Over-canvassed sailing

A sailing boat that is bearing excessive sail for the current wind conditions is stated to be over-canvassed. An over-canvassed boat, either a dinghy, a yacht if not a sailing ship, is difficult to steer and control and tends to heel or roll too much. If the wind resumes to rising, an over-canvassed sailing boat shall become dangerous and ultimately gear may break or it may round-up the wind, broach or capsize. Any of these eventualities puts the safety of the crew and the vessel in danger. To over-canvass a sailing boat is considered unseamanlike and imprudent. In order to reduce sail, individual sails may be lowered or furled and existing sails may be reefed. Counter-intuitively, many boats will sail faster, and certainly more smoothly, comfortably and safely, when loading the required quantity of sail in a strong wind than they would if over-canvassed and excessively rolling, heeling, carrying too much weather helm or repeatedly rounding up.

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