weather helm/lee helm

[petebrayton]

This is probably a dumb question but do you have water in the ballast tank?

[Baerkanu]

This is probably a dumb question but do you have water in the ballast tank?

Not a dumb question at all, though it'd be a dumb mistake - yes, I did indeed!

Also Judy, thank you for the response on the furler, I'll check the measurements next week and see what I come up with. It's always seemed to have a bit of slack, but I'll post next week with an update after I get home and have a chance to get to the boat.

- Clay

[ALX357]

Sounds to me like your rig is too loose, the slack in the furler .... If you are able to attach your furler pin to the nose chain-plate with no pulling assistance, that would seem to me to indicate your shrouds could be shorter/tighter. Some sailors use an over-center device at the chain-plate to pull the furler connection together, most just use the mast raising tackle to pull it bit tighter before pinning it. If you are not having to use one of these two methods, surely your shrouds are not pulling the mast back far enough to have weather helm.

[Baerkanu]

I went out to check the boat last night, finally.

As best I can tell, I have just at 156" (in spec) between the bow rub rail and the mast at the mast-raising hound. The furler is, however, significantly slack; pulling on the upper shrouds tightens it noticeably. The shrouds themselves don't have any slack in them, but I wouldn't consider them "tight" - I've read all sorts of methods to measure them, but don't have any available.

My first attempt (which I couldn't do last night, since I was alone) will be to tighten the upper shrouds by a notch or two, to tighten the furler, and then adjust the lower shrouds as necessary (presumably somewhat less, if at all, since that would probably do more to increase the 156" distance that's supposed to be spec).

I don't see any way to significantly tighten the forestay/furler itself, other than a bolt and locknuts below the furler itself, that don't seem to have much adjustment available. Am I missing something?

I couldn't measure and adjust the rudders' rake, since the boat sits too low on the trailer - I also still need to check their alignment.

In looking at pictures of the boat, she seems to sit level on her lines, so it doesn't seem as if weight distribution is a problem.

Thanks for the help!

- Clay

[Catigale]

It's tough to do this qualitatively but your shrouds, especially the uppers, should feel like rigid bars wrt tension. You should barely be able to move them leaning with full body weight pulling on them. Most people start with them much too loose imhe.

[Baerkanu]

It's tough to do this qualitatively but your shrouds, especially the uppers, should feel like rigid bars wrt tension. You should barely be able to move them leaning with full body weight pulling on them. Most people start with them much too loose imhe.

They're not even close to that tension - it doesn't take any effort at all to pull one laterally and loosen the other considerably.

I've heard that shrouds stretch when new, but by how much, normally? To this extent? The boat was new in Sept 2012, and has probably been rigged up about 6 weeks max of that time. I can't remember how tight they were when I first set it up.

- Clay

[Catigale]

Get those tightened up Clay, that's important. When they are loose, they shock load and that will break them eventually.

Don't worry about breaking them by making them too tight - basically that isn't possible on these rigs.

They won't stretch when new. It sound like they just weren't setup right at first.