Most small sailboats do not have any ballast (Lead or Cast Iron) built into their center board, dagger board or swing keel. The sailor must counter act the force of the wind on the sails with their own body weight to keep the boat from flipping over aka capsizing. This makes for exciting sailing and washboard abs. No need for leg lifts, Crunches or Sit Ups if you sail pretty often. leaning over the side of the boat as in the above photo is called hiking and there is a strap in the floor of the cockpit called the hiking strap that you stick your feet under that enables you to hang out over the side without falling out of the boat.
In this photo you see a Hobie 16 Beach Catamaran. The two sailors are not hiking like in the first photo. They are each using a wire from the top of the mast to the hook on the chest harness they each are wearing to hang out over the side of the boat, using their body weight to keep the boat from flipping over. This is called Trapezing or Traping and it is a lot of fun, and does not put as much strain on your abs as hiking. The boat in the first photo is a single hull or monohull sailboat where as the Hobie cat in the second photo is a catamaran or 2 hull sail boat. When you have 1 hull in the air it is called flying a hull, and you are very close to flipping the boat when flying a hull. This makes for some exciting sailing. No need to worry about flipping over. In most cases easing or releasing the main sheet prevents a capsize. The main sheet is the line used to control the angle of the main sail (Largest Sail) relative to the wind. In the event you do flip the boat, it is usually not hard to turn it right side up if you know how to do it. All the tricks of preventing capsize, turning the boat right side up (called righting the boat), and much more are covered in the 8 hour sailing class, the cost of which is included in the cost of any new or used small sailboat purchased from Rick's Small Sailboats LLC. Small sailboats are much more fun to sail than large heavy ballasted sail boats. Small sailboats are fast, responsive, lively and will get on a plane in some conditions. Large heavy sailboats are sluggish, but they can carry a lot of people and so are fun if you want to have party on your boat, or travel to far away places. Most large sailboats are not capable of planing except briefly when surfing down large ocean swells (extreme conditions). They stop planing when they get to the bottom of the wave they were sliding down.
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