To succeed in winning in the wind is to win to your advantage an acquired struggle on the balances of the laws of physics. To sail upwind better, you have to look a little more closely at the theory of the forces involved.
Fortunately, the art of sailing upwind remains intuitive enough for a 10-year-old child in the early days of his multiplication tables. He can even do it much better than an expert in fluid mechanics.
The two paradoxical generalities for a good upwind sailing
"You only sail upwind with sails well trimmed", "you must always adjust the sails to the limit of faseyement. We will take a closer look at each of these generalities to better understand them.
1 - We only go upwind with a "flat" plank genoa
The genoa is the engine of the sailboat and is also its weather vane. To get upwind, it is first necessary to make sure that the genoa is lined as close as possible to the technical limits of the sailboat. Often the shrouds and spreaders will be your best reference points. The closer the sail gets to the centre of the boat, the closer it will be to the wind.
The luff of the genoa and the penons inform the helmsman of the wind angle. The boat must sail as close as possible to the wind angle, but it is necessary to sail without losing the driving power of the genoa. Obviously the mainsail is very important, but the adjustments start with the genoa and the mainsail will follow.
2 - The sails must be adjusted to the limit of the faseyement
Now that we know that the sails must be tucked flat, let's learn that the sail must be shocked to the maximum allowable. Indeed, the goal is to direct the power to the front rather than the side. When sailing too close to the wind, or too far from it, the force becomes a heel effect.
So, with tact we will try to sail a little higher in the wind than the sail adjustment, and in the light wind we will shock the sails a little so that they breathe.
So we only sail upwind with the genoa planked flat, and it is nevertheless by shocking to the limit of what is permissible that we will be able to improve the windward gain. This may seem paradoxical, but it is rather complementary.
The force that moves forward moves us forward.
