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Now that's better ! Wunderbah ....
Harosho ... prekrasna !
Harosho ... prekrasna !
How light is your helm?
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tome
Well-Known Member
Great post, and respect!
Made me chuckle as I remember my early days of sailing with massive weather helm and the boat on her ears. The skipper would make any amount of sail changes in light breezes to get some extra speed, but was reluctant to reduce sail in heavier winds. The boat was very forgiving and maintained a decent speed even when pressed, but we had to constantly wrestle her steering and it was tiring work
His next boat was not so forgiving and we had to learn to adjust and balance her sails. A neutral helm with weather bias told us all was well
Nowadays I watch the turks heads on the wheel, regardless of human or autopilot steering. If i see them going past a quarter turn, it's time to think about reducing sail
Fingertip control is good, congrats
Made me chuckle as I remember my early days of sailing with massive weather helm and the boat on her ears. The skipper would make any amount of sail changes in light breezes to get some extra speed, but was reluctant to reduce sail in heavier winds. The boat was very forgiving and maintained a decent speed even when pressed, but we had to constantly wrestle her steering and it was tiring work
His next boat was not so forgiving and we had to learn to adjust and balance her sails. A neutral helm with weather bias told us all was well
Nowadays I watch the turks heads on the wheel, regardless of human or autopilot steering. If i see them going past a quarter turn, it's time to think about reducing sail
Fingertip control is good, congrats
KREW2
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
i fear you are far too clever for me - I meant turning my wheel to direct the boat to leeward. I suspect that is a quite different to what I said earlier.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry I did not mean to be "clever" I just was not thinking outside the box. I now realise what you were saying.
i fear you are far too clever for me - I meant turning my wheel to direct the boat to leeward. I suspect that is a quite different to what I said earlier.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry I did not mean to be "clever" I just was not thinking outside the box. I now realise what you were saying.
ex-Gladys
Well-Known Member
Most boats from dinghies upwards will exhibit different characteristics in different conditions, including changing from weather helm to lee helm as the wind gets light. Everything said here about not dragging an angled rudder through the water is right though!
The comment about cats is only partially right. It applies off the wind. Typically you will be making so much apparent that on a broad reach you will be sheeted hard in. If you luff in those conditions, you retain your speed, pull the wind even further forward and increase the sideways force. Bearing away does the opposite, but you do risk burying the bows if you do it too aggressively.
The comment about cats is only partially right. It applies off the wind. Typically you will be making so much apparent that on a broad reach you will be sheeted hard in. If you luff in those conditions, you retain your speed, pull the wind even further forward and increase the sideways force. Bearing away does the opposite, but you do risk burying the bows if you do it too aggressively.
AngusMcDoon
Well-Known Member
Similar on tris, takes some getting used to at first. It's all about apparent wind, true wind doesn't mean much less than a F5.
From 30 to 55 degrees of apparent wind to reduce power, luff, same as a mono. This quickly stalls the sails and reduces power.
From 55 degrees apparent onwards, turn down wind. This reduces apparent wind quickly and subsequently power. It's amazingly effective. A further reason for going this way is the turn's centrifugal force opposes the sail-generated tipping force, not adding to it.
Tris in general have very light helms because of the small angles of heel. The helm lacks the feedback normally found in a mono, a bit like a car with power steering, which is offputting to some.
The tri I sail (a Dragonfly) is designed to have slight weather helm when beating, and a slight lee helm when reaching. That fits in with what's required above. I don't know how the designer designed that in, but it works. There's a neutral point at about 60 degrees apparent where there's virtually no helm force at all. This pic is at that point, sailing at 16 knots boatspeed, and you can see the complete lack of helm force by the steer-lady's totally relaxed arm...
From 30 to 55 degrees of apparent wind to reduce power, luff, same as a mono. This quickly stalls the sails and reduces power.
From 55 degrees apparent onwards, turn down wind. This reduces apparent wind quickly and subsequently power. It's amazingly effective. A further reason for going this way is the turn's centrifugal force opposes the sail-generated tipping force, not adding to it.
Tris in general have very light helms because of the small angles of heel. The helm lacks the feedback normally found in a mono, a bit like a car with power steering, which is offputting to some.
The tri I sail (a Dragonfly) is designed to have slight weather helm when beating, and a slight lee helm when reaching. That fits in with what's required above. I don't know how the designer designed that in, but it works. There's a neutral point at about 60 degrees apparent where there's virtually no helm force at all. This pic is at that point, sailing at 16 knots boatspeed, and you can see the complete lack of helm force by the steer-lady's totally relaxed arm...
[2574]
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Please don't be sorry - I really meant that you were cleverer than me! In future I will use the phrase "streer away from the wind" to describe what's going on - clearer for all concerned!
thanks
rob
thanks
rob
