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Why?? On the way out to the start he hit a rock and got a hole in the starboard hull. He had around 30-40 liters of water in the starbord hull at the start and that gives an indication that water ballast can help upwind speed in some conditions.


I did this one time on my HT. Capsized and the crew put a trap hook hole in the boat. Upwind I noticed we were smoking on one tack and the other we were almost underwater. Then I noticed the hole, we sailed back on the good hull in 30knots and we were fast. The hull was 80% full, we couldnt get the boat up the ramp. Its amazing what a hull full of water will do for your righting moment.

Water ballast would be cool if you could work out a system to dump water quickly.