Re: Heeling angles

Posted By: Wayne
Date: 9/21/05 11:43a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Heeling angles (pic) (Colorado Mike)

Mike, I do not know what the official LPS is. I do know what the WLPS is. Wayne's Limit of personal safety. I can only assume the SC 22 heeling factors are similar to the Eclipse as they are similar in many ways. I have pushed mine over so the rail is in the water. I don't like doing it and won't intentionally. A big issue concerning boat heel is the racing rules in effect at the time of original design. Some boats are designed as rule beaters and set up so the waterline heeled over increases over the waterline standing tall. Natually the longer waterline increases hull speed hence the whole reason from a racing standpoint the hull is designed for heeling. The SC 21 & SC 23 are probably good examples of boats that sail faster heeled over than standing tall. Granted excessive heel as Chuck & others mentioned does more harm than good from a sail trim issue if you exceed the design parameters. Heeling from a crew point of view can definatly reduce the pleasure of the folks hitching a ride. The SC 22's & Eclipses are low to the water at the stern and "images in the rear view mirror many be closer than your crew can deal with". If you are dragging the rail on a SC 22 or Eclipse all you see on the other side is water My expierence: the boat will go over so far initally then harden up quickly. About the time you are dragging the rail seriously the amount of rudder blade is reduced the boat will quickly round up into the wind and stall. This assumes you are not flying too much canvas. Also this does not take into account any wave action. I have heard of SC 22' heeled over so the mast is paralell to the water untill the righting ability of the keel took over and the boat popped back up. Every time I have heard of an issue with the entire SC fleet it revolved around too much sail for the conditions. Almost everyone involved was flying the 135% gennoa A few had the keel 1/2 down and reaching with full sails Years ago I had an 18' Bucaneer class sail boat. This was a go fast boat and loved to heel to a point. You could hike out and heel the boat so far over you could see the swing keel comming out of the keel well. Granted we were not optimum sailing effecincy, but it was real impressive. I have no desire to try the same on my Eclipse. By the way I love the stern rail in the photo