Tipping the Boat

Sunday morning I woke up and looked outside to the scattering of branches and leaves across the roads and our backyards, the wind of the night before had created so much chaos it seemed! Not only that, but it seemed to still be howling. I knew right away that sailing that day was probably not going to happen, which made me so upset! My coach texted us all and warned us of the wind, and the chance of sailing being impossible, or dangerous. The knots were looking as high as 25 and 30, which is insanely fast. Therefore, I didn’t know if I would be sailing that day until an hour before when all of a sudden the sky looked beautiful and the wind slowed down to barely 8 knots! We rushed down to the beach, where a few of our teammates gathered, and we started rigging the boats. At first, there were so few of us who made it to practice that I assumed we would just cancel, but our coach told us it was just a better learning opportunity for one on one help! She was totally right, and we headed out to the ocean.

The ocean was freezing. My feet felt like icicles as we tried to remove the dolly from underneath the boat and hop in. After we managed to get in, my feet never warmed up. I guess this is why proper sailing gear is so important! Besides this, we had so much fun out on the water! We focused on two new skills of the day, roll tacking and acceleration.

Roll Tacking

Roll tacking is basically a tack that involves more movement within the boat, which can cause more speed for the boat. It may be more tricky than a regular tack, but it has much better speed momentum. This can be super important within a race. Doing a rolling tack essentially allows for less use of the rudder, which can give a nice push to the boat. How you roll tack is all in the movement of body weight. It acts as a normal tack in regard to how you maneuver both the main sail and the jib, but in order to make it a rolling tack you need to have both the crew and skipper fully leaning towards one side before tipping the boat back flat. Here are some more detailed steps to roll tacking:

1. Sail close-hauled
2. Heel to leeward and start heading up
3. Sail should luff as you enter irons
4. Roll boat to windward
5. Boom will cross and sail should be on new tack
6. Cross the boat and hike it flat

These may not make sense, as it uses a lot of sailing lingo, however, it is essentially switching the sails to the other side of the boat by almost tipping the boat, and then tipping it abruptly back. At first, I was scared of starting rolling tacks, as they mean the boat must be tipped further into the water than I’ve ever been, but it was so fun once I got the hang of it! Our coach was able to give us guidance throughout learning it, which was super helpful.

Acceleration

The final thing we discussed and learned today was how to accelerate in the sail boat. This required similar movements to roll tacking, but didn’t mean flipping the sails. So, it essentially just involves as bearing off, and tilting the boat as far as possible, then flipping it up as fast as possible. This skill was easier after learning how to roll tack, and was also fun! To show us just how far we could tip our boat before it capsizes, our coach came into our boat and tipped it as close to the water as she could (I know scary right!), but she was correct in saying that the boat can be flipped so far before capsizing! As long as the rudder board doesn’t go parallel to the water, it’s all good! So, we kept trying to see how far we could tip our boat, and how fast we could accelerate it. Key skills like this are exactly what I love learning, so it was so nice to be able to get out on the water and learn them.

Overall, the day was filled with being able to learn new skills, even though they may have scared me at first!

Here’s a photo of the boat I got to sail this weekend (not rigged yet, don’t worry we put sails on it!), and the gorgeous sun that came out right as we were able to leave!