This is the most straightforward, easy to understand description of balancing a boat I have ever seen.

I spent hours on Sunday trying to sail a beam reach with a tight sheet because I’d tangled everything, and this is a good explanation of why it was so miserable.

Excellent description on where the sails need to be with respect to the 'points of sail' - close hauled, reach, run. Terrific instructions. ⛵

The best kiss ( keep it simple stupid) explaination of how to balance a sailing vessel I have ever watched....well done sir. Having circumnavigated easterly and westerly single handed I learned this after a lot of experience and you are so very very correct.

I'm consistently amazed how many " sailors" don't get this , I recently saw a comment on a sailing video in YT that the owner of the boat in the video had weather helm on a close reach in a decent breeze as they had "too much Genoa out" when the heel angle was OK and they clearly needed to reduce the power from the main - reef/ease sheet .

Thanks for making this very easy-to-understand sailing theory video!! Best I've seen so far!

one of the best (best maybe) I've come across, explanations of this. The beginning illustration with the square rigs really hits it home

Brilliant explantations - clear & precise with great examples.

정말 이해하기 쉽게 설명해주시네요. 감사합니다 ~

A great and helpful explanation. Really easy to understand!

Hello captain, Great video and great way of explaining things!

Beautiful explanation. Please keep on updating the videos they are extremely informative

Thank you for your easy explaination about the balance between ths sail and rudder.

Sorry about this, but what a brilliant instructor. Seems to be a natural, explains it all in simple terms using great examples. He has answered questions that I had been thinking about sych as how to steer should orcas rip my rudder off or I lose it through other means. Thank you.

Comment from Norway! Great video - tried to steer my 39 fot sailboat by sail only he other day. I had limited success. Now I will try again and do think I will do better!

Great class on sail steering and how the pressure works on the boat

Great video. It's exactly what I'm trying to learn. From what I heard also is important to shift your weight (port/starboard). I haven't figured out how that works yet.

This was a great description of boat balance. With a little over 7,000 NM of passage making on heavy, medium-sized boats this year, I like to think of the sails as providing a general course and the rudder fine-tuning or reacting to the wave action and wind changes. Under autopilot, I watch the wheel. If it's near centered - with a bit of weather helm - the sails are fairly balanced. If it's far off center, I need to balance the sails. Another thing I learned was to feel for the response of the boat. If a gust hits the boat, it should primarily accelerate rather than heel. If you feel the boat heeling heavily and being sluggish in acceleration, the sails are over-trimmed creating more side force than forward power. A brief story. I worked and sailed with a British man who had been highly ranked as a young sailor. He had a photograph in his office of a sailboat with its dagger board on the crest of a wave, mast pointed down, about to crash onto a rocky shore. A figure was jumping clear of the boat. When questioned, he said that it was one of his best days sailing. A storm caught him about 25 NM off the west coast of Britain. The rudder broke off in the storm. He had sailed back to shore using sail and weight balance. A photographer who was capturing the storm took that photo as he brought the boat ashore in heavy seas and storm conditions. It is great to be able to control a boat when some things break.

I hope you do more of these videos. New to sailing and definitely need this.

This was fantastic for me. I had a lot of "aha!" moments. Thank you for sharing your insight!

Very helpful!!

Thanks for sharing, this was a great video!! Very easy to understand and remember.

Got to admit, a youtube video with a dull colored whiteboard is not an attractive click but your explaining and examples are really good. Thank you!

Fantastic explanation.

Excellent example with the scale. I am practicing this as soon as I can by pulling my rudder out also. I always like having backups in this case what happens if i lose my rudder.

omg, i have so much trouble on 40ft Cat in high winds because have no idea about balancing, boat always want to turn i have to use one engine to compensate 😮 thanks for basic explanation

As a newbie to sailing, thank you for explaining the concept of steering with the sails. But what do you use the rudder for?

Good advice, perhaps more so, if one were to lose the rudder...