5 expert tips to help you better understand sailing heel angles

Don’t just sit on the rail! Heel angle trim is key in keelboats, as Chris 'Twiggy’ Grube explains to Andy Rice

Keelboat sailors obsess about maintaining the optimum angle of heel. According to Chris ‘Twiggy’ Grube, it’s a good obsession to have, and keeping consistently to that ideal heel is a vital goal for success on the race course. “It’s about getting the right amount of angle on the rudder and making sure you’ve got good flow over both foils,” says Twiggy.

Every class has a known optimum heel angle, although this will probably vary across different wind and wave conditions. “In the J/70 we’re aiming at 8° of heel in super-light conditions, but once we’re up to full power conditions we’re aiming for 12°, and an absolute max of 14°. The J/70 has a short keel so any more than that and you’re slipping sideways and losing grip in the water.

“The J/70 also runs a very neutral helm, there’s not much feel in the rudder so it’s tempting to let the boat heel a bit more to leeward, just to get a bit more weather helm and a bit more bite,” he explains.

Twiggy warns against this temptation, but admits there are few shortcuts to getting comfortable with such a neutral helm other than more time in the boat.

Whatever the wind and wave conditions, accurate setup of the rig will make it a lot easier to achieve consistent heel angle. So assuming you’ve got the static rig settings in the right place, here are Twiggy’s best tips for achieving that optimum angle of attack on an ever-changing race course.

Have a heel monitor

Make sure one person on the boat is tasked with keeping an eye on heel angle – your ‘heel angle monitor’. In a Cape 31 it would probably be someone on the foredeck crew, while in the J/70 it’s normally my role as jib trimmer. It’s also important to have feedback from the helmsman about what they’re feeling through the rudder, and if they’re struggling with too much load on the helm.

Build your own mental gauge and spatial awareness of what the right amount of heel feels like. Of course you can – and should – use the electronics to keep you informed about heel angle too, but there’s always a bit of time lag in what they’re telling you, so using instinct and feel is always your most useful and up-to-the-moment gauge of optimum heel.

Body weight is key

When you’re sailing in anything less than full-power conditions, then body weight is your main tool for maintaining constant heel angle. As jib trimmer on the J/70 I’m the first to swing my legs inboard and go down to leeward. You’re always on your toes, never sitting down for too long, ready to move up or down as required.

There’s a lot you can do together as a crew if you all move in unison, leaning out for a gust or inboard for a lull. You can put additional power into the boat by bringing the traveller up, but be careful not to bring the boom end too far to windward of centreline or you’ll put the brakes on.

Backstay first

Once the breeze has built to the point where everyone is full hiking and crew weight is out as far as possible, now you’re adjusting the rig to vary the power through any changes in the breeze. On most keelboats the backstay is your first point of adjustment.

Keep winding on the backstay up to the point where you see those starvation creases in the luff of the mainsail. Don’t go any further than this. The last thing you want to do is ease the traveller to leeward – only do this when you’ve adjusted everything else first. It’s not necessarily true for all keelboats, but on the J/70 keep tightening the vang, and tension the Cunningham.

Just be aware that pulling on the Cunningham tends to put you in a lower mode, so any time you need to maintain your pointing ability – out of a busy start line or living in a thin lane with a boat tight to leeward – don’t pull on the Cunningham too hard.

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Be pre-emptive

Someone on the boat should be calling in every gust and lull, counting down the seconds until it’s about to arrive. It’s not an easy skill, but still better to do it half-well than not do it all. The more you predict and pre-empt a gust or a lull, the smaller the adjustments you’ll need to make.

If you wait until the gust hits, the boat and the heel angle increases, the inertia of the mast becomes an extra factor in the equation, and you need to ease excess amounts of mainsail and jib to get the boat back on its feet. So a little movement early is way, way better than a big movement too late.

Avoid the stagger

Once the breeze is really up there and you’ve used all your other depowering tools, the only things left are to ease the sails. When the main trimmer eases the traveller, the jib needs to go out too, to keep an open slot and avoid the luff of the mainsail turning inside out too much. Keeping the boat moving in strong winds is a combination of accurate steering with positive trimming of the sails in and out in unison.

Occasionally a gust will hit, maybe at the same time as you hit a big wave, and the boat will start staggering. Now you’re in crisis mode, well past optimum heel angle. Just stay calm, press ‘reset’, and work hard together to get the boat back on its feet and back in the groove as soon as possible.

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