Sailing in the Waves Tip 1
‘Inland, or on the sea in flat water, I am as fast as anyone. But as soon as we are sailing in waves, I struggle for height upwind. How should I steer the boat?’
Literally: with trim! Inevitably when steering in waves you have to use some rudder to get the boat to turn quickly, but the more you can instigate the steering with weight and trim, the less drag you will induce through the rudder, and the faster you will go (this principle applies to all the ‘steering’ advice in this feature).
To luff, sheet on and allow the boat to heel slightly to leeward. To bear away, hike harder and if necessary, ease a click of main.
To accelerate the bear away, ‘bounce’ the boat to windward which will momentarily flick the leech open, helping the turn.
But read Rule 42 carefully before getting too enthusiastic about using kinetics in waves. Before we deal with your actual steering question, just a point about rig set up. To drive the boat upwind through the waves you need extra power.
However, the power available from the wind will vary depending on which part of the wave you are on, and which way the rig is moving at the time. It’s easier to keep the boat flat by working extra hard or easing sheets momentarily in the apparent puffs, than to find extra power when the rig is depowered for the peaks. Therefore, set the rake, rig controls, etc for the minimums, not the maximums, and work harder to keep the boat flat through the peaks.
Powering up by pulling extra hard on the leeches will not work when the rig is bouncing around: the sails will just stall. The waves affect your apparent wind direction as well as its speed. This, rather than bad steering, may be the cause of your height problem.
To avoid this, sail with deeper, more twisted sails than you would in flat water: the boom as close as possible to the centreline, but top telltale streaming most of the time: jib twisted to match with a nice parallel slot. The depth could come from an extra chock, more strut or lowers, spreaders forward, or a very slight outhaul ease.
A deeper jib will also give a nice big ‘groove’: allowing you to steer the boat around the waves as much as possible without a stall. This should give you a powerful rig but one which will cope with the constant change, and be kinder to steer to. Now back to the question of waves. In typical regular waves, in moderate conditions, the waves are travelling directly downwind.
The water in the waves is moving in a circular motion: downwind at the top, upwind at the bottom. Luff as you climb the face of the wave so that you spend as little time as possible in the peak: bear off as you cross the peak onto the back of the wave. The bigger the waves, the more extreme the motion needs to be. That is the basis of sailing upwind in regular waves: take every opportunity you can to watch the fast sailors in the conditions of the day, and practice getting ‘in phase’.
Sailing in the Waves Tip 2
‘In light winds, the waves come too quickly to use this technique: I can’t turn the boat fast enough.’
Depending on the speed of the waves, your boat, and its manoeuvrability, there is always a lower limit where it is simply not possible to steer around the waves in the way described above. The waves just shake the boat and rig around; the rig stalls; and the boat bounces up and down going nowhere. Whereas in moderate winds the crew should concentrate weight together as much as possible, to reduce the amount of power needed to lift the bow over each wave, in light winds the power lost through a bouncing, stalled rig is far more significant. So, move further apart (in the fore/aft direction), to try to reduce the bouncing.
Twist your sails even more, and sail as free as is necessary to keep the boat moving forward, with rig and foils working. Now you can simply steer to make the most of the flatter patches of water; sheeting on and sailing higher, and minimise the effect of the really bumpy bits by easing the jib a touch and steering slightly free as they approach, until you are through.
Sailing in the Waves Tip 3
‘When seas are really confused, and there are no obvious regular peaks and troughs, how should I sail through this?’
Again, it’s a damage limitation exercise. When the waves are not regular there are always high and low spots. As helmsman your focus needs to be on the water a half boat length or so in front of the bow. Steer for the obvious low spots as they appear, and avoid the biggest highs: the larger the differences between highs and lows, the further it will be worth deviating from the mean course to minimise the effect of this obstacle course. If there are no obvious high spots and low spots, sail freer and faster through the worst bits: your speed will at least ensure that the rig and foils are working, whereas trying to sail high and slowly will stall both and contribute to a slide to leeward.
Sailing in the Waves Tip 3
‘What should I do when the wind and waves are not from the same direction?’
A leftover swell from a storm on the day before gives good opportunities for gains from accurate steering. There are three effects to consider: your boat goes faster downhill; the water at the top of the wave will push in the direction of the wave, that in the bottom against it; and this circular water flow in the wave will affect your apparent wind, in both strength and direction. The best steering technique depends on the relative directions of wind and waves, the wind and wave speed, and the type of boat.
With a different ‘right’ answer for every combination of wave size and direction and wind strength, my advice is to spend plenty of time before the start sailing in the racing area to work out the best steering technique on each tack. If the swell is big and the wind light the sails will have to be continuously trimmed as well. Watch the other boats, both before the start and during the race: the bigger the difference the effect of good and bad steering, the more obvious the winning technique will be.
Sailing in the Waves Tip 4
‘Downwind, when should I be concentrating on trying to catch a wave, and when should I just be concentrating on sailing the boat fast through the water?’
Double Olympic medallist Simon Hiscocks says: ‘Don’t chase a wave unless you are certain that you are going to catch it.’ When running in nonplaning conditions in both symmetric and asymmetric boats; the focus downwind is on soaking as much as possible without stalling the spinnaker: sailing higher than this to try to catch an impossible wave will simply result in extra distance sailed. The steering objective when the waves are not big enough — or you are not going fast enough to have a realistic chance to surf them — should be to use the extra speed to gain ground to leeward, with a slight luff just as the boat slows to keep the flow going. In these conditions, steering can all be done with body weight: roll the boat to windward (with a simultaneous ‘squeeze’ of guy and sheet of a symmetric kite) to scoot down to leeward. If the waves are irregular, it’s also unlikely that you will get any assistance: the objective in these conditions as with steering upwind is to aim for the obvious low spots and avoid the ‘mountains’. Keep a good eye out for larger patches of flatter water: it may be possible to gybe or sail high for a short period to find a more helpful part of the race track.
Sailing in the Waves Tip 5
‘What about when I’m going downwind at about the same speed as the waves — should I be trying to surf them?’
The problem with this situation is that the wave speed is potentially limiting your downwind speed: it feels great to be surfing the wave behind but all you do is run into and get held up by the one in front. In theory the whole fleet could be travelling at exactly the same speed, limited by the wave speed. On the run, the gains are made by using the steering technique described above. Use any extra speed to steer further downwind, getting closer to the mark, rather than just pushing water. But keep an eye out for any low spots in the wave crests ahead: every time you find one low enough to break through you will make a gain on the boats around by sailing high and finding enough reaching speed to do just that.
Sailing in the Waves Tip 6
‘What is the technique in real surfing conditions?’
In classic surfing conditions, there is not enough wind to keep the boat continuously planing. The waves are not so big and fast that their speed can’t be matched by sailing on your boat’s fastest point of sailing (with the help of whatever kinetics are allowed by your sailing instructions: a part of your repertoire does have to be an understanding of Rule 42!). There is no doubt that the best sailing surfers are those who have tried real surfing: that’s the first recommended training process! If you want background reading, Garry Hoyt in Go for the Gold describes the processes common to surfers and surfing sailors. Just as the stern begins to lift, accelerate the boat by luffing to a reach. The bigger and faster the wave, the earlier and more extreme an angle change is required to get you boat speed close to that of the wave.
Achieve maximum acceleration by pumping, and move sharply forward in the boat to get the bow down, bearing away to stay with the wave. The timing of the pump is critical: you want the pump to add to your boat not to maintain it. Once surfing, don’t steer straight down the wave: you’ll hit the one in front, stop, and the wave will roll past. Turn so the boat slides along the face of the wave, upwind or downwind of the wave perpendicular, to maximise the ride. In a dinghy, the steering can once again be done by moving body weight. In a keelboat or Sportsboat, a couple of pumps of the tiller may turn the boat then unload the rudder at the critical moment of acceleration.
If the waves are really fast, aim to reach in the trough, pump and bear away as the following wave catches, then use the surf to sail below the rhumbline, staying with it as long as possible. Now you are set up to luff to accelerate in the next trough. In all cases, begin the next cycle while you still have momentum, luffing to keep speed on for the next opportunity.
Sailing in the Waves Tip 7
‘What about when I am sailing faster than the waves?’
Modern high performance boats are in this mode in most conditions downwind. There is no point steering down the wave just to put the nose straight into the wave in front. In these conditions we are back to sailing around the obstacle course. On the larger scale keep looking for any flatter areas to aim for; on the small scale looking for the local low spots to steer through without deflecting from the optimal downwind angle for the conditions.
Sailing in the Waves Tip 8
‘How do I stop my Fireball nose diving on the run?’
Once a traditional performance boat runs into the wave in front in a breeze, the result is usually wet! In non-extreme conditions it should be possible to bear away or luff to lift the bow over the back of the wave at an angle, rather than straight into it.
As you bear off, (assuming you are sitting to leeward) sit out hard to keep the boat flat: the crew should lean in at the same time.
As you luff, step into the centreline of the boat and sheet on to keep the main driving. Trapeze crew should be clipped on and ready to step out to help balance. If these techniques don’t succeed, it’s probably windy enough for apparent wind sailing. Give up on pointing at the leeward mark, luff up to a broad reach with the crew trapezing as high as possible and the helm perching on the windward side deck. There is now no danger from the waves, and if you get the wind shifts right the gains will be enormous!
Sailing in the Waves Tip 9
‘Are there any special steering techniques for cross-wave sailing?’
In light winds, as when beating, keep the rig as still as possible, by steering along or down the waves as much as possible. This will minimise stall and maximise drive. Use the same technique on a beam reach when wind and waves are aligned.
In medium winds, power up the rig as much as possible: ease the outhaul, use moderate vang. Steer to surf down the bigger sets of waves: sail higher between the big sets to keep speed on and maintain direction.
Sailing in the Waves Tip 10
‘What is the best way to improve my wave technique?’
If you want to understand the theory, try reading Frank Bethwaite’s High Performance Sailing. But there is no substitute for getting on the water and doing it: preferably with a tuning buddy, outside a racing environment. That gives you the chance to experiment, and to develop a ‘feel’ for what works. A good coach might help to accelerate this process.
