This is somewhat boat and sail specific. It can work on a H16 but on other boats, you go slower. The Tornado does not like it. On some boomless boats having the crew work the downhaul with the skipper ready on the main in case the downhaul. bottoms out, seems to work in heavy air. On a lot boats, you need to foot off a little(why you may need to do this is related to apparent wind and is left as an exercise for the student)


Also, these techniques assume that you have good sails and everything else is set right. Have you ever had the downhaul hang up full on and discovered that nothing seems to work right. Or put new sails on your boats and found out you had been heading up rather than easing out to compensate for the blown sail?