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Interestingly, it is really difficult to explain how the rudder doesn’t just change the boat’s direction when teaching sailing. It especially happens after a s

by rz2k 9y ago

Interestingly, it is really difficult to explain how the rudder doesn’t just change the boat’s direction when teaching sailing. It especially happens after a student has just begun to understand that they can only move in some directions relative to the wind, and they feel stuck with the boat pointed straight into the wind. You have to move to change your heading, and you have to change your heading to move? The first reaction is to feel like the rudder is broken.

NegativeLatency 9y ago
If the boat is small enough you can just rudder pump your way out of that one though. :)
- bennyelv 9y ago
  If you're racing then you need to make sure you only pump in one direction (called sculling - in this case ) or you'll fall foul of rule 42: http://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/42Interpretationsforbooklet-[15296].pdf http://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/42Interpretationsforb...
- rz2k 9y ago
  Additionally, being "stuck" pointing straight into the wind isn't a situation where you are stuck with zero velocity indefinitely. The wind is forcing you backwards, and the arrangement of the rudder and keel/centerboard is unstable for going backwards without changing direction. Even if you don't know what you are doing you'll generally point one way or the other enough that you can then fill your sails again and have more normal control. Ways to make this faster include pushing the main sail on a small boat out to the "wrong" side, tightening the front sail on the "wrong" side of a larger boat, and positioning the rudder only a little off center so that the slowly moving water relative to the boat is less turbulent. Probably the only time when it is an actual problem is when people are drifting into some obstacle. It seemed to take students a matter of seconds to regain control of their boat when they were surrounded by large expanses of water. When they were frantic, their intuition about what they needed to do when in a hurry prolonged their loss of control.

by rz2k 9y ago

NegativeLatency 9y ago

If the boat is small enough you can just rudder pump your way out of that one though. :)

bennyelv 9y ago
If you're racing then you need to make sure you only pump in one direction (called sculling - in this case ) or you'll fall foul of rule 42: http://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/42Interpretationsforbooklet-[15296].pdf http://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/42Interpretationsforb...
rz2k 9y ago
Additionally, being "stuck" pointing straight into the wind isn't a situation where you are stuck with zero velocity indefinitely. The wind is forcing you backwards, and the arrangement of the rudder and keel/centerboard is unstable for going backwards without changing direction. Even if you don't know what you are doing you'll generally point one way or the other enough that you can then fill your sails again and have more normal control. Ways to make this faster include pushing the main sail on a small boat out to the "wrong" side, tightening the front sail on the "wrong" side of a larger boat, and positioning the rudder only a little off center so that the slowly moving water relative to the boat is less turbulent. Probably the only time when it is an actual problem is when people are drifting into some obstacle. It seemed to take students a matter of seconds to regain control of their boat when they were surrounded by large expanses of water. When they were frantic, their intuition about what they needed to do when in a hurry prolonged their loss of control.