Even dyed-in-the-wool sailors will concede there’s a little bit of the ‘boy racer’ in all of us and the desire to sail faster.

Whether we sail a dinghy, a dayboat or a sedate bilge-keel cruiser, speed and efficiency under sail are satisfying and fun.

In the cruising world, they can also lead to safer and quicker passage-making.

Like many British sailors, I once owned a twin-keel Westerly Centaur – not the zappiest boat on the block I’m sure you’ll agree.

But if you, like me, were to spot an identical Centaur slowly overhauling you, what would you do? Turn a blind eye and wait for it to leave you in its wake? Or look around for something to ‘tweak’ and have a go at rectifying the situation?

On the flip side of the coin, it’s always satisfying to reel in a sister ship, smile serenely as you slide by and then head off into the distance.

Especially if the distance contains your port of destination and you succeed in reaching it before night falls or an unfavourable tide sets in.

So you are enjoying ‘moules et Muscadet’ at a harbourside hostelry while the boat you passed might be plugging a foul tide and dodging rocks in the dark. it – the quest to sail quicker and better – is a ‘no-brainer’.

Obvious and overlooked way to sail faster

There are many parts of your boat – both beneath and above the waterline – that make a big difference between bouncing up and down in the same hole or sailing quickly and efficiently.

I’m not referring to fancy or expensive extras or plastic-skinned racing sails.

I’m talking about fundamentals such as rudder, propeller, keel, underwater hull surface, rig set-up, sail setting, weight distribution etc.

These are items many take for granted – which frequently means they are neglected.

Starting at the stern, consider your rudder.

Some sail older boats with rudders attached to the rear of a long keel. Others sail more modern boats with separate rudders that are either hung on a skeg or dangle in isolation beneath the counter.

No matter which type of rudder your boat has, it needs to be three things:

• It needs to be an efficient and fair hydrofoil section with undamaged trailing and leading edges
• It needs to be smooth
• It needs to be used properly.

If you have a moulded fibreglass rudder there’s not a lot you can change regarding the shape of its foil – although Jessie Rogers (of Jeremy Rogers Ltd) told me that the rudder on the family Contessa ‘might need replacing as the old ones are heavy and we want to get weight out of the stern’.

Extra weight at either end of any yacht is highly detrimental to performance and motion so needs to be reduced.

This applies equally to surplus chain and general accumulated clobber. Lighter is quicker.

Smooth operators

If your rudder has nicks or dents on its leading and trailing edges or hollows on its surface, these need to be filled, faired and smoothed.

Like the air over a plane’s wing, water must flow cleanly and quickly over a yacht’s foils and this flow needs to ‘stick’ to the surface.

Imperfections will add to drag, which slows you down. And they will break up the water flow, which reduces the rudder’s efficiency.

So it pays to arm yourself with a straight edge, some high-quality filler and a stock of sandpaper of different grades.

Bumps need sanding down and nicks and cavities need filling then fairing.

Exactly the same applies to your keel. The overall surface finish also needs to be clean.

Rudders are particularly prone to fouling, so use top-quality paint and apply two coats.

Then add an extra one to the aft third of the blade, because this is where paint wears thinnest.

Keep a wary eye on weed growth as the season progresses. The nearer the light, the quicker it grows.

And what do I mean by ‘using the rudder properly’? Put simply, turning it abruptly or holding it hard over is tantamount to applying the brakes.

Excessive sawing at the tiller or heaving on the wheel will slow you down.

A balanced boat with well-set sails should virtually sail itself – whether up or downwind. There is no need to fight it.

Treat it like a good horse and let it have its head – just keeping a helping hand on the reins.

To win ground to windward the helmsman can let the boat ‘lift’ a bit in the gusts or pull her a little off the wind in the lulls.

This ‘feel’ becomes instinctive if you give it a chance to develop. Practice makes perfect.

The same applies to sailing in waves.

To windward, a balanced boat wants to climb upwind a bit as it goes up to the crest and needs to be pulled back a little as it goes down the other side.

Much the same applies reaching or running with a following sea.

A yacht needs to be pulled slightly off the wind when it reaches the crest, accelerating its surge down the other side.

But whether going up- or downwind, the same rule applies.

The more you saw at the helm, the more you apply the brakes – and the slower you go.

To turn the rudder as little as possible, try holding the tiller between a couple of fingers or rest them on one spoke of the wheel.

Let the boat talk to you.

A ‘velvet touch’ keeps your yacht on track – and going faster. I was lucky enough to crew regularly for legendary designer and racer David Thomas – and watching him steer was a revelation.

The better the helmsman, the less he heaves on the helm.

Another aspect of the rudder’s effect on boat speed is especially relevant to modern cruisers, many of which have wide hulls and broad transoms to cram in the maximum accommodation for a given length.

If there’s one thing such modern hulls hate, it’s heeling too much.

Once beyond a certain angle, the immersed shape alters dramatically and the boat tries to head up into the wind.

Yanking at the helm just puts on the brakes until the rudder loses all grip, ‘lets go’, and the yacht broaches.

So another golden rule for maintaining easy speed in a modern yacht is to sail it flat.

Reefing early and easing the mainsheet in gusts help to keep the yacht on its feet and sailing straight and upright. It pays a double dividend.

Life becomes more comfortable and the boat goes faster.

Prop drag

Moving forward from the rudder, there’s the propeller. Older (and ‘standard’ new boats) tend to have fixed-blade props, but owners who like to optimise performance under sail quickly replace these ‘brakes’ and fit feathering or folding props.

Those who have older yachts with long keels and fixed two-blade props ahead of the rudder can alleviate drag by locking the prop in its vertical position so it lurks in the lee of the keel.

To achieve this, when the yacht is ashore turn the prop until it lines up vertically with the keel, then climb aboard and paint a white dot on the top of the propshaft.

When sailing, line up the dot and put the gear lever in reverse to lock the prop in the vertical.

Remember, of course, to put the gear lever back in neutral before restarting the engine.

If you have a fin or twin keels you have nothing to gain from this trick because your fixed blade prop will remain exposed wherever you park it.

If you want to cut down drag on a long-keeler, you’ll need a feathering prop because there won’t be enough space ahead of the keel-hung rudder to fit the considerable length of a ‘folded’ folding prop.

The Rogers clan – which has a habit of winning major races in old Contessas – told me both the 26 and 32 need a feathering prop, adding: ‘We fit the Darglow FeatherStream which works well; a 12in for the 26 and a 14in on the 32.’.

Modern fin- or twin-keelers, or yachts with saildrive legs, can be fitted with folding props which tend to be less expensive than the feathering variety.

Older twin-blade folding props had a reputation for failing to open at low revs when put into astern.

Some modern examples get over this problem by having space between the blades when they are folded so they are not prone to ‘stick’ together.

But whichever type you fit, keep your anode in good working order. If the feathering mechanism or the pin securing a folding blade gets munched by electrolysis (or worse), the consequences can be dire.

Whichever type you select, you will be astonished by the improvement in sailing speed. It’s money very well spent if you want to get the best out of your yacht.

Keep it clean

French marinas often supply giant scrubbing slips with ‘pay as you go’ pressure guns to help owners keep their hulls clean.

Perhaps the greatest slowing factor is a dirty hull: weed and ‘animal growth’ add massively to drag.

This was first identified as a serious problem by the Royal Navy, which homed in on copper sheathing as the best solution.

This sheathing also repelled the marine borers that enjoyed chewing their way through wooden hulls.

After early experiments, the Royal Navy copper-sheathed the bottoms of warships in its fleet when confronted by declarations of war from France (1778), Spain (1779) and the Netherlands (1780).

Britain had to face up against her three greatest rivals, and copper sheathing allowed the navy to stay at sea for much longer without the need for cleaning and repairs to the underwater hull.

HMS Victory, for example, was sheathed with 3,923 sheets of copper in March 1780. A cleaner bottom led to greatly increased speed and manoeuvrability – both major advantages when in action against enemy ships.

Antifoulings

To get a steer on modern antifouling options, I consulted David Lewin of UK-manufactured Flag Paints.

He told me: ‘Most successful antifoulings are based on cuprous oxide or copper thiocyanate (not quite as good as copper oxide, but it’s white – rather than dirty brown – so it makes for brighter colours).

‘Some manufacturers augment this with booster biocides which mainly control slime and early vegetable growth,’ said David.

‘However, it is the main ingredient – a high concentration of copper – that stops the animal growth. The copper works with seawater as an electrolyte, setting up a small electric current, and the barnacles don’t like it up ‘em!’

‘Eventually, someone will come up with a non-toxic solution, but we haven’t got there yet.

‘Ultrasonic systems have some effect, anecdotally, but usually still require a coating of antifouling paint.

‘Impregnated copper/epoxy has plenty of adherents – especially for cruising, where some small fouling is tolerable. Rubbing down with a pan scrubber once in a while sure beats togging up in a space suit and climbing under the boat in freezing March to apply a couple of coats of toxic slurp!’

When I asked David which works best, he said the type of antifoul you choose depends on what boating you want to do.

‘Self-eroding types are only good up to a certain speed and not good if you moor in a strong tideway – there’ll be none left in fairly short order.

‘However, hard racing types need abrading back every season to avoid the inevitable build-up of paint and ensuing wrinkly bottom.’

He added that a change of salinity works wonders: Scottish boat owners often spend some time in the Crinan or Caledonian canals simply to kill off marine fouling.

In the light of tightening environmental laws, what is the future of antifouling? ‘The inevitable but depressing point is that we will need more
sophisticated antifouling systems such as nanotechnology or more pro-active systems like ultrasonic,’ said David.

‘But by their very complex nature they will have to be applied professionally and in controlled conditions. In the meantime, most of us – Holland and Scandinavia excluded – still have copper!’

Ewan Clark of Coppercoat told me that about 60,000 boats have now been treated with the epoxy/ copper product.

‘For many years our standard response was to say that the effective life of Coppercoat was approximately 10 years. But given that we launched the product back in the early 1990s, we now have boats in the UK on which the Coppercoat is still working well after 20 years of continual immersion,’ he said.

‘So we now say that a 10-year life is a conservative view, and that a life of 20 years is eminently plausible,’ Ewan added.

A modern 30ft yacht would need 7lt of Coppercoat for a DIY job. Doing it yourself is very weather- and temperature-dependent.

A major bonus of Coppercoat antifouling is that it alleviates the annual anguish of applying new antifouling.

Of course, slime can accumulate depending on sailing area and water temperature, but keen racer Jeremy Rogers uses Coppercoat and finds it easy
to maintain.

‘We scrub off the slime about three times a season – no proper growth, so it can simply be scrubbed off when the boat’s in the water, although it’s best to haul out.’

Others have found that occasional scouring with a soft scouring pad to re-expose the copper particles is a good idea.

Whichever way you look at it, Coppercoat gives a smooth finish and does a good job at keeping a boat’s bottom clean even if occasional scrubs are necessary.

Silicone antifouling is a modern alternative to copper antifoulings. It is foul release rather than antifoul, working on the principle that the foul sloughs off when the boat moves.

With the boat hauled out, any build-up can be removed with high-pressure spraying rather than scraping. It is cheaper to apply than copper coatings: fewer coats are required and it’s reckoned to be effective for five years.

Sail performance

And what about the sails that drive your yacht?

John Parker of One Sails told me: ‘Some sailors don’t appreciate that the performance of a sail deteriorates with age. If you have no involvement with racing, you might not know that aged sails go slower and make boats more unwieldy to steer.

‘Old mainsails become full and the draught moves aft, having a serious and unfortunate effect on weather helm, for instance,’ John said.

‘Once a conventional woven polyester (Dacron) sail inventory has completed 10 cruising seasons your boat will not be going very fast!’

That’s not to say you can’t improve a baggy old mainsail by using flattening devices.

A leech Cunningham about 18in above the boom pulled down to the clew is very effective for flattening the main in heavier winds.

And pulling down on a luff Cunningham will improve the shape.

You’ll also find you drive upwind more efficiently by inducing an S-shape in the mainsail with the luff consistently lifting just behind the mast when sailing to windward in a strong breeze.

Tightening the halyard and pulling down on the backstay also helps. And don’t oversheet the mainsail.

But eventually, I am afraid there’s no substitute for a new sail.

It’s all in the set-up

John Parker also mentions poorly set-up rigs. ‘You’d be amazed how infrequently a cruising customer has his rig tuned, or even professionally inspected.

‘Notwithstanding any considerations of seamanship and safety, this often results in incorrectly tensioned forestays that generate too much sag when sailing to windward – adversely affecting pointing ability – and masts that do not behave as intended.

‘For instance, fractional rigs that are set up without any pre-bend are unsafe because of the chance of inversion when sailing downwind and almost certainly the mainsail will be too full when sailing upwind.’

John has some other tips for sailing slightly faster.

‘Retro-fitting “trackless” ball-race mast cars on mainsails massively reduces the effort of hoisting, lowering or reefing the main. Or applying McLube to the mast groove makes conventional sliders run much more freely. It’s also good for making blocks spin easily and efficiently.

‘Low-stretch halyards and sheets make sail trim more precise. Retrofitting – or specified from new – roller headsails with a “luff flattener”, a foam or tapered rope, helps keep the sail in a good shape when reefed.’ (Essential, in my book.)

‘You should also retrofit, or fit from new, roller headsails with luff tell-tales and foot reefing indicators, and use these to set up the sheet car position correctly when the sail is full – further aft – or partially reefed – further forward. It also helps to apply “Seal’N’Glide” to the surface of roller headsails and mainsails to inhibit mildew and enable the sails to furl more tightly and easily by reducing friction between cloth layers,’ John said.

‘And if buying new sails, consider woven polyester fabrics enhanced by the addition into the cloth’s weave of low-stretch yarns such as Vectran and Dyneema.

‘It would be wrong to say that these “enhanced” cloths are as low-stretch as high-end laminated cruising cloths, but they go a reasonable way towards offering similar performance while retaining all the advantages of being woven.’

More sail advice

John’s views on sails are echoed by specialist rigger and successful racer Nigel Theadon of Rig Magic Ltd.

‘The best speed improver is new sails. If these are original and as supplied by the boatbuilder – usually cheap, 15 years old and look like a granny’s underwear – no amount of tuning will help.’ Sorry… he’s right!

Then Nigel went on to look at different points of sailing.

‘Upwind: the best pieces of kit are towable genoa cars to set the sheet angle, followed by a powerful backstay adjuster. It also helps to have the rig tuned by a pro.

‘When it’s windy, pull everything harder – halyards, backstay, kicker, Cunningham if fitted, jib sheets – to flatten the sails right off.

‘Let the genoa cars back, to induce twist at the head of the sail, and let the traveller down, etc. The number of people who are afraid of pulling things hard is amazing. We frequently get told “we have never used the backstay adjuster” and regularly mark a reference for an average windy setting only to be told that it’s never been there before.

‘Pay a pro to go for a sail with you in a breeze – you will be amazed what you will learn.’ Again… sorry… but he’s right!

Nigel continued: ‘For reaching, the best bits of kit are towable genoa cars and a snatch-block and a pad eye to barber-haul the genoa out. Good kicker control is also important.

‘Downwind, you need extra sail area and a pole to pole out the jib – stowed up the mast for ease of handling, perhaps – and specialised downwind sails for the adventurous. Boats go faster with more sail area, and the more sail you can control for longer, the faster the boat will go.’

Sail faster

If you want more oomph than a poled-out jib can provide, there are plenty of other options.

Conventional symmetrical spinnakers alarm some sailors, but if you fly one correctly and avoid heavy weather reaching, you’ll have a lot of fun, avoid hairy moments and win a lot of miles, especially in light conditions.

Then there is an assortment of cruising chutes, but they won’t set as ‘deep’ as a symmetric spinnaker on a pole.

John Parker recommends an FFR (flat furling reacher) for fast, easy sailing – and the FFR will set as close as 50° to the true wind.

All in all, however, provided you’ve taken note of advice on clean hulls, folding or feathering props, a well-set-up rig and a decent set of sails, the biggest performance improvement most sailors can make is when the wind is well ahead of the beam.

Slicing efficiently to windward should be a pleasure, not a penance.

The most important thing you need is an array of telltales on the headsails and main.

It is much more difficult to get the jib sheet fairlead properly positioned, sheet tension correct and then point the yacht at the optimum angle when sailing to windward if you don’t fit them.

After that, you just need to concentrate and practise. Often.

Some say that sailors don’t enjoy sailing to windward. I disagree. It’s a buzz.

If you are pointing high and footing fast, you will climb away from a less well-sailed yacht, gaining distance with every yard you win to windward.

And that’s as pleasing and pure as sailing gets.

---

Want to read more seamanship articles like Simple tweaks to sail faster and safer?

A subscription to Practical Boat Owner magazine costs around 40% less than the cover price.

Print and digital editions are available through Magazines Direct – where you can also find the latest deals.

PBO is packed with information to help you get the most from boat ownership – whether sail or power.

• • • • Take your DIY skills to the next level with trusted advice on boat maintenance and repairs
      • Impartial in-depth gear reviews
      • Practical cruising tips for making the most of your time afloat

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter