ISSUE 103:  Tips for Steering Fast Upwind

Sailing a boat upwind is one of my favorite things in life. There is nothing quite like steering a boat that is ‘in the groove’ and making great VMG to windward. Here are some thoughts about techniques, goals and priorities when you are driving a boat upwind.

General rules of thumb
To steer a boat fast upwind, you must be able to guide that boat efficiently through a series of changes in the wind and water. Therefore, it’s key to anticipate changes that are coming. If you don’t know about a puff until it hits your sails, you will be constantly in reaction mode. Keep your head out of the boat so you can make proactive adjustments before or as the puff hits. 

• To improve your ability to anticipate changes in conditions, assign one of your crewmembers to watch out for puffs, lulls, waves and flat spots. On small boats, this lookout often must be the skipper because the crew may not have a very good view of the race course. On larger boats, it’s usually a crewmember sitting on the rail. 
• If your boat is big enough to have a tactician, find a good one you trust so you can focus entirely on steering without having to look around very much. If your boat is small enough that you must steer and do tactics at the same time, practice steering by feel (see page 16) so you can look around a lot and still keep going fast. 
•  It’s very important to keep talking with your mainsail trimmer for two reasons: 1) only you can feel what the boat needs through the rudder; and 2) he or she controls the sail that has the biggest impact on the balance and speed of your boat, which is critical for steering. 
• If you (the helmsperson) are also trimming the mainsail, never cleat the mainsheet unless you must. Holding the mainsheet helps you take the pulse of the boat and allows you to make quick adjustments needed for steering fast.
•  If you are steering a bigger boat, don’t get mesmerized by the instruments. They can be helpful for keeping the boat sailing near its potential, but there is no substitute for good feel and judgment.
• Most helmspeople like to point high when they are steering. There is nothing so reassuring as the knowledge that you are sailing higher than the boats around you. But remember this critical rule about steering upwind: “Go fast first and worry about pointing later.” If you try to aim your bow too high before your foils are  working efficiently, you’ll be slow. 
• Once the boat is going well, keep trying to trim the sails (especially the main) harder and point higher. As soon as you feel the boat start to slow, ease the sheet a little and bear off slightly to build speed. Then start the cycle again. When the boat feels fast, trim harder and point higher. If it feels like you are slowing down, ease and get going. 
•  Practice steering upwind. The best way to learn is speed-testing with one other boat. This gives you a great chance to try different steering techniques and get immediate feedback by watching how you do relative to the other boat. 

Beating in light air
When you are sailing upwind in light breeze, err on the side of sailing a little too low and fast rather than too high and slow. If you try to point and sail on the high side of the groove, all it takes is a lull or a wave or a header to kill your speed and force you to accelerate all over.  

• Try to manufacture at least a little bit of windward helm so you will have some “feel” to help you steer. Adjustments to increase helm include adding more rake, heeling the boat more, moving crew weight forward, pulling the traveler farther to windward, and so on.
• It’s important to stay focused on steering the boat fast. This is not easy since most light-air races are long and frustrating. As a famous Olympic and America’s Cup sailor once said, “If you don’t finish the race with a splitting headache, you probably didn’t concentrate hard enough on steering.”
• Move the rudder as little as possible. On a tiller boat, consider using a ‘frying pan’ grip on the  hiking stick to keep the rudder straight and quiet (see page 3). 
• Set up your sails and rig so they are more forgiving. You want full, powerful, draft-forward sails with twist that are good for footing rather than pointing. This makes your sailplan less critical and helps you steer the boat in the groove much more easily.

Heavy air and waves
When it’s windy, one of the biggest problems for the helmsperson is having too much windward helm. This can be a steering nightmare because it is physically demanding and hurts your boatspeed. So work on reducing helm by using less mast rake, keeping the boat flatter, moving crew weight farther aft, dropping the traveler to leeward, flattening the sails and so on.

• You should usually bear off and power through chop, but as the waves get bigger you need to start steering around each one. In general, head up on the face of each wave and bear off down the back side. In dinghies, move your weight in sync with this – out and forward as you bear off over the wave and then in and aft when you hit the trough and head up again.
• Waves (and flat spots) seem to come in sets, so make sure that someone on your boat watches for these and gives you a warning. Point higher in the flat spots and then bear off to power through the unavoidable waves.
• When you’re overpowered is a good time to steer by heel angle. Point the bow high enough to keep the boat on its feet. And when you want to turn the boat, you must absolutely help a lot with sail trim since weight placement and even the rudder often have little effect. •