighter winds. In addition, if you have a ‘useful sized’ traveller (and I mean one that is more than one metre in length!), then you can ease the main down the track, reducing heel but not compromising sail shape.

Instruments

Instruments can be great. Who wants a crook in their neck by continuously staring at the Windex on top of the mast when a readout right in front of you offers the same information?

Instruments give us measured data. We may think that the wind is increasing or backing but instruments let us see that the wind has increased from 10 knots to 12 knots. We can accurately see the wind angle change and adjust our sails or course accordingly. It takes out the guesswork – the numbers don’t lie, as long as they’ve been calibrated.

Pointing angles

Most wind indicator displays show approximate close-hauled angles of around 45º to the apparent wind. These can help keep us roughly on the wind but the tell-tails on your sails are a more accurate guide of what the airflow is actually doing over your sails. Every vessel is different; on my own old, heavy long keel sloop, I’m lucky to get 55º. If I try to sail to my indicator, I’ll be pinching, so I know I must crack off 10º, then she sets off with the bit between her teeth.

Roller-reefing your headsail will cause turbulence and a poorer pointing angle. This is the time to stop looking at the wind instrument and point the boat for maximum power. This is invariably done by feel on the helm and angle of heel. You can ‘feel’ if you are ‘in the groove’, but you can pinch if you focus on your wind display and the boat will struggle.

For the modern sailor, there is a wealth of information about how our boat sails. These are usually in the form of ‘polars’ that give us a prediction of boat speed based on point of sail and wind strength. Just remember, polars don’t know about how your boat is set up, the sea state or gusty conditions.

Gusty Conditions

When sailing in gusty conditions we need a strategy to either sail to the underlying wind or whether to sail to the gusts. In some situations, the gusts could easily be double the underlying wind speed, which may mean being easily overpowered.

It may be fine to sail in 7 to 10 knots with gusts of 20 knots, but now imagine a steady breeze of 18 to 20 knots and gusts of 40, well in excess of gale force. On racing yachts and other highly crewed vessels, the on-watch crew should easily be able to manage the gusts; in fact, on a racing machine, the crew will be trimming the sails continuously for maximum speed, holding on to full sail and ‘feathering’ the sails in the gusts as long as they can, so they are still powered up in the lulls.

On the other hand, a light-handed vessel might struggle to control the vessels in the stronger gusts. If sailing one or two-up, it’s likely that an automatic steering system will be used, either hydraulic/electric or some form of wind steering.

These require a well-balanced boat, so it is likely in the strong gusts that the steering system will be overpowered, and the vessel may lose control. In these circumstances it may well be better to reduce sail early and accept an overall slower boat speed but at least stay in control when the wind increases.

Night sailing

We should always have a strategy for night sailing. Any task in the dark is going to be harder to carry out, so sail changes and reefing need to be carefully considered. Again, this will relate closely to crew size and expertise. On a lightly crewed boat or one with relatively novice crews, it may well be prudent to reduce sail before nightfall, just to mitigate any issues caused by increasing winds overnight.

I know of many skippers who will drop spinnakers as the light is fading, as crew requirements overnight may be difficult if the wind suddenly increases, and the spinnaker needs to be dropped in a hurry. The downside is that the boat may wallow when it’s underpowered, with less feel to keep her in the groove. Instruments will help orientate crew, but their overall situational awareness may diminish as they focus on the screens ahead of them.

Summary

Our instruments can give us an overview of current wind conditions and may give us some guidance to sailplans, but it is only by instinct, feel and experience that we can set our boats up for safety, comfort and optimum speed.

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