Downwind Technique (by Andy Vance)

In order of importance

1) Have fun

2) Sit as far forward as possible. Especially in light air. Should have butt at least at cleats if not on or forward.

3) Both feet on cockpit sole - To aid with heel angle to steer boat. Boat is steered by a combination of moving upper body in or out and pressing with feet, not by steering with tiller (very slow). Kicking the boat flat while sheeting in will really power up your bottom turns.

4) Sit in over your feet so that the boat is free to heel around you.

5) Vang tension - Loose always!!! I have to bend my mast a little to put the vang tang in the boom on the dock. When sailing I have about 4" of line hanging out of the cleat. The leech should always be elastic/springy, the only time the vang comes on is when there is bumpy chop and you need to stabilize things abit. This is the setting for downwind sailing in 0-30 knots. NO VANG NO VANG

6) Mainsheet tension - Adjust sheet so that mid leech is about perpendicular to boat centerline or slightly aft in all conditions, this is constantly changing with pressure and boat speed. This will mean that in 5-15 the boom is out 75-85 degrees, in more wind it will be in further (I never have it out to 90 unless I am trying to get to a favored side of the run). This is important as you are doing a lot of driving around and you cannot trim as fast as you can steer. If the sail is out to far and you head up onto a reach all power is lost, if however half the sail was over sheeted to start with then half the sail is now at trim. There should be load on the mainsheet at all times, this is a function of attached flow over the sail, either from leech to luff or luff to leech. If you have no attached flow go left or right until you feel more load on the sheet.

7) With the sail over sheeted when a puff hits, the boat will have much less tendency to roll to windward as the net drive force will be parallel to centerline i.e. the direction you are wanting to go, rather than cross boat (read - swimming) if you are under sheeted.

8) Head either up or down to your desired course (attached flow), then when the puff hits sheet in and turn down-puff so that you are now moving fast in the direction of the puff, thus staying in the puff as long as possible and maximizing your downwind VMG.

9) Always turn up for your next S-turn before speed bleeds off too much as the power required to keep the boat going fast is much lower than the power required to re-accelerate the boat.

10) Never be content to sit there and feel like your going slow. Turn either up or down hard (30-45 degrees from course if required) until you feel the boat accelerate with solid speed...............do not bear away to soon. Once you have speed drive off downwind and sheet out, as speed bleeds off head up again while sheeting in to maintain speed ready for next bear away.............repeat,repeat,repeat

11) In heavy air do as above but over sheet some more, if you find yourself rolling to windward turn very hard by the lee and the leech will de-power allowing the boat to stabilize.