Sailing Archives

Headsail funnels the wind

September 3, 2012/by Grant Headifen

The animation included below shows you exactly how a head sail will funnel the wind on the back side of the mainsail. This, in turn, will allow the mainsail to be hauled in tighter with out the wind stalling behind the mainsail. This will then allow the boat to head even further upwind. You can […]

Luffing and sheeting in

September 2, 2012/by Grant Headifen

This animation below shows a dinghy that is sailing at about 45 deg to the wind. The sail is luffing (flapping) because it has been let out too far. When you sheet in, the sail will stop luffing and begin to drive the boat forward. Click on the “sheet in” button to see more about […]

Points of Sail

August 31, 2012/by Grant Headifen

This is a points of sail animation for teaching kids how to sail a dinghy. This animation will be in our upcoming dinghy sailing ibook.

Essential Reefing a Sailboat Tips

August 29, 2012/by Grant Headifen

A good sailing tip would be to reef your boat early before the wind hits but even more essential reefing tips are embedded in this recent sailing event in Sydney Harbour, Australia. You can’t visit Sydney with out a sailing trip out on the harbour and Matt Hayes, owner of Sydney by Sail charter company […]

Reefing a Sailboat – HTML5 Animations

August 28, 2012/by Grant Headifen

Just posting here some fun and helpful animations of reefing the sails. The animation below represents where sails must be lowered. In the case of the headsail, it needs to be replaced with a smaller sail. Remember, the higher the number, the smaller the sail. This specific one represents where the boat is fitted with […]

How to gybe with a dipping pole

July 30, 2012/by Grant Headifen

Last week we were out on a Beneteau First 45 to participate in a local regatta race series. Until now I’d been working the main and Genoa but this week I wanted to step up and run the spinnaker sheet. Not usually a problem because I’ve done it plenty of times before … but this […]

How to Pull on a Line

May 27, 2012/by Grant Headifen

Here’s a quicky sailing tip that isn’t documented in too many places. And you might think it’s a bit basic but I’ve even seen old time sailing instructors doing this the wrong way. One day their luck is going to run out. Fortunately we got to you just in time. I was out racing last […]

Mayday Mayday Mayday: Collision at Sea

April 26, 2012/by Grant Headifen

The more time you spend on the ocean the more incidences you will encounter. Here’s a life threatening event that happened to me this week.

When to reef a sailboat

December 7, 2011/by Grant Headifen

While all sailboat designs are different and will sail optimally at different heel angles and reef points, there are a few generalities that we’ll cover in this sailing blog. General reefing point number 1 through infinity: Don’t scare the beegeebees out of those on board by heeling the boat over too much. While you may […]

Reefing a Catamaran

September 10, 2011/by Grant Headifen

Here’s a question from a student. >>>>>>> Grant, I would like some clarification on the steps taken to reef a main sail on a cat. I’m going out on a 48ft cat and prob want to reef the sail before i go out…. Do i reef it while at the dock or in the water […]