Looks like they dont have one, so it would have to be the main sheet.

Would be so nicer with a traveller!

CanAussie14 said..
I'd be dumping something ;)

Or rounding up a little may help out too.

Now if I got into a position like that on my boat, Missus would be a little worried. I also think I would be
moving sideways at a great rate of knots.

Good assumption Frant.
Personaly i beg to differ as there is no evidence that they are obviously just completed a tack.

Most of my sailing books ,training and experience has shown me to keep the yacht strait and level using mainsail control to achieve this.
In a gust they are experiencing the mainsail should be dumped or feathered to allow the crew to grind on the headsail in comfort once this is achieved then it maybe possible to point up and sheet on the mainsail.

Anyway each to there own....

samsturdy said..

Now if I got into a position like that on my boat, Missus would be a little worried. I also think I would be
moving sideways at a great rate of knots.

Sam, your boat needs to be moving forwards in order for the keel to develop lift and stop the boat sliding sideways. So first you should ease the sheet and point a little away from the breeze, (she will then heel less and start to accelarate.) Once moving forwards nicely you can sheet in and point higher. Vary the sail area so that the boat does not heel too far.

Ramona said..
That's a metre class yacht that gains a lot of waterline length [speed] at maximum heel. The deck is just awash so its about maximum. Does not work the same on modern boats where 15 degrees is more ideal.

Is that a kite or a genoa they are sailing with?? Whichever, I think that is what is heeling the yacht so much and I would be thinking of easing the sheet to that.

Yara said..
Cisco, The guy on the low side looks like he is about to ease the genoa sheet. The small amount of lee helm would indicate that is a good starting point.

Thank you. Seems I have not lost the plot completely.

Racing - "Death before Dishonour" we do not race to come second.

My guess is that the 8 is about to round a mark (which is why the skipper is not luffing to reduce helm, and why the headsail is eased) and the mainsheet hand is struggling with 1930s technology and has yet to ease the main.

One of my all-time sailing memories is working bow on Weatherly (the boat that beat Gretel in our first America's Cup challenge) at a New York Yacht Club annual regatta. I was calling the boat into the line alongside Courageous, Intrepid, Columbia and one of the 1987 America IIs. The big metre boat felt like something from another planet - powerful yet easy to handle. The feel and the grace of the motion cannot be described, nor can the feeling of racing with boats that had won six ACs between them.

The next day duty called and I had to switch over to sailing the latest all-carbon 52' Farr, driven by one of the brains behind about half a dozen AC wins. The 12 was more fun!

Ramona said..
That's a metre class yacht that gains a lot of waterline length [speed] at maximum heel. The deck is just awash so its about maximum. Does not work the same on modern boats where 15 degrees is more ideal.

Price you pay for sailing pretty things.

All the boat porn I watch of classic yachts sailing - Metre classes, Js, Folkboats, Dragons, et al - validate what Ramona says.