i'd like to learn about sailing upwind with the windward rudder up, does anybody have success doing this? in what conditions? the current pics from the h16 worlds show no rudders in the up position. there is a shot in the h16 worlds thread in the open forum that shows a 16 going to weather with a rudder up, very beautiful. i occasionally stall my rudders upwind even with both rudders down, usually a result of weight forward and pointing high.
I´ve been experimenting with the technique. It takes a considerable amount of skill and practice to get the timing right in tacks. If you wait too long to get the rudder up, the side loading makes it almost impossible.
It makes sense when you have a long tack in big air where you´re footing. If you stall out the boat by feathering in the gusts, you´re screwed.
The reason you haven´t seen it that much at the 16 worlds is that there aren´t that many pictures up yet and because the waves are so big relative to the wind. I saw a lot of people using the technique out on the water yesterday.
In the first race yesterday, I was doing it, but mainly because I was having rudder problems and the boat was driving better with one rudder up.
to quote Gavin Colby, “because it looks sh!t hot.”