Boat Handling & Performance

As a beginning sailor, your editor had to learn to sheet the mainsail hard enough to control the leech and point. So it was hard for me to understand the phrase “When in doubt, let it out.” Vaughan Harrison shows…

We’ve had several newer sailors ask us about sailing by the lee. This is not a well-understood topic, especially for those that haven’t raced seriously in cat-rigged (single sail) boats. For this post, we collected the available wisdom on sailing…

Thus far in our SailZing posts about puff response, we have consistently advocated “feather and ease, hike, and trim” as the best technique for puff response. So, we were intrigued to read “The Fallacy of Ease, Hike, Trim” (Sailing World),…

Are you afraid of heavy air gybes (or jibe) due to either lack of experience or too many painful experiences? We asked Zack Clayton – a top scow sailor and sailcloth industry leader with Dimension-Polyant – to share his thoughts…

A well-sailed boat can develop a great speed advantage; … so it is not unusual to see the largest race-winning leads developed in the lightest of conditions. Greg Fisher in When the Going Gets Light. . . Sitting on the low…

In our final episode, legendary sailor and coach Dave Ullman joins with Olympic qualifiers Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea to discuss boat speed. Lots of great tips here, including: the nuances of mast rake and sail efficiency, the real scoop…