Cruising Tips: Boomed-out Headsails
I will say it until I’m red in the face: displacement cruising yachts, no matter how nimble, always make faster passages sailing in a straight line. Forget the gybing angles that racers use when sailing downwind. Square the sails off and run!






![Ted_Turner_April_1985-Bernard-Gotfryd-2048x Photo from Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Bernard Gotfryd, [Reproduction number e.g., LC-USZ62-12345]](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.sailmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/06145433/Ted_Turner_April_1985-Bernard-Gotfryd-2048x.jpg?w=1024)






