Putting Your Bow Down: The Most Advanced Technique in ILCA Sailing

The first time I heard the phrase, I was at Midwinters East. A sailor asked Brendan Casey how he won three races on the last day. His answer was something like, “I just put the bow down, mate.”

At the time, I thought it meant he was bigger and stronger, able to sail lower angles than close-hauled and make up the extra distance with speed. That was exactly right, but I have since learned it is not only power and weight. It is a technique for accelerating the boat beyond what competitors can do.

When is bow down effective?

It is the most advanced point of sail in an ILCA, and not many people in the world can make it work effectively. If you are good at it, strong, and fit enough, it can replace VMG, but it requires a fresh breeze so the boat does not slip sideways.

The best conditions are shifty because you can cover more distance to the next shift, reducing leverage on sailors who split from you or creating more leverage by separating from other sailors.

How much lower is it?

Usually no more than five degrees, though it ranges depending on strategy. It is exhausting to do correctly, and if done incorrectly it is even more tiring. You hike harder for longer. If you get tired, the boat slows and hurts you more.

Only try this if you are completely confident in your ability to sail fast VMG, which here means the close-hauled course.

Space and side slip

You need lots of space. If you want to effectively sail lower than boats around you, you need room to leeward and have to account for some inevitable side slip.

If you side slip every time you try to go low, you are simply stalling. To maintain flow over foils and sails while sailing lower than close-hauled, apparent wind angles need to be very far forward, which means you need to be going extremely fast all the time. As soon as you slow even slightly, apparent wind goes aft, trim stalls, weather helm appears, and the boat goes sideways.

Initiation

The initiation is the most important part. You are sailing close-hauled, mainsheet block-to-block in VMG mode, and suddenly want to go five to ten degrees lower. If you steer the bow down before accelerating, apparent wind is way aft.

To accelerate, drop sheet up to five or six feet in really windy conditions, usually two to four feet in medium wind, to hit proper trim angle. Torque out and back to flatten the boat, and you begin to accelerate. As you continue accelerating, apparent wind shifts forward again and you can begin to sheet in slightly.

Maintaining low mode

Once you are down five to ten degrees from close-hauled, you must not come back to close-hauled. Controlling weather helm and waves is crucial. Any little bit of weather helm, and it is over.

Weather helm is when the boat wants to head up. It is mainly caused when the boat slows, gets leeward heel, and apparent wind moves aft. Pulling the tiller to keep the bow down for more than the distance between two waves or chop causes the boat to slip sideways alarmingly. The rudder needs to be weightless to maintain proper flow and speed. Proper flow and speed are essential to keeping the rudder weightless. Use mainsheet to trim to apparent wind and body weight to keep the boat constantly flattening.

Timing and practice

Sheet out as the bow dives into a wave, and torque or hike harder as the boat crests each wave. Limit rudder use.

A slower boat is harder to hike than a fast boat. If the boat is fast, apparent wind is forward and there is less pressure on the sail. If apparent wind is aft, you are fighting more pressure in the rig.

Practice alone in spurts of one minute on, thirty seconds off, with the thirty seconds sailed in VMG mode. Practice with other boats during speed testing so everyone knows you are working on low mode. A good drill is one minute VMG, one minute low mode, alternating.

You need a very flat sail to go low mode. Make a clear effort to change setup between modes: more vang, more cunningham, and if possible some outhaul. Sit back one to two inches for more leverage.