Hay you all I tried to back up a Laser just a few days ago under sail power and for some reason I just could not do it. I would come to a complete stop backwind my sail and so on. What would happen is the boat would fall off to leeward or just slightly develop a little lift and move slowly forward. It was all quite frustrating and I know it is probably just a small thing I am missing in accomplishing this effort. Heck I am even Polish and we Polish are suppose to do things well backwards. My goal is to be able to back up a Laser, H16, Wave, Island, Catalina 22, and more. Hay any good articles on this topic or maybe someone on this forum can give a “complete guide” to backing up a sailboat under wind power.

So, HHHHEEEEELLLLLPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pretty easy on the cat. I've raced people backwards before and it is great fun! It is difficult to maintain the backwards course if the jib is pulled out. It's much easier if you point up and let the sails flog. Stay directly into the wind while watching the water flow over the rudders. As soon as the water flow begins to reverse remember that steering is now backwards! (also useful for sailing in substantial surf). Just keep the boat headed straight downwind and it will slowly start to pick up speed and actually get to a pretty good clip this way. (also, if you have them, lift the daggerboards at least halfway).

Once you have some headway, the crew can pull the mainsail boom out gradually without upsetting the rudders...but the foils aren't meant to steer that way and they are supper sensitive!

also make sure to have your weight forward to get the transom(s) up.

In light air you can sail your cat upwind backwards by trimming the leach to weather.

16nut:

Here is what we do. The wind is mostly offshore where we sail most of the time. We raise the rudders and sit on the bows. If you don't touch the rudders or go to the back of the boat till you get where you want to be, then go back and push the rudders down this will work fine. We use this to get out past the swimmer at the Dike. Works like a charm.

Doug

That's cheating. Real men steer backwards (and it's faster if you can start to pull your sails out).

If you both sit on the bows in front of the main beam, raise the rudders, raise the boards, and loosely sheet the main the boat will back perfectly and stay positioned into the wind. It's a nice beaching technique.

To liven things up whilst coaching youth on H16, we have started a race, round a windward mark and then reverse back to the start line as the finish. Pretty exciting when you get 6 or so boats doing it at once. But a good excercise in getting concentration and team work back on a slow day.

That sounds like a cool trick. One that will identify you as a real racer to be sure.
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With a laser, you probably need to heel it to windward a bit to get the centre of the sail area a bit closer the the centreline of the boat. Otherwise the sail will be trying to "bear you away"/"point your bow away from the wind". This is assuming you are pushing the boom out to leeward.

IF both the skipper and crew sit on the bows, the boat will back almost straight down wind. It's a trick we've used for years. Comes in really handy at races when the wind is straight off shore.