Less Rudder, More Attention

The Laser is a one-design so less rudder clearly doesn’t mean you should cut off some of your rudder. There are other more effective ways to reduce drag. And remember, steering is all about drag.

In my article, Learning to Steer with Less Rudder, I introduced a variation on the traditional exercise of sailing without a rudder. Once you’ve practiced sailing with your arm locked down and the tiller centered, you will increase your awareness of what actions affect your Laser’s tendency to change directions. The next step is to nurture that awareness until it creeps into all your around-the-course maneuvering and to reintroduce tiller motion where it will help.

Sailing close-hauled will give you all sorts of quick feedback about the effects of shifting your weight outboard (hiking) and nudging the boat to leeward, or pulling your weight inboard (sitting up or leaning more into the cockpit) and encouraging the boat to drift toward the wind.

Similarly, trimming the main sheet in will send the boat up into the wind and easing it out will allow the boat to head off.

As you sail upwind you want to sail a bit of a scalloped course anyway to stay in the sweet spot (not pinched, not off the wind.) So it is a great time to add your weight and sail control to the steering and reduce the amount of rudder you use. With practice and the courage to really hike-out and pull the boat over past flat, you can start to do some mark roundings and wave riding without moving the rudder off center.

The first time I tried this I was in my second day of sailing a Laser. The water was warm, a Florida inlet in the spring, and there was a light breeze. The instructor, John Kolius, set a mark and began a drill where we approached the mark, eased the sail, hiked the boat past flat and rounded without tiller action onto a broad reach.

I couldn’t do it. My head screamed that if I hiked that hard against a light breeze I was going over. The assistant instructor in a coach boat said, “No. It works. Try it.”

I had been in the water so many times I was beginning to pickle anyway so I took a run at it. My approach was a good set up for a tactical rounding, I eased the sail. The Laser sat-up a bit. I tentatively hiked out. The boat came a bit beyond flat. I hiked a tiny bit more and death-rolled into the water right at the mark.

Clearly I didn’t yet have the sense of when the boat was ready to roll so they had me try it four or five more times, and I got in four or five more practice tries righting the boat. When I got back up north where the water was cold, I “forgot” about the drill and didn’t try again for a couple of years. It was actually a reasonable strategy, because by that time I did have a better feel for the boat and I could effectively use my weight to get it to round off the wind.

What’s important to tuck into your self-coaching talk is that you’re trying to control degrees of rudder turn, amount of time the rudder is on center and minimize the force it takes to turn the rudder. This last point is an important one and is often skipped by how-to sailing instructions.

The secret of top sailors? Everyone turns their rudder. Even those who show you videos of centered rudders use theirs to allow them to turn quicker in certain circumstances. The key is that the rudder isn’t forced over with any power, rather it is allowed to turn with minimal or no effort by the skipper. Allowing the turn is a good way to think about it.

If a rudder can create drag by being pushed or pulled to turn, it can also create drag by resisting a turn that your weight or sails are trying to induce. Allow the rudder to follow the turn and it will quicken the process without creating any significant drag.

I have talked about steering upwind by weight and sail trim. Weight shifting works equally well down wind. I simply find it easier to start upwind and then try it downwind. Reaches are similar to upwind, weight and sail trim.

Downwind is fun on a light day; the turns are lazy and graceful. In a breeze, weight shifting is very effective and challenging.

Theory is nice, but practice is the key. Steering needs to become unconscious and that takes hours on the water. Even good sailors need to put in practice time after a seasonal layoff. It will all come back but there will be a short lag as your body reacclimates itself to the feel and sounds of the boat.