Is it possible to steer a hobie 16 with the sails only? I know the big monohull guys can do this, but I was wondering if this was possible on a smaller cat. I haven't had the opportunity to try this since I have first read about this topic. It would be nice to know that it can be done if I ever have a catastrophic steering failure on the Northern Gulf Coast.
Thomas Griffin Parrish
Absolutely
the jib sail wants to take you upwind, the main wants to take you down.
travel out a bit and relax the jib and then you should be able to find the balance point. this does take practice but is a skill everyone should know in-case they break their rudders (h16's use nylon rudders that will break at some point. I went through 3 in 1 season)
MN3
I am sure that it is the other way around. The mainsail drives a boat to weather, the wind on the larger sail which is located on the reaer portion forces the bow into the wind and the jib will take the boat more down wind.
Jib pushes your bows, main pushes your sterns. When the bows blow off, you're heading down. When the sterns blow off, you're heading up.
Thanks for the info guys. Let me see if I understand correctly. If I am on close reach on the starboard tack and wish to fall off to a run I need to ease the jib sheet and tighten the main sheet? Is the mast basically the pivot point?
Thomas Griffin Parrish
As noted you've got it (slightly) backwards. Tami had it right. "close reach on starboard tack" sheet in the jib and ease the main to turn down. The centerboard is the pivot point. For those of us (Waves, like me, and 16s, like you) who are "centerboardily challenged" the pivot would be around the "center of lateral resistance", the sum of the side of the hull and the rudder. If the boat balances with the rudder down you're going to have an issue trying to do anything besides go head to wind with the rudder up. Try not steering with the rudder down for your first experiments.
This is a fairly subtle effect. change the trim and wait, and wait, to see what happens. It's not like a rudder that will snap the boat across.
When you're racing the boat it's faster to ease the main more slowly than the jib as you turn the top mark and want to turn down. The tighter jib helps the boat turn down and you don't have to drag the rudder through the water as much. When you get to C mark you want to sheet in the main more quickly than the jib to help the boat turn up. All this works more effectively when it's blowing hard.
Shut up, sheet in, trap out.
No you still have it backwards, re-read Tami's post. It might help your understanding if you look/review COE (Center of Effort), and weather helm and lee helm. I've posted about it awhile back. Regarding a catastrophic failure of your steering, you would be well advised to carry a VHF, cellphone, etc. You are somewhat limited to what you can do without rudders. If you are sailing by yourself offshore you should have some sort of safety/emergency plan.
Philip
Think of a windsurfer (the ultimate rudderless sailboat): One moves the sail toward the bow to foot-off (head away from the wind) and toward the aft to head up.
The corollary on a cat is this: Moving the sail to the bow would be similar to tightening the jib and loosing the main.
BTW, this is most effective when you are at less than 90° to the wind. When you start heading downwind, things get a little more complicated.