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How to Sail a Boat Upwind

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    Part of the video series: How to Sail a Sailboat

    From Quick Guide: Sailing 101

    Summary: Learn tips on how to properly sail a boat upwind with expert boating tips in this free video clip on sailing.

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    1,798
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    By Kelli Gant, Steve Damm, Ed Polkenhorn
    eHow Presenter

    Steve Damm Instructor ASA 2006 Instructor of the YearSailing still gives Steve goosebumps. Whether sailing across the bay, doing deliveries from Oregon to Cabo San Lucas, or seeing a...read more

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    Video Transcript

    "The reason the sail boat goes through the water is it's getting pulled through the water. Think of the wing of a airplane and why the airplane stays in the air. The leading edge of the airplane hits the wind and the wind splits, some of it goes underneath and some of it goes over the top. As the wind speeds up going over the hump on the top of the airplane wing it creates a low pressure. Underneath, where it's going fast, it has a high pressure. The low pressure basically creates suction. So an airplane stays in the air by that low on top of the wing and it sucks it up in the air and that's what keeps the airplane in the air. The sails have the same design. Each boat can sail a certain number of degrees dead to the wind. Some boats it's thirty, some boats it's forty-five degrees. You find that on your boat and that's the optimum position of the sail where the wind comes across, splits it, creates a high pressure on the inside of the sail, the curved side and creates a low pressure on the outside curve of the sail and you're actually that suction is pulling the boat forward. That's why sail trim is so important. You want to maintain, if your boat sails at forty degrees to the wind, the closest it can sail, you always want to be keeping that sail at that, within that, at that forty degree angle. No matter where the boat is, you want to be keeping the sail at that forty. That's why you do sail trim, like Steve's doing all the time. You're looking for the shape of the sail, you're using your tell tales to try to maintain that optimum high and low as you're moving forward, keep the boat moving forward. Once you get to a certain point and the wind comes behind you then it's a whole different aerodynamics in effect. I call it the barn door effect. You just have the sails out and just pushing at that point."

    eHow Article: How to Sail a Boat Upwind

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