Heavy Air Rudderless!

It's come to my attention from viewing and videoing practice the past few weeks that many of my students are in a dependent relationship with their rudders. They need the rudder to turn and drive the boat, and - most troubling - to keep it going straight! They get so used to yanking on it through turns that they seem not to notice when the boat is not balanced and are content to "sail upwind" with the crew nesting on the centerboard, the mainsheet out, and the tiller cocked 10 degrees to windward! On the start line, crews tended to be similarly stoic, knowing the skipper will just scull the boat to get it out of irons.  The tyranny of the 420's oversized rudder on my sailors was going unchecked!

I decided to do something about it:

Most coaches use rudderless as a light air drill. But I thought about it, and realized the benefits of Heavy Air rudderless are significant: The feedback of what you are doing with weight and sail trim on the boats is immediate, and you absolutely must "balance" the boat, with aggressive hiking. The specifics of how to turn the boat sans rudder are:

Thanks Peter Commette! 

So, to review: 

Trim Main: Turn Up

Trim Jib: Turn Down

Ease Jib: Turn Up

Ease Main: Turn Down

Heel to Leeward: Turn Up

Heel to Windward: Turn Down

Move Forward: Head Up

Move Aft: Turn Down

Torque Forward (I do this all the time, when I feel I need to get out of pinch mode): Turn Down

Torque Aft (I have never done this): Turn Up

All of these rules apply regardless of wether or not the rudder is on, and you should steer in this manner when you DO put the rudder back on, allowing it to simply follow the sailboats path. 

The nuance of this is that for maximum speed, the boat should be heeled just the right amount, or as little as possible for the desired rate of turn. Most of the time when sailors got out of control doing rudderless it was because they OVER-Heeled one way or another and Over-Turned. Similarly, over steering with the sails comes at a cost of loosing flow. Some goals for the next time out:

* Try to practice rudderless as close to normal weight position and normal sail trim as possible. No standing up! 

*Keep the boat flat, using only ~10degrees heel when its time to turn.

*Trim the sail for flow (both driver and crew are looking at their sails!), and only stall the jib and luff the main very slightly to turn down/ stall main and "bubble" the front of the jib slightly to turn up. 

*Anticipate when the boat is going to "over turn" and counteract with a quick "Torque" or heel the opposite way to counteract.

*Talk through all maneuvers and steering between the Driver and Crew. With the rudder gone, the Crew is just as much a Driver as the Driver is - you are equal partners in the steering of the boat! Be sure to communicate what the boat needs!!