Ok, what are the main lessons we have learned about hull trim and sail trim and boatspeed from racing geese for three years? How to find speed, how to point the boat in the right direction, how to sail in big waves. This is a summary of our boatspeed “secrets”.
We know we can build a whole fleet for the cost of one Laser, but what about the sailing?
Hull Trim – Sit in the right place in smooth water for speed in the Oz Goose
If this is not right … then you just won’t go well.
The basic position for sitting IN SMOOTH WATER is near the buttstrap (the joining bit of timber) on the floor of the boat. See it in RED and see how the crew line up with it.
This looks very wrong from a normal racing dinghy perspective.
But the Goose has a lot of volume in the back of the boat. So you have to sit back a bit strangely. But still try to sit forward. The image above shows the hull trim starting position for smooth water.
It is also important that the two crew sit close together. This reduces the pitching (bow going up down up down up down) that slows the boat down. Crew have to stick together and sit close.
But then look down the side of the boat when sailing flat with no heel. Like this Optimist sailor is doing – look at the gap between the bow corner and the water.
In smooth water the front corner of the bow transom of the Oz Goose looks like this.
About 30mm (a bit over an inch) above the water.
Have a look at the blue boat here in a normal club race. Its bow is too high, so the back of the boat is digging deep into the water and creating a big wave behind the boat. If the boat makes big waves or makes a lot of noise it is lost energy. Look at the white boat in front. It is going at the same speed but there is a clean wake behind the boat.
And here is the same boat in very nice hull trim and making almost no waves being dragged behind the boat in the same race. You can also see the crew is sitting in a different position.
So just get the boat flat and look down along the side.
Do the right thing with the front of the boat and the back of the boat will do the right thing.
Here are two boats going quick in light winds. The big sail and small wetted surface of the Goose means it moves very well in light winds
Downwind in Moderate winds … MOVE!
As soon as there are waves the front of the boat becomes noisy. Banging is OK because that can be the bottom. But splashing and water coming up in the air shows the front bow transom is hitting the waves.
It can also mean going downwind that you are starting to surf and hitting the waves in front and making spray or sometimes you can feel the boat being retarded.
So we start moving back a bit as the boat picks up speed to prevent the bow sticking in – the minimum amount required. And then forward when the bow becomes too high.
As well as steering to go across the waves as soon as we catch them instead of going straight. To avoid the bow digging in
The waves are going faster than us in light or moderate conditions, so staying on waves even if we go a long way to the left or right like a surfer makes no difference. If the wave doesn’t pass us for a time and the other boats are having three waves pass them in the same time then they are now three wavelengths behind us.
But don’t lose your thinking about bow position … move back a bit and observe what happens if you have bow spray – move forward if the bow seems to high.
Moving back too far too soon causes the problem above with a big stern wave forming behind the boat. But frequent splashing from the bow is the clue.
Downwind and catching small waves often means quite a bit of moving forward and backward to retain hull trim. You have to predict, but it is easy to do if you are watching.
These are a group of the best goose sailors. One bow a bit high (see the white flash of water behind the boat showing it is dragging a wave, one a bit low (see the white water at the bow and one just right (that’s me – in this photo we are doing pretty well.
Look very carefully at the seating positions. Who is sitting forward and who is sitting back a bit far.
Move back the minimum to get 95% of the splashing to disappear. Occasional splashing means you are doing your job of keeping the bow down.
Speed is everything on the Oz Goose
Actually speed is everything on every type of boat. You need to be very active with the sheet hand. That is the difference between the best sailors and the mid fleet sailors
Let the speed drop and many boats will go sideways . The goose considerably more because of that big sail.
This section assumes you have the rig and sail set up right. If you don’t the boat will not handle and accelerate well. It might not even go upwind if your setup is really bad.
Here is the setup information for the Oz Goose.
And here is the Oz Goose rigging video.
Here are the knots you need
So a sailing style of holding onto the sheet and just luffing to stop heeling is slow – the boat goes sideways.
This is also true of every other boat, but if you don’t monitor speed you will be really slow.
Balance Lug Peculiarities
OK … so all the stuff you hear about “lug rigs sailing bad when the mast distorts the sail on one tack” – forget it.
It’s wrong. And it has always been wrong. Even traditional sailors in Brittany know that lugs are faster with the mast to leeward.
First of all the differences are small. And may be almost nothing, but there is a difference in FEEL. I will provide evidence that the differences are small at the end of this section.
With the Goose with sail on windward side it is actuall hard to sail slow. The boat wants to go and has a definite groove that is easy to keep in. You can bear away or point higher and the rig is tolerant to angle and the goose will truck.
On the other tack there is no distinct groove. You have to find it and this means hitting a similar speed to the other tack. Ease sheet to get the same speed as the other tack before you try pointing higher. Point higher without the speed and you go sideways as the centreboard stalls out (our foils are very very nice templated or CNCed profiles).
So what is the evidence that the difference between tacks is small. Peter, the commodore of the yacht club and I are the fastest of the Goose sailors. We sail very closely. He puts his sail on the starboard side of the boat. I’ve got mine on the port.
Photo evidence. These are the two top boats in our fleet. Neither has an advantage on one tack.
There is no discernible difference in pointing or footing speed when we are short tacking – or even on a long tack. It is always a tough drag race to see who can get speed and height. This can’t happen if there is some big disadvantage on one tack.
But if a sailor is unaware of hitting an upwind target speed on both tacks … then it will look like the lug rig has a bad tack.
The Oz Goose has a built in Speedo – listen to the hull noises!
Upwind there are even some nice cues for finding the groove on both tacks.
First sail with the mast to leeward on the tack where it is easy to find speed. Find the balance between pointing and speed.
If the goose is moving well, even if 6 t0 8 knots of breeze there is a “Cush Cush Cush” sound of aerated water going under the boat. A foamy sound. You can even see the foam that makes the sound.
If that stops then you are pointing too high and not going fast enough. It is around 5 knots of boat speed.
If you have a bang bang bang bounce sound then you are probably sailing too slow (though in a light breeze with left over chop from stronger wind the goose can be unavoidably noisy – the noise can be the speed as we catch up with the Hobies that started 5 minutes before us but if there is wind to ruffle the surface of the water there should start to be the “Cush Cush”).
Now tack so the sail is to leeward.
The task is to find the same speed. To get the speed you want the same sound. Ease the sheet and keep the sail just off luffing as the previous section. Let the speed build until you get a similar “Cush Cush”. If it is a noisier “Cush Cush” you are sailing too low and not pointing high enough. So gently pull in the sheet and see how high you can point until you hear the Cush Cush get quieter. If it gets quieter then you are losing speed. Ease out the sail a little to increase speed.
This is me after finding the “Cush Cush” and I have pulled the sheet in and sailing high.
The sheet is your accelerator to get you to the target speed you need. If you just steer without moving your sheet hand the boat will be going too slow or not pointing high enough.
Speed through hull trim for the Oz Goose when there is stronger wind and lots of waves
First of all – have a look at how this wide bow sailboat handles waves. It was a perpetual question. It does fine in the worst conditions. This is for reassurance 🙂 !
As the wind gets stronger this 95 rule becomes quite important.
But we also have a split in the fleet. Not in speed but in the best way to handle waves.
Singlehanded in Waves
It is best to steer around the highest peaks by looking ahead. You will have to hit one occasionally, but if you play the game like driving on a dirt road with potholes – small deviations to avoid the big ones you can avoid a lot of slowing and you look ahead and plan the small deviations – steer too far and you fall off the road! Same with the boat you don’t want to travel too far. Don’t forget to ease the sheet a little for a few seconds if bearing away.
Two handed in Waves
The boat has enormous power and can smash smaller waves out of the way. So there are waves you might steer to avoid singlehanded that you will just clip the top off when two up. The test is if the boat is being stopped. If 95% not much slowing then your bow position is about right.
So in strong winds we gradually get forced back and back until we are sitting right next to the traveller. It is also important to have just a little heel to let the front windward bow corner to go above the wave peaks mostly.
In stronger winds, despite trying to move forward as much as possible we end up sitting by the traveller. This is partially a function of having the deepest point of the hull well back.
Even when sailing like this we are trying to keep our weight forward. If there is smooth water flex your upper body/ies to move weight a bit forward. And straight out when the water gets rough again. Aim is that the bow won’t hit most waves.
What to do when there is a big wave in front
Watch your speed. If you lose it ease sail a bit (sheet out a foot) hike hard, ease the sail slightly, point a bit lower and get the boat going again. Then go for height.
This photo has an example of both trims. The boat to windward has the sheet in tight and obviously has good speed. The closer boat has just gone through a wave so has been sailing low before and is just picking up speed – once it has speed they will wind in sheet and match the angle of the white boat.
Get speed about a boatlength and a half in advance, hit the wave, and hold the angle until you hear the cush cush again, then wind in sheet and point again.
If you are going to hit a wave then do this in advance. Get your speed up hike hard, ease the sheet a few inches. When you hit the wave keep going like this until the speed is back then pull the sheet in and point high again.
Sail Trim for speed with a lug rig
You know how there are people who are called “naturals” in sailing. They can just jump in a boat and make it fly.
It isn’t as difficult as many think.
If you point too high the sail will luff and you will feel the speed drop.
Sail too low and the leeward telltale will agitate – the boat will feel powered up for a moment and then the speed will decay until the boat is moving poorly.
This is how most people sail – the boat moves and they will go home and say “I had a great sail” but they are at about half the speed of a well sailed boat.
Most reasonable sailors know these two extremes.
But one nice thing is the lug rig really kicks with much more power when the sheeting angle is right. It is almost like the feeling of an asymmetrical spinnaker. Get it right and WHOOSH.
Most sailors have to luff to find the right angle … then drop the nose down a few degrees so the luffing stops. This is OK and part of learning. Also useful when you are not sure.
With the Goose and the lugsail there is a huge jump in power just at that point. It is almost like a turbo. The boat just comes alive.
It is just a few degrees below luffing.
YOU MUST GET TO KNOW THAT FEELING AND SEARCH FOR IT CEASELESSLY.
So instead of having to point up and luff the boat to find the right angle for full sail power just come up until you feel the fast transient into the maximum sail lift and stop pointing up.
If you want to confirm you are close to luffing go up a few more degrees .. and there is the luffing
My new students know how to find this point after a few hours practice. Practice it and find it.
IF YOU DON’T HAVE SPEED AND THE TURBO FEELING – EASE THE SAIL UNTIL YOU FIND THE POWER. IF GOING UPWIND YOU CAN POINT UP TOO. TURBO FEELING KICKS IN THEN POINT AS HIGH AS YOU NEED TO AND KEEP THE TURBO BUZZING.
Boat speed at the beginning of a Gust
So important to maintain speed. A badly handled gust is a speed killer.
Heeling is a speed killer. It also makes the boat go sideways. Killer.
Scan ahead and watch the gusts coming. Hike out hard BEFORE it hits. When it hits don’t do any steering. It is wrong to luff the boat. Put out the sheet to keep the boat flat. Once the boat is flat wind in the sheet and point higher being careful to retain the Cush Cush.
When the gust ends return to the original direction.
The way a lot of us have been taught is to luff when the gust hits to keep the boat flat. But it is much much better to let out the sheet as much as you need to as this preserves or even increases speed. Then wind in the sheet and point up to get some extra height (point higher).
The other thing is that steering the boat takes time to reduce the power. But easing the sail is instant. And then you can st
Basically two options to keep the boat flat upwind in a gust.
- If you luff to keep the boat flat you lose speed. Then you have to ease the sheet to get speed up anyhow and you will have to point lower to get the speed that you lost back. Bethwaite, in his books calls this the “one hand response” and it is a habit of slow sailors. It is also how many sailing schools wrongly (sadly) teach their students. The stronger the wind the more you have to luff and the more speed you lose. Then you have no control over the boat because it needs to move to make the rudder work.
- If you put the sheet out to stay flat the boat will probably go momentarily faster, then point higher to turn that extra speed into high pointing while winding in the sheet and the Cush Cush will never stop. Bethwaite calls this the Two hand method because the sheet hand controlling the sail and the tiller hand are both active to retain the target speed. You will also have perfect control until the wind is crazy strong.
Here is the correct sequence. Watch how the wake of the boat never changes showing the target speed has been retained.
Good pace all the time. And safe handling in all winds even when the wind gets truly crazy.
By yourself.
Or with two beginner sailors.
And here is the most recent club race.
The two fastest boats. The blue one caught up and was being sailed much flatter than the other one. Very America’s Cup style tacking up to the windward mark with the leader changing continuously. Observe and improve your own sailing!
