ScallywagII
Member
Ron,
Thanks for the feedback. It is very pleasing to know that the knowledge in the vidoes has been useful. Upwind is pretty easy and I have seen a bungee or lashed helm work in a sailing dinghy and a 60m square rigger and lots in between. In fact on a trip to the Azores in a 40' Island Packet we did an experiment for 2 hours using bungee, locked helm and autopilot, 10 min each and logging the position at each change. The speed for lashed helm was slightly faster than with the bungee and both were better than the autopilot.
Wind on the quarter is also very reliable even with a wide range of wind speeds. A stronger wind will send you slightly further downwind, but the sheet tension drops off very quickly. It is important to set the bungee to pull slightly to leeward. That way if you end up dead downwind the helm will bring it back on course and avoid the risk of an unplanned gybe. Find the balance by sliding the sheet along the tiller and resist the temptation to simply tweak the bungee.
Wind nearer the beam is somewhat more tricky, though I rarely have had the luxury of a long beam reach. Whether you use a jibsheet or mainsheet getting the initial bungee setting to give neutral helm is important. Otherwise you may achieve balance easily enough but it will go off course when the wind changes. The video from Scallywag did not go into this because at the time I hadn't read Letcher's book and had just found out what worked by empirical means. There is more detail in the Emu videos.
Have a great beam reach tomorrow
Len
Thanks for the feedback. It is very pleasing to know that the knowledge in the vidoes has been useful. Upwind is pretty easy and I have seen a bungee or lashed helm work in a sailing dinghy and a 60m square rigger and lots in between. In fact on a trip to the Azores in a 40' Island Packet we did an experiment for 2 hours using bungee, locked helm and autopilot, 10 min each and logging the position at each change. The speed for lashed helm was slightly faster than with the bungee and both were better than the autopilot.
Wind on the quarter is also very reliable even with a wide range of wind speeds. A stronger wind will send you slightly further downwind, but the sheet tension drops off very quickly. It is important to set the bungee to pull slightly to leeward. That way if you end up dead downwind the helm will bring it back on course and avoid the risk of an unplanned gybe. Find the balance by sliding the sheet along the tiller and resist the temptation to simply tweak the bungee.
Wind nearer the beam is somewhat more tricky, though I rarely have had the luxury of a long beam reach. Whether you use a jibsheet or mainsheet getting the initial bungee setting to give neutral helm is important. Otherwise you may achieve balance easily enough but it will go off course when the wind changes. The video from Scallywag did not go into this because at the time I hadn't read Letcher's book and had just found out what worked by empirical means. There is more detail in the Emu videos.
Have a great beam reach tomorrow
Len